Any study of human health effects will likely depend on the cooperation of a subject community where many types of seafood are heavily consumed. “We have to have a potential threat and a potential receptor present in a location and a community who is willing to work with us on it,” Cook says. “There are a lot of repercussions to a community to find out that their food supply is potentially contaminated.” The agency also expects to award a new four-year marine debris research contract designed to gain a better understanding of the movement, distribution, and quantity of plastics off the remote northwestern Hawaiian islands.