The “Big Pacific Garbage Patch” has acquired its own ecosystem

The “Big Pacific Garbage Patch” – a gigantic accumulation of plastic garbage in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean – is starting to turn into a separate ecosystem. This is stated in a report published in the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. Ecologists have discovered there dozens of species of plants and animals that have settled and reproduce on plastic.

The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is an area of ​​about one and a half million square kilometers between the coast of California and the Hawaiian Islands. Ocean currents have been carrying floating debris there for years, primarily plastic. Presumably, the spot now contains about one hundred thousand tons of garbage.

In the scientists’ report, it is indicated that more than 40 types of microorganisms, algae, plankton and small marine animals, such as polyps and crabs, were found on the surface of plastic garbage. At the same time, most of them belong to species that usually inhabit the coastal strip. The researchers did not expect to find them so far from the shore.

One of the authors of the article, ecologist Lynsy Haram, told CNN that coastal species in the patch coexist with deep-water species. “Probably, they are competing for space and food resources. Both that and other species are getting used to new food for them. It is not clear how this will turn out in the future,” said Haram. Scientists claim the formation of a new type of biological environment in the “Big Garbage Patch”.

• Every year, humanity produces about 400 million tons of plastic waste, of which, according to various estimates, 9–14 million tons end up in the ocean. People leave plastic products on the coast, throw them into the sea from fishing boats, and they are also carried by rivers from land.
• Microplastic rises from the surface of the ocean, spreads across the planet, gets into water and food. Three years ago, scientists calculated that the average person on Earth “eats” a plastic bank card in a week. And in March 2022, microplastics were found in human blood for the first time.