“… I was shocked. We were about as far from land as you could possibly get, and yet here was plastic debris.” — Dr. Edward Carpenter
Before the world noticed, Dr. Edward Carpenter was one of the first scientists to document plastic foam pollution in the ocean. But he didn’t intend to make this discovery.
MEET DR. EDWARD CARPENTER
Dr. Edward Carpenter’s journey into ocean science started just steps from home, where he earned his biology degree at the State University of New York at Fredonia, right across the street from where he grew up in New York. But graduation didn’t feel like the end of his education journey; it felt like the beginning. Eager to learn more, he pursued graduate studies at North Carolina State University, originally researching fish.
When performing experiments in a pool proved tricky, his mentor and professor, Dr. John Hobbie, offered a new direction: “Why not study phytoplankton with me instead?” That one question shifted Dr. Edward Carpenter’s focus — from fish to algae and transitioning from freshwater to saltwater. Soon, he was boarding research cruises with Duke University, diving headfirst into ocean science.
His next stop? A career at the world-renowned Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts — a turning point that launched the next chapter of his scientific journey.
BEFORE THE WORLD NOTICED
“I remember being on my hands and knees on the deck of the ship, going through the Sargassum we’d collected in the nets. Mixed in with the seaweed, shrimp, small fish, and other pelagic organisms were these little particles—bits of plastic.” — Dr. Edward Carpenter
Over 50 years ago, while studying Sargassum (a type of large, brown seaweed that floats on the surface of the ocean) far off the coast of southern New England, Dr. Edward Carpenter saw something shocking…plastic. Out in the open ocean, far from land, plastic debris was tangled with seaweed and marine life.
With every tow of the net, the pattern repeated. Plastic was everywhere. He turned to his colleague and said, “We need to chronicle the plastic in every single one of these tows.” And they did. Pelagic Sargassum, later designated by NOAA as a critical fish habitat, was already contaminated with plastic. That’s when it really hit Dr. Edward Carpenter — plastic pollution was a widespread, global problem.
One vivid moment: while studying plankton at a nuclear power plant in Connecticut, he mistook tiny white balls for fish eggs. A squeeze revealed they were polystyrene foam pellets – the raw material for foam products. Later, he was stunned to see the same little plastic spheres drifting in the water in Woods Hole on Cape Cod.
THE AFTERMATH
In the early 1970s, plastic pollution wasn’t on most people’s minds. Dr. Edward Carpenter did what he could to raise awareness, giving interviews to The New York Times, speaking on call-in radio shows, and even taking calls at home from reporters curious about the strange plastic debris showing up in the ocean.
Within the scientific community, however, there was little interest. Pollution was often seen as a problem for someone else to solve. At first, Dr. Edward Carpenter didn’t face pressure from industry to stop his work, but rather indifference. That began to change by the mid-1970s, especially after an oil barge leak near Woods Hole killed a large number of marine organisms. It was unmistakably clear: the world couldn’t keep going like this.
THE PRESENT
When Dr. Edward Carpenter first documented the widespread presence of ocean plastic off the coast of southern New England, he never imagined the dramatic increase in the plastic we see in the ocean today. Plastic now floats on the surface of the sea, washes up on the world’s most remote coastlines, melts out of Arctic Sea ice, and settles at the deepest point of the ocean floor.
His early documentation of plastic foam helped identify it as one of the most common forms of plastic pollution in marine environments. Over years of research, what troubled him most was the widespread ingestion of plastic by countless animals, seabirds, marine mammals, sea turtles — you name it. The evidence was overwhelming.
Dr. Edward Carpenter leaves a clear message for ocean advocates and scientists: cleanups alone won’t solve the plastic pollution crisis. Real change requires tackling the problem at its source — by reducing the production of single-use plastics.
LEARN MORE
Plastic foam, formally known as expanded polystyrene, is frequently used for takeout food containers and packaging materials. It’s made from fossil fuels and hazardous chemicals, like styrene, which is toxic to the human nervous system.
Oceana campaigns to tackle the plastic pollution crisis at the source — by advocating for meaningful policy and urging corporations to reduce plastic production and increase refill and reuse systems. And momentum is building! Twelve states and more than 250 local governments have passed policies to reduce plastic foam.
Recently more than 350 scientists, medical professionals, local and state elected officials, business owners, and other community leaders sent letters to members of the U.S. Congress calling on them to pass the Farewell to Foam Act to phase out single-use plastic foam products across the country.
