The thick blanket of rubbish near the Cayos Cochinos Marine Reserve off the coast of Honduras was thought to have been washed out to sea from a river used as a dumping ground during heavy rains.
Photographer Caroline Power, who was part of a dive trip to a set of remote islands said: “To see something that I care so deeply for being killed, slowly choked to death by human waste was devastating.”
She said they passed through floating rubbish for “nearly five miles”, adding: “Everywhere we looked, plastic bags of all shapes and sizes: chip bags, ziplocks, grocery, trash, snack bags, other packaging.
“Some were whole and the rest were just pieces.
“Sadly, many turtles, fish, whales, and seabirds will mistake those bits of plastic for food.”
According to marine scientists there are over five trillion pieces of plastic currently littering the world’s oceans.
A forecast from the World Economic Forum, is that by 2050, plastic in the oceans will outweigh fish.
Part of the reason is that plastic use has increased 20-fold in the last 50 years, and is continuing to rise but only an estimated 14 per cent is recycled.
Governments across the world are being pressured to introduce measures to reduce plastic use, such as the reduction of packaging and the introduction of a charge for single-use carrier bags at supermarkets.