A unique moving world called the neuston, which contains bacteria, protozoans and certain species of fish, is critical for many seagoing species.
Excerpt from this Mother Nature Network article:
We usually think of ecosystems as fairly static, moving over hundreds of years, not days or weeks. But some of Earth's ecosystems are actually defined by constant movement — and so it is with the neuston. This understudied zone is right at the water's surface, both above and below.
It contains bacteria, protozoans, certain species of fish, jellyfish, sea anemones, crabs and velellas (those blue floaties that land on beaches and are also called by-the-wind sailors). They can be found in freshwater ponds and lakes, too — water skeeters or gliders are one of the bugs that's a part of the neuston in that scenario.
In the ocean, the neuston moves passively, following the currents, and can be found thousands of miles from shore. If this sounds familiar to the plastic in the garbage gyres that plague oceans worldwide, that's no coincidence. The neuston territory and the gyre territory overlap completely.
So, if we clean up the plastic — using a method like the Ocean Cleanup project, which involves giant booms essentially sweeping the surface of the ocean — we also clean out the neuston.
And that's a problem. The neuston is an important ecosystem, and its health affects other ocean systems. Like a reef, or the shallow banks of places like the inter-island zones of the Bahamas, the neuston serves as a nursery for some fish, which also makes it an ideal place for other animals like leatherback turtles, octopuses and other fish to hunt for easy food.
