CONVERGING SURFACE CURRENTS COLLECT MARINE DEBRIS FLOATING ON OR NEAR THE OCEAN SURFACE AND CREATE A UNIQUE ECOSYSTEM THAT FLOATS IN THE EASTERN NORTH PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH. IN THE PROPOSED PROJECT AN INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM INCLUDING OCEANOGRAPHERS MODELERS BIOLOGISTS ECOLOGISTS AND CITIZEN SCIENTISTS WILL STUDY HOW THE OCEAN DYNAMICS AND ITS COUPLING WITH THE ATMOSPHERE MAINTAINS THE GARBAGE PATCH AND SORTS DIFFERENT TYPES OF DEBRIS ACCORDING TO THEIR WINDAGE BUOYANCY AND GEOMETRY. THE PROJECT WILL BUILD ON EVIDENCE FROM THE 2011 TSUNAMI IN JAPAN THAT SHOWS COASTAL SPECIES CAN CROSS THE VAST OCEAN AND SURVIVE IN PELAGIC AREAS FOR YEARS ON MAN-MADE DEBRIS. MILLIONS OF TONS OF PLASTIC DEBRIS ADDED TO THE OCEAN EVERY YEAR PROVIDE A GROWING SUBSTRATE FOR THE NEW ECOSYSTEM. WE WILL STUDY BIOTAS BASED ON DEBRIS RETRIEVED IN THE GARBAGE PATCH AREA IDENTIFY THE PRESENCE AND SURVIVAL OF COASTAL SPECIES CHARACTERIZE LEAKAGE OF DEBRIS FROM THE PATCH AND DESCRIBE THE ROLE OF MARINE DEBRIS AS A VECTOR FOR POTENTIAL INVASIONS. PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL DATA WILL BE COLLECTED DURING THE THREE SUMMER-TIME EXPEDITIONS BY THE OCEAN VOYAGES INSTITUTE DURING WHICH 20 DRIFTING BUOYS AND ONE MIXED-LAYER LAGRANGIAN FLOAT WILL BE DEPLOYED AND POSSIBLY RETRIEVED AT COMPLETION OF THE STUDY. THE DRIFTERS AND THE FLOAT ARE DESIGNED TO MIMIC THE MOTION OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF DEBRIS. EXPERIMENTS WITH THE FLOAT WILL INCLUDE A WEAK BUOYANCY CASE IN ORDER TO STUDY THE DRIFT OF TINY MICROPLASTICS THAT ARE MIXED DOWN BY THE WIND. IN OTHER REGIME THE FLOAT WILL BE USED TO REPRODUCE THE DYNAMICS OF PLANKTON WITH ITS DAILY MIGRATIONS INSIDE THE MIXED LAYER. BIOLOGICAL PANELS ADDED TO THE DRIFTERS AND THE FLOAT AND EXPERIMENTS ONBOARD THE SHIP WILL PROVIDE NEW DATA OF THE FOULING BY LOCAL PELAGIC SPECIES AS WELL AS SURVIVAL OF SELECTED COASTAL SPECIES UNDER CONDITIONS DIFFERENT FROM THEIR NATURAL HABITATS. TELEMETRY FROM THE FLOAT WILL MONITOR IN REAL TIME THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MINI-ECOSYSTEM AND BEHAVIOR OF MOBILE SPECIES.