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The Outlook for Microplastics

May 22, 2018

Ecotoxicologist Marte Haave of Uni Research in Bergen, Norway, shows a vial of stormwater with paint fragments and other plastic particles to WHOI guest student Max Beaurepaire (front) and Rune Øyerhamn, a graduate student at Christian Michelsen Research. Haave worked with Tanja Kögel and Bjørn Einar Grøsvik of the Institute of Marine Research and WHOI scientists Scott Gallager and Mark Hahn to organize a daylong introductory course on marine microplastics, which was held as part of the 2018 Ocean Outook meeting at WHOI in early May. The course introduced participating graduate and students and postdoctoral scientists to the effects of plastics on marine organisms and the need for environmental and human health risk assessments. The course also included a demonstration of laboratory analytical methods. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)