ASC volunteers are going deep to learn more about the scope of aquatic microplastic pollution—literally. The divers of National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Enric Sala's Pristine Seas team work to find, survey and protect the last wild places in the ocean, and for the last year they've been gathering samples for the ASC Global Microplastics Initiative from beneath the ocean surface. Marine creatures of all types and sizes are affected by microplastic pollution: Often ingested by smaller aquatic life, it passes up the food chain, bringing with it the toxins that commonly absorbed by plastic particles. Pristine Seas included the findings from their ASC samples in a report to the Government of Palau, which you can read here, and have since gathered samples from remote waters in the Seychelles and Baffin Bay. In Palau, the Pristine Seas team collected 22 samples—half on the surface and the rest at three and five meters below the surface. ASC microplastics researcher Abby Barrows found that the Palau samples gathered below the ocean surface contained a higher number of microplastics—263 pieces in total—compared to 191 from the surface samples. In the Seychelles, Pristine Seas team collected another 22 samples, both on and below the water surface. In those, Barrows found an average of 6 pieces of microplastic per liter, a maximum of 52 pieces per liter, and only one sample with no plastics. Again, more microplastics were present in the samples from below the surface. The expedition helped to inspire the President of Palau to create a National Marine Sanctuary around 80 percent of the country's waters last month. Learn more about the Microplastics Project and other ASC projects on our website, the Field Notes blog, and our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+ pages. Explore more on Pristine Seas at ocean.nationalgeographic.com.
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January 2021
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