The Pacific garbage patch is an alien ecosystem due to its unusual community composition of east and west coast species/populations. Henry co-authored the paper published in April 17, 2023 in Nature Ecology & Evolution titled “Extent and reproduction of coastal species on plastic debris in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre”—an area of the ocean more commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

“This project was developed as a follow up to our previous work on the floating debris that landed on the shores of North America and Hawaii following the 2011 Japanese tsunami, where we found hundreds of coastal Japanese species arriving after 1-10 years, largely on plastics,” says Choong. “Our findings show that coastal species are clearly capable of living, surviving, and reproducing in the open ocean with the aid of plastic pollution, because plastic provides a more permanent, non-biodegradable ‘home’ for them,” says Choong.

Henry will expound on details of the new findings of some unexpected marine invertebrates. Lots of pictures, including cnidaria.

Dr. Henry Choong is the Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria.

On the Monday preceding the event, Nature Vancouver members will receive the Zoom link in the weekly e-News.  The talk will begin at 7:30 pm.  Non-members are welcome and should Email enews@NatureVancouver.ca a few days ahead to register for the link.