There’s a huge body of evidence showing the harmful impact of microplastics on aquatic life. Where plastics enter the ocean isn’t where they stay, however, and researchers are keen to understand how they move. 

While microplastics sampling has been done before, it has never been as a continuous flow of data from around the UK. And that’s exactly what we’ll achieve.

Samples of water will be taken every day of the row, for a couple hours each day and then sent to the University for processing. The end result will be a heatmap of microplastic pollution in the waters surrounding the British Isles. This should also reveal the extent of microplastics in protected areas at sea, such as Marine Conservation Zones.

The research will examine microplastics above 50 micron in size — the very smallest size you can see with a human eye. 50 micron tends to be the preferred feeding range for a number of aquaculture species, so this research will provide insights into microplastic consumption by marine wildlife. The plastic fragments will be identified with a specialist microscope in the University labs, called a micro Raman, which can detect the type of plastic found.