[PhantomGremlin]

But what about the plastic pollution as a result of this (from the GPS tracker that will now become permanent plastic garbage).

You need a little perspective about the true extent of the problem. A GPS tracker probably weights 4 ounces. For comparison, the Yangtze river alone dumps 1.5 million metric tons of plastic per year into the Yellow Sea.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stemming-the-plas...

[tanakachen]

Some oceanic science experiments drop thousands of ocean drones into the oceans to track currents. I’m not saying it’s not worth it, but how come nobody questions if it is worth it?

[chousuke]

Perhaps because it's obvious enough that the drones are being used for something useful (research) and also that the amount is so small they don't even register compared to the sheer amount of actual waste that is being constantly generated.

You'd probably have to do millions of there experiments to even show up on the radar

[jussij]

Or the estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic that make up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch:

https://earthsky.org/earth/great-pacific-garbage-patch-bigge...