This abundance of life "is really quite remarkable, not only because the plastic is generally considered not to be very beneficial for ocean life, but also because nutrient concentrations are very low in the North Pacific Garbage Patch," says A.W. A type of sea slug, the dragon steals the man o' war's stinging cells, "covering their bodies in armor made from the weapons of their vanquished prey," Helm noted. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Įxamples include flower-shaped blue button jellies that "shimmer and pulse, like stars," she recalled on Twitter, and violet snails, which "keep from drowning by making a life raft of snail slime." The team also found blue sea dragons, a predator of the jellyfish-like man o’ war. Many are colored blue on top and white beneath, countershading that likely provides camouflage from predators above and below, Helm says. The life found in the patch is mostly neuston, or surface-dwelling aquatic organisms. "We're so focused on the plastic we've completely missed these ecosystems that were sort of hiding in plain sight." "These places that we've been calling garbage patches are really important ecosystems that we know very little about," says study senior author Rebecca Helm, a marine biologist at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The new findings, detailed in the journal PLOS Biology, suggest that parts of the ocean often dismissed as repositories of trash may be overlooked biological hotspots. Creatures that float near the surface, such as blue sea dragons and by-the-wind sailor jellies, suffuse the rubbish in much greater quantities than previously realized. By analyzing samples taken during a record-setting swim from Hawaii to California, scientists have discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch-the biggest cluster of floating marine debris in the world-is teeming with life.
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