​Award-winning filmmaker and wilderness guide Steve Weileman recently made this short film highlighting his experience taking water samples for Adventure Scientists’ Global Microplastics Initiative. 

Weileman hiked into the blast zone of Mount St. Helens to sample Spirit Lake and also took a water sample downstream at Iron Creek. Those samples are currently being analyzed for the presence of microplastic particles. They will add to the thousands of samples already collected by Adventure Scientists globally and provide more data to illuminate the scope of microplastic pollution in marine and freshwater environments.

For more from Steve Weileman please go to his website: Essex Media & Explorations. Find out more about our Global Microplastics Project and other Adventure Scientists projects by visiting our website, the Landmark Notes blog and by following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

This weekend Adventure Scientists kicked off the second year of our Gallatin Microplastics Initiative, enlisting the help of 60+ volunteer Adventurers to gather water samples at 78 sites along the Gallatin River Watershed. Those samples will be tested for the presence of microplastics and, along with last year’s data, continue the most comprehensive study of freshwater microplastic pollution ever organized.

George and I looked upstream at Skyscraper, a rapid halfway down South Silver Creek, in the mountains near Placerville, CA. Beneath us was an undercut cave; we had been there for a while, scouting and fretting and rationalizing. Kirra scrambled down to us and asked if we planned to run it. I looked at George: “I sure wish someone would come down from behind us and, like, run it. Or set safety. So that we know it’s okay.”

Ten minutes later, as we walked back to our boats, a group of six Kiwis materialized from the white roar. “Want to set safety with us on the Teacups?” one asked. Providence.