In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, coastal life piggybacks on plastic trash Premium

Coastal lifeforms have colonised plastic debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, creating a previously unknown oceanic community called a neopelagic community, and adding to plastic’s inalienable role in defining the Anthropocene Epoch.

“The Anthropocene epoch” – some scientists have proposed this name for a new period in the history of the earth characterised by the influence of one species on the planet’s geology, ecosystems, even its fate: Homo sapiens. They’re still figuring out when this epoch really began; some candidates include the first nuclear weapon test and rapid industrialisation after the Second World War.

Yet another contender is the creation of plastic trash – abundant in our urban refuse, rivers, and forests, from the slopes of the highest peaks to the depths of abyssal trenches. Ocean life has washed ashore at beaches with stomachs of plastic debris. Plastic has provided ample evidence of its persistence in the natural universe, but of late, scientists have also been uncovering evidence that it’s becoming one with nature in troubling new ways.

In a study published on April 17, researchers from Canada, the Netherlands, and the U.S. have reported that coastal lifeforms have colonised plastic items in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, throwing up many dubious firsts.

There are some water currents in the oceans that, driven by winds and the Coriolis force, form loops. These are called gyres. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) is one such, located just north of the equator in the Pacific Ocean. It consists of the Kuroshio, North Pacific, California, and North Equatorial currents and moves in a clockwise direction. These currents flow adjacent to 51 Pacific Rim countries. Any trash that enters one of these currents, from any of these countries, could become part of the gyre.

Inside this gyre, just north of Hawai’i, lies a long east-west strip where some of the debris in these currents has collected over the years. The eastern part of this is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is, per one estimate, 1.6 million sq. km big and more than 50 years old.

The patch contains an estimated 45,000-1,29,000 metric tonnes of plastic, predominantly in the form of microplastics. The numerical density of plastics here is around 4 particles per cubic metre. Mass-wise, however, heavier, more visible objects that haven’t yet broken down into smaller particles accounted for 92% in 2018.

The tsunami off the Japanese coast in 2011 contributed to the debris in this garbage patch. Until at least 2017, researchers had found debris washing ashore on the West coast of North America containing live lifeforms originally found in Japan.