Ocean Trash A Floating Insect Nursery By Andrew Hitchings Analysis

In the article Ocean Trash: A Floating Insect Nursery by Andrew Hitchings, the author describes how trash particles both affects and benefits the ecosystem. When trash is thrown into the ocean, it becomes tiny particles that are later digested by animals who usually eat plankton. These tiny trash particles are known as “microplastic.” The author analyzed and explained a research done by Miriam C. Goldstein and her colleagues, at the University of California in San Diego in 2012. Goldstein and her colleagues found an insect that is taking advantage of these micrplastics on the oceans and these insects known as “sea skaters” would use them to literally survive and increase its population. Sea skaters use the microplastic to lay their eggs, and since the amount of microplastic is increasing, the same thing will happen to sea skaters in the future. (Hitchings, 2012)

The author gave a brief explanation about sea skaters including how they live and what they eat. Sea skaters can stand and literally walk on the surface of the ocean and that is why these insects were given this nickname. Sea skater are used to live by the water, but after they reproduce,, they have to find something solid where they can lay their eggs and this is where microplastic becomes an advantage for them. Also, the author described where exactly huge amounts of microplastic are located in the world. Hitchings mentioned that there is a specific place between Asia and North America where most of the microplastic has been accumulated in the past years, best know as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. This amount of trash has been compared to the size of the United States because of its identical size. (Hitchings, 2012)

Hitchings mentioned how Miriam C. Goldstein and he...

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...omething inorganic to be able to survive. Usually, organisms eat other live animals or plants and not plastic. I believed this research is important because is a way to demonstrate and show to the public that plastic as trash is affecting our environment, and that this is why to recycle is important. If 10% - 13% of plankton is already the same amount of eggs laid on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, I cannot imagine what would be the percentage in 10, 100, 5000 years. Some of the questions would be: How is it possible to determine how many eggs are in a specific area that is approximately the size of the United States? Why was not sample collected between the years of 1987 – 1999? Is there another organism that benefit from plastic other than sea skaters? Maintaining the planet Earth clean is important for the survival of not only humans, but every single organism.