Cleanup operations in the high seas as a valuable platform for environmental research

Subtropical gyres are hotspots for plastic pollution, and accumulation zones are found within the North Pacific gyre, in the North Pacific Garbage Patch (NPGP). Plastic debris in these offshore waters can persist for decades and mainly originate from fishing activities. The non-profit organization The Ocean Cleanup aims to remove this legacy plastic pollution, and since August 2021, has removed over 480,000kg of plastic from the area across 23 collection trips (6-7 weeks each). These cleanup operations create a unique opportunity to monitor and collect data on marine life and plastic impacts in this understudied region, enabling a better understanding of the local environment and maximizing the net benefit of cleanups for marine life. Here, we highlight some of the environmental research conducted during these cleanup operations. Data on marine megafauna was collected continuously through onboard observers in over 12,000 observational hours, allowing us to map the occurrence of these animals and their potential distribution overlap with plastic pollution hotspots at the NPGP. Incidental catch of marine life during plastic extractions was evaluated, providing data for understanding the organisms that occur with plastics and the potential plastic-driven transport of coastal animals on the high seas. Research collaborations have been established with academic institutes to conduct research on the ecological impacts of plastic pollution, via analyses of plastic ingestion by the NPGP food web, the distribution of multi-trophic marine communities at the region (through eDNA/eRNA), as well as the potential occurrence of pathogenic microorganisms on ocean plastics. Data on the local environment and the impacts of cleanup operations on marine life are fed back into management plans and impact assessments to form a continuous learning and improvement process for cleanups. Our work demonstrates that offshore cleanups can serve as a valuable research platform, enabling a better understanding of the environments where they are conducted and of the impacts of plastic pollution on marine systems, consequently contributing to the UN Ocean Decade Challenges to "understand and beat marine pollution" and "protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity".