The chief executive officer of the Ocean Cleanup Project has responded positively to a recent analysis piece that his innovation could threaten the world’s living ecosystems, also known as neuston.
The Atlantic published an article on January 22 detailing how The Ocean Cleanup Project—a non-profit organisation aimed at ridding the ocean of plastic waste—could be a danger to the neuston, described as “the organisms that spend a fraction or the entirety of their life on (or right under) the water surface (epineuston).”
Boyan Slat is founder of The Ocean Cleanup Project, and he posted an impassioned response on the company’s official website accepting it could still afford to be more educated on the matter. However, he concluded that the neuston was not in danger as the author of The Atlantic posited:
“We would like to thank Dr. Rebecca Helm for taking the time to share her concerns and for accepting a dialogue with us. The health of the oceans is clearly a matter that all of us care about and want to collectively solve.
“However, based on the available data, we have not found any evidence that supports the idea that the neuston are at risk because of our efforts in developing technology that can rid the oceans of plastic.”
