From the story: "The pieces of plastic are not necessarily floating bottles, bags, and buoys, but teeny-tiny pieces of plastic resembling confetti...These microplastic particles may not be visible floating on the surface, but in this case, they were detected after collecting water samples..."
A density graph of the Pacific Ocean showing plastic particulate count measured at various points, with the gaps filled in using gradients, would be stellar here.
So, photos probably wouldn't help much.