Sampling microplastics along the Atlantic

Plastic products are used in our daily life due to their durability, impermeability and low cost production. Nowadays, they constitute a 10% of waste generated worldwide, and many of them end up in the ocean. These characteristics which make them so useful for us, also makes them accumulate in the subtropical gyres where they break into microplastics. Those tiny plastics are available to a huge range of organisms so they are easily incorporating in the trophic chain. Despite the big impact of this pollutant, there still many unknowns. Due to the lack of measures and observations the distribution of microplastics on the open ocean is not well-know. Hence, we would like to establish an easy and accurate methodology for sampling microplastics so everyone with a sailing boat can contribute to complete its concentration data worldwide. For this reason, we are carrying out a crossing North Atlantic trip while sampling microplastics, to start completing this database and to demonstrate that it is possible, by citizen science, to know microplastics distribution. 

We are seamar a project which main issues are marine environmental problems. With Big Shadow, our boat, we invite to every lover of the oceans with an interesting project or looking forward collaborating with us, to join us for getting to learn more about this unknown which is the sea…

https://www.seamarproject.org/en/