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Scientists studying a giant collection of plastic trash floating in the middle of the open ocean have found some unexpected inhabitants: dozens of marine species that usually stick close to the coast. Among the plastic debris, the researchers found all kinds of nonnative species, from anemones to worms to little crustaceans. "To find that many coastal species on a relatively small sample size was shocking," says Linsey Haram, a marine ecologist who did this research while working at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. The findings, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, should help overturn the long-held idea that the open...

From Oregon State University:Oceanic “garbage patch” not nearly as big as portrayed in mediaCORVALLIS, Ore. – There is a lot of plastic trash floating in the Pacific Ocean, but claims that the “Great Garbage Patch” between California and Japan is twice the size of Texas are grossly exaggerated, according to an analysis by an Oregon State University scientist.Further claims that the oceans are filled with more plastic than plankton, and that the patch has been growing tenfold each decade since the 1950s are equally misleading, pointed out Angelicque “Angel” White, an assistant professor of oceanography at Oregon State.