Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Feared to Transport Invasive Species As It Becomes a Plastic Habitat

In a baffling discovery, scientists found various marine animals living on plastic debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Many of the unexpected inhabitants of the open ocean plastic debris area are coastal species that live miles from their habitats halfway between the California coast and Hawaii.

Plants and animals, including a number of tiny marine bugs, anemones, crabs, and mollusks, were found on 90% of the plastic debris. Scientists are now concerned that plastic nay has helped transport invasive species.

What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, according to National Geographic, is a vast collection of many debris drifting in the North Pacific Ocean, also called the Pacific trash vortex. The garbage patch comprises two distinct collections of human debris bounded by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. It spans from the West Coast waters of North America to Japan. The patch comprises the Western Garbage patch near Japan and the Eastern Garbage Patch between Hawaii and California.

The spinning debris of human litter is linked by the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone a few hundred kilometers north of Hawaii. The convergence zone is where warmer waters from the South Pacific meet the cooler waters from the Arctic. It acts as a highway moving the debris from one patch to another.

Marine Life Found in 90% of Debris on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, titled "Emergence of a neopelagic community through the establishment of coastal species on the high seas' ' researchers analyzed plastic items more than 5 cm in diameter retrieved from the gyre. Dr. Linsey haram, the lead researcher, explains that plastics are more permanent than natural debris previously seen in the open ocean, thus creating a more permanent unexpected habitat in the area, reports BBC.

Dr haram collaborated with the Ocean Voyages Institute, a charity collecting plastic pollution on sailing expeditions, and oceanographers from the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

Currently, there are at least five plastic-infested gyres in the world. The one under analysis is believed to hold the most floating plastic at an estimated 79,000 tonnes in a region exceeding about 610,000 square miles. Dr haram explains that various litter ends up in the area. Although it isn't an island of plastic, there is surely a vast amount of plastic corralled in the gyre. Much of the human trash is micro-plastic that is very difficult to spot with the naked eye. However, larger items, like buoys, abandoned fishing nets, and even vessels are floating in the gyre since the 2011 Japanese tsunami.

The team initially embarked on the investigation in an effort to investigate the aftermaths of the devastating tsunami. The disaster caused tons of human debris to be ejected into the vast Pacific ocean. Hundreds of coastal marine species from Japan were found alive on many items that landed on the North American Pacific coast and Hawaiian islands.

Check out more news and information on Environment & Climate in Science Times.