Ocean debris believed to be from Japan is posed for a photograph on Long Beach in Tofino, B.C. on April, 18, 2012. A Canadian wildlife researcher is among the authors of a recent study that suggests most plastic bottles littering a small island in the South Atlantic Ocean are dumped from cargo ships. The study questions, "the widely held assumption that most plastic debris at sea comes from land-based sources." Robert Ronconi, a Halifax-based biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, helped prepare the paper for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward