[BitWielder1]

How long before the garbage patches get protection like coral reefs.
There are many life forms that don't like to float around by themselves, they need to attach themselves to something, they don't care what it is.

[erlayman]

I really can’t imagine an argument that plastic is not harmful and doesn’t kill millions of birds and marine mammals very year. Organisms that grow directly on the plastic I would imagine are most comparable to weeds, they may be native but still crowd out more biodiverse species by growing, reproducing and dying quickly.