Kara Lavender Law is the lead author of the Science study. She is on the faculty of the Sea Education Association (SEA) which leads students in off-campus oceanography studies. For the past several years Law has been researching plastic marine debris using SEA’s 25-year data set consisting of plastic counts from more than 7500 plankton net tows. Her interests include understanding how ocean physics determines the distribution of plastic and other marine debris, and the ultimate fate of plastic in the harsh ocean environment.