Floating Plastic Contributes to Jump in Coastal Marine Colonies

While ocean plastic has become quite the environmental concern, a team of researchers recently discovered this hasn’t stopped coastal marine invertebrate species from taking advantage of this by colonizing floating plastic in the open ocean, which they describe in a recent study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Floating plastics that were gathered in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre as part of The Ocean Cleanup’s 2018 expedition. (Credit: The Ocean Cleanup)

Examples of open-ocean gooseneck barnacles Lepas and coastal podded hydroid…