IRA FLATOW: Are you are you saying, then, that it’s better to preserve the patch than to try to clean it up? IRA FLATOW: I see how complicated all of this is. It can become a destructive source of habitat. But actually, in the end, their fitness is lowered. That complicates things quite a bit.īut then there are other even more complicated matters to think about which is, so if these critters are living on the plastics like we talked about before, what if the plastics aren’t actually good habitat for them? And it creates a scenario that’s an ecological trap which means that these organisms, these species, these critters end up preferring to use this habitat. But then you also have the fact that now critters are being found living on this plastic debris. So we have an obligation to do something about that. So we are putting our waste into the oceans whether intentionally or unintentionally. You have the fact that, one, this is pollution. Some people may look at this issue from the outside and think why doesn’t someone just scoop up all this plastic? But your work shows that this is a more complicated issue than just that. We know that there are coastal species out there, but we don’t know how well they’re surviving. That’s another major hypothesis that we have. In which case, they could be experiencing very different environmental conditions than they would on the coast from things like very intense UV light which can be destructive for small critters or poor food resources. So they don’t actually intend to be in the open ocean. LINSEY HARAM: Yeah, so it’s possible that these coastal species are settling on plastics and then swept to sea. IRA FLATOW: When you say not good for them, what do you mean by that?
So is this really like just another habitat where they can live, or is it an attractive place to live that actually isn’t very good for them? We’re trying to figure out those answers now. But we’re trying to figure out how well they’re actually living on plastics out there. LINSEY HARAM: Interestingly, it seems like that may be the case.
IRA FLATOW: So I guess the Garbage Patch is sort of just another coast for them. And then others were actually coastal species that were able to colonize plastics and ended up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch somehow. So they require floating debris in order to live out their lives. LINSEY HARAM: Yeah, so some of them are actually native to the open ocean. IRA FLATOW: Could you figure out where these came from? So we found all sorts of things from seaweeds to barnacles and anemones, so really ran the gamut. So colleagues and I studied what sort of invertebrates, so the little insect-like critters that colonize surfaces, what was growing on plastics in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. IRA FLATOW: OK, walk me through what you found about life on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. LINSEY HARAM: Thank you so much for having me. Her research on the Garbage Patch was done for the Smithsonian. As the classic Jurassic Park quote goes, “Life finds a way.” Joining me today to talk about life on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is my guest Linsey Haram, AAAS fellow at the US Department of Agriculture based in Alexandria, Virginia. Marine life has colonized the Garbage Patch making the floating plastic their new homes. A giant swirling patch of trash seems wholly bad, right? But research on the Garbage Patch has revealed a complicating factor. It’s made up mostly of plastic, things like water bottles, shoes, fishing gear, but also a large amount of microplastics, tiny bits of broken down plastic that can be invisible to the naked eye. You know that giant collection of trash floating in the North Pacific Ocean.
I’m Ira Flatow, and now for an update on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.