The amount of plastic debris floating on the surface of the Pacific is an unpleasant sight… except for hundreds of species of seashells and anemones, who see it as a welcoming place and a good means of transportation, a study reveals.
Located in the northeast of the Pacific Ocean, and discovered in 1997, the “plastic continent”, also called the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” (Great Pacific Garbage Patch, GPGP), is made up of an immense space of waste (bags, bottles , packaging, abandoned fishing nets and degraded microparticles) that agglutinate in various areas, under the effect of giant eddies formed by marine currents. Its total size is calculated at 1.6 million km2, or more than Peru and Ecuador together.
The floating garbage area has interested scientists for years, and some have already shown that it can be harmful to some species such as fish, turtles and even some marine mammals that are trapped there and sometimes suffocate.
But for other organisms, these areas can become an opportunity, shows this study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
The US researchers sampled debris in the Northeast Pacific, between California and Hawaii, and found 37 types of invertebrates originating mainly from countries like Japan, on the other side of the ocean.
More than two thirds of the objects examined contained coastal species, especially crustaceans, sea anemones and foams called bryozoans.
These creatures can spread rapidly by feeding on layers of mucus formed by bacteria and algae on floating plastic, the study shows.
In 2012, “inhabited” plastic debris was found off the North American coast, scattered by the 2011 tsunami in northeastern Japanese waters.
A previous study carried out by the same team of researchers in 2021 had warned that these marine inhabitants, by integrating into new areas, can disturb the species that already lived there. To the point of becoming invasive?
The question is still pertinent, Linsey Haram said.
“These interactions” between old and new species “can include both forms of competition for food or territory, and even predation.”
But additional research is needed to understand whether the arrival of these settlers is “more or less positive or negative.”
If current trends in waste production and management continue, there could be 12 billion tons of plastic waste in landfills and in the natural environment by 2050.
The G7 energy and environment ministers, meeting this weekend in Japan, announced that they want to draw up an “international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution” by the end of 2024, with the “ambition to reduce plastic pollution to zero.” additional plastic from now to 2040”./AFP