Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now home to dozen of coastal species, finds study

Scientists have discovered an astonishing ecosystem developing around the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is located between California and Hawaii.

The vast plastic debris patch is a 620,000-square-mile area of trash swirling in the Pacific Ocean. It is said to be an ecological disaster because it contains 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic.

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) has led this new study. They observed various coastal species thriving, surviving, and reproducing on floating plastic debris, resulting in the formation of a new type of ecosystem. These species do not belong here, and their home is thousands of miles away, according to the study. But the species appear to have adapted to life on the plastic thrash in the middle of the ocean.