You left out that what WAS detectable in the water was the crap they’d pumped in trying to round up the oil.
” There are literally massive islands of plastic trash in the oceans, some the size of continents.”
I rate this statement as FALSE. An island is something you can walk on. There is no continent in the Pacific Ocean you can walk on. This statement actually says there are multiple continents of plastic in the Pacific. It is more likely that Bigfoot will take over the world than that there are multiple continents of plastic in the Pacific. The plastic in the Pacific is dispersed so that it amounts to a few grams for every cubic mile of water.
In particular I hate the misuse of the word “literally”.