When you think of the thousands of islands dotted around the ocean, it conjures up images of beautiful beaches, clear waters, pink sunsets, and tropical holiday destinations. We don’t know the actual number of these small land masses that appear to be floating in the ocean, but it’s well into the hundreds of thousands. Researchers have just found another one, and it’s far more terrifying than the others.
Are we finding new islands as we explore the oceans even today?
You would think that by now, we have explored almost every part of our planet, and in some cases, you may be right. We’ve mapped pretty much all our land masses by satellite, using this technology …. But have we physically explored all of our planet? Not even close. And when it comes to the ocean, we’ve explored even less. Yes, our satellites have also mapped most of the ocean surface, but deeper than that? Not really.
It’not just with this satellite technology that we have been able to find all of these islands. Early sailors would have discovered some of these accidentally and spread the word with basic charts and logs. Then the huge age of exploration and nautical charting accelerated these findings, before planes were invented for aerial surveys, and finally, now, we have discovered hundreds of thousands of islands, ranging from miles long to just over 0.1 km² (0.0386 square miles).
What’s very interesting is that the number of islands is not fixed. Islands can emerge due to volcanic activity or disappear due to rising sea levels. Some ‘new’ islands are appearing now, only because we didn’t have the ability ot technology to spot them before. There’s one island that we have recently discovered, which we know should absolutely not exist, and the reason it does is horrible.
We’ve created an island that shouldn’t exist, and it’s really damaging the planet
Floating in the Pacific Ocean, in complete contrast to the beautiful and natural islands like this one, that have been created over millions of years, lies the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a gigantic soup of human-induced pollution and trash. Most people describe it as an actual floating island of garbage, but this isn’t exactly correct. It’s more like a giant accumulation of plastic debris, mostly made up of microplastics rather than huge bits of trash.
This garbage patch is not just sitting idly in the water. New research has shown that this trash is actually accumulating small ecosystems of coastal species, which have floated out with the currents to reach this patch. These species are not usually found at sea, but have latched onto bits of plastic and are making it their home.
This doesn’t sound too harmful, but these unnatural communities are not meant to be there. When this trash then washes up on other shores, these species can spread to other locations and essentially invade and overtake.
Strange species are spreading to new environments, and it may mean trouble
Out there on these tiny bits of plastic, coastal and ocean species are merging, and this might not be a good thing. Certain species may reproduce and overtake others, even in new environments. This can mess with the balance of the food chain and have effects we don’t even expect. Linsey Haram, lead author of the study that investigated these species, says:
“The research that we’re doing here adds a very different type of effect that plastics have that previously wasn’t really being considered.”
Our wasteful ways as humans are having far more consequences than we can expect, some of which may seem small, like coastal species floating far out to sea, but could have far-reaching consequences that we would not expect. Luckily, not all we discover is negative. Read here for some amazing things that scientists are now finding.