Helga Huntley, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the College of Science & Mathematics at Rowan University, has co-authored a groundbreaking new study assessing the environmental impact of large-scale efforts to clean the North Pacific Garbage Patch (NPGP).
The research, led by Matthias Egger of The Ocean Cleanup, brings together a diverse team of scientists to determine whether removing legacy plastic pollution from the ocean does more good than harm.
“My contribution was figuring out how to combine all the different biological impacts into a single score,” said Huntley. “We wanted to assess how intense, frequent and reversible the effects were on different organisms, and then calculate a meaningful impact score.”
The study found that marine life is more vulnerable to plastic pollution than to the cleanup process itself. An 80% reduction in macroplastics could bring pollution levels within safe thresholds for marine mammals and sea turtles. The long-term benefits — such as reduced microplastic generation and improved carbon cycling — outweigh the carbon emissions produced by cleanup vessels.
The study’s findings are expected to inform future cleanup strategies and inspire broader applications of the impact assessment framework in other environmental contexts.
