Surfing for Science: Studying microplastic pollution
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Surfing for samples
Scientists and volunteers are crisscrossing the waters off Barcelona's beaches collecting algae mixed with tiny pieces of plastic. They are doing this as part of a project to study microplastic pollution.
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300 scientists and volunteers
Created by the University of Barcelona in 2020, the "Surfing for Science", the project involves 300 volunteers. These volunteers are mounted on paddle boards or kayaks with special trawling nets attached to them.
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Microplastic pollution
The project studies microplastic pollution in shallow areas inaccessible to oceanographic research ships. The area under study is now expanding from the Mediterranean coast in Spain's northeast to the Atlantic coast in the northwest.
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Plastic pollution in the seas
Experts at last month's UN Ocean Conference warned that plastic pollution was a growing threat to marine life and humans. Eleven million tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean each year and that could triple by 2040 unless production and use of throwaway containers are reduced.
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Origins of pollution
The aim of the "Surfing for Science" project is to obtain scientific data on the origins of the plastic pollution in the sea, its components, and how it varied over time. This is done in the university lab.
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Knowing where to act
They plan to bring in more "citizen scientists" in nearby regions who are trained to collect samples and work on all stages of the study. This is the logic: Knowing what has reached the ocean allows us to know where we have to act on land.