What is trash to one species is treasure to another. The Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean is now home to dozens of species, and the floating islands of plastic highlight the impact human civilization can have on even the most remote areas. The presence of more species in the open ocean may also facilitate the spread of invasive species.
move in
Plastic isn’t the only thing present in the patch. Over time, a large proportion of plastic has become inhabited by living organisms, according to a 2023 study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Scientists discovered 484 animals of 46 species on plastic debris from the gyre. According to IFL Science, the residents did not “simply move to a new location on the rubble”; a “female carrying a large clutch of eggs and young animals” was found, as well as “animals of all life stages, including juveniles and adults”. This range indicates that the organism is not temporary and has been present for a long time.
Article continues below
you may like
this week
Escape from the echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news and analysis from multiple perspectives.
Subscribe and save
Sign up for this week’s free newsletter
From our morning news briefing to our weekly Good News newsletter, get the week’s best stories delivered straight to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to our weekly Good News newsletter, get the week’s best stories delivered straight to your inbox.
Many of the species that live and thrive in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are “able to reproduce asexually, essentially cloning themselves,” Earth.com said. “The larvae also did not have to spend much time floating freely in the water,” so “the young animals were able to develop on the same water surface as the adults.” The reproductive cycle “fits well into a separate, small plastic raft that rotates slowly within the cycle.”
house hunting
The organisms discovered mainly consist of two categories: coastal and pelagic, or species found in the open ocean. “Barnacles, sea anemones, hydroids, amphipods, crabs and bryozoans are all on display, most of which appear to have originated in the western Pacific, including the coast of Japan,” EcoNews said. This mix of coastal and marine life is called the “neopelagic community,” which is “an anthropogenic ecosystem that exists only thanks to long-lived plastics floating far from land.”
Plastics may be key to the expansion of certain populations into the open ocean. The Economic Times said, “Unlike natural floating substrates such as driftwood or pumice, plastic lasts for decades, providing a continuous surface for attachment.” EcoNews said that thanks to plastic, “coastal species that would once have died long before reaching remote islands” can “travel for years on rafts.”
IFL Science said the study’s sampling of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch “likely does not capture the richness of biodiversity floating in the most polluted region of the Pacific Ocean.” “Some fauna groups, such as molluscs, were unexpectedly absent from the patch, while others, such as sea anemones, were more common than in tsunami debris.” Unfortunately, traveling in the open ocean “comes with significant risks,” especially the inevitable introduction of new invasive species, EcoNews said. Invasive species could use plastic to reach new areas, where they “could compete with native corals, algae, and invertebrates on reefs already stressed by warming, pollution, and overfishing.”
The presence of organisms in the patch “does not undermine the urgency to reduce plastic production and improve waste management,” the Economic Times said. Rather, it “highlights the complexity of marine systems and the long-term effects of synthetic debris.”
