Where?
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is the largest of the five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world’s oceans. The patch is located in the North Pacific Ocean in between Hawaii and California. But the countries responsible are thought to be Japan, China, South Korea, The United States, Canada and Taiwan.
What has been found?
Scientists working to clear and remove the Great Garbage Patch have found that a stable community of molluscs and arthropods are living on and within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. James Carlton at the Williams College (Williamstown, Massachusetts) collected 105 pieces of plastic waste from the site, between November 2018 and January 2019, and found that over 70 percent of the waste was inhabited by coastal animals; the animals were found to be permanently living and reproducing on the plastic patch.
Why is this important?
This has reset the previous thoughts of scientists. Before Carlton discovered the molluscs, it was thought that climate change would be detrimental to these animals as their habitat would just be filled with plastic pollution. While this is still a problem, the discovery that marine animals can live amongst, and even in, a place such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has changed the mindset of many marine biologists; some scientists have gone from worrying about the natural habitat of many of these animals to worrying about the water quality and temperature of the seas and oceans.
By Rosalind Turner