Scientists might soon be able to point the finger of blame at the countries responsible for giant flotillas of filth in the oceans.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one area of environmental concern between Hawaii and California where the surface is littered with pieces of plastic, many too small to be visible to boaters or divers.
They outweigh plankton and pose risks to fish, turtles and birds that eat the rubbish.
This garbage patch is believed to be just one of at least five around the world, caused by large, circular currents called gyres that suck in and trap floating debris.
Three researchers from University of New South Wales have created a model that could help determine who's to blame for the garbage.
One of the researchers Professor Gary Froyland, from UNSW's school of mathematics and statistics, says that in some cases a country far away could unexpectedly be contributing directly to the garbage patch.
For example, the ocean debris from Madagascar and Mozambique would most likely flow into the south Atlantic, even though the two countries' coastlines border the Indian Ocean, he says in a statement with the research paper that is published in the journal "Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science".
The model, which reveals how the ocean surfaces are connected, could also help determine how quickly garbage leaks from one patch into another, and explore how fast rubbish from Australia ends up in the north Pacific.
Parts of the Pacific and Indian oceans are most closely coupled to the south Atlantic, while another sliver of the Indian Ocean really belongs in the south Pacific.
The geography of the new basins could yield insights into ocean ecology in addition to helping track ocean debris over longer periods of time.
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