How Trashy Creatures Thrive in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

There’s probably no more embarrassing example of our impact on the planet than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This massive collection of plastic waste and inorganic debris spans more than 617,000 square miles—or twice the size of Texas. While we humans shoulder the brunt of the blame when it comes to its creation, part of the reason it’s there is because of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG), one of the world's five main oceanic vortexes where several ocean currents converge.

The Garbage Patch is a damning example of our excessive waste. However, new research shows that it might actually be integral to a burgeoning ecosystem that lives in literal trash.

Researchers in the U.S. and U.K. published a study Thursday in the journal PLOS Biology where they looked into the incredible amount of sea creatures that live amongst the plastic waste of the Garbage Patch. They discovered that there was a much greater abundance of creatures that live within the Patch than on its periphery.

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