This floating ocean garbage is home to a surprising amount of life from the coasts
For immediate release ‐ April 18, 2023
Contact: Jon Pishney, 919.707.8083. Images available upon request
A piece of plastic debris that’s been colonized by both coastal barnacles (pink and striped) and a gooseneck barnacle from the open ocean. Photo: Linsey Haram/SERC Marine Invasions Lab.
By Nell Greenfieldboyce, WUNC
Scientists studying a giant collection of plastic trash floating in the middle of the open ocean have found some unexpected inhabitants: dozens of marine species that usually stick close to the coast.
Among the plastic debris, the researchers found all kinds of nonnative species, from anemones to worms to little crustaceans.
“To find that many coastal species on a relatively small sample size was shocking,” says Linsey Haram, a marine ecologist who did this research while working at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
The findings, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution (Megan McCuller, NCMNS’ Collections Manager for Non-molluscan Invertebrates, was a co-author), should help overturn the long-held idea that the open ocean is a barrier that most coastal species could never breach.
Read or listen to the full story on WUNC
Eurekalert news release: Coastal species persist on high seas on floating plastic debris
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