Marine Microplastics
WHOI shares details on microplastic detection project
A project led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Chemical Sensors Lab is moving researchers closer to an in-field microplastics sensor that measures the amount of plastic particles in water.
Read MoreStudy outlines challenges to ongoing clean-up of burnt and unburnt nurdles along Sri Lanka’s coastline
When a fire broke out on the deck of the M/V XPress Pearl cargo ship on May 20, 2021, an estimated 70-75 billion pellets of preproduction plastic material, known as nurdles, spilled into the ocean and along the Sri Lankan coastline. That spill of about 1,500 tons of nurdles, many of which were burnt by the fire, has threatened marine life and poses a complex clean-up challenge. A new peer-reviewed study characterizes how the fire modified the physical and chemical properties of the nurdles and proposes that these properties affected their distribution along the coast.
Read MoreSunlight can break down marine plastic into tens of thousands of chemical compounds, study finds
Sunlight was once thought to only fragment plastics in the marine environment into smaller particles that chemically resemble the original material and persist forever. However, scientists more recently have learned that sunlight also chemically transforms plastic into a suite of polymer-, dissolved-, and gas-phased products. Now, a new study finds that this chemical reaction can produce tens of thousands of water-soluble compounds, or formulas.
Read MoreBiology Department Virtual Seminar: Do Microplastics Accumulate in Food Webs?
Jordan Pitt, MIT-WHOI Joint Program Sponsored by: Biology Department This will be held virtually. Zoom link: https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/94122732384?pwd=ZEhqZXZyeDdhMXVVR3d1dmFkYmZIQT09
Read MoreThe spread of plastics and oil in Sri Lanka from the wreck of M/V X-Press Pearl
On May 20, 2021, the cargo ship M/V X-Press Pearl caught fire off the coast of Sri Lanka. The container ship was carrying 78 metric tons of a material known as plastic nurdles. What happens now?
Read MoreSpecial Seminar: Research at the Reserve: Microplastics in the Salt Marshes of Waquoit Bay
Javier Lloret, MBL Co-sponsored by: Waquoit Bay Reserve, Friends of the Waquoit Bay Reserve, MA Department of Conservation & Recreation,…
Read MoreA checkup for the oceans reveals threats to human health
The health of the world’s ocean is in serious decline—and human health is suffering as a result. A comprehensive report from the Monaco Commission and co-authored by several WHOI researchers investigates the impacts of ocean pollution and recommends actions to safeguard human health.
Read MoreWHOI establishes new fund to accelerate microplastics innovation
With the backing of a handful of family foundations, WHOI is launching a Marine Microplastics Innovation Accelerator to help answer some of the most pressing—and foundational—questions about marine microplastics and their impacts
Read MoreUnited States Contributions to Global Ocean Plastic Waste
MPC Research Specialist, Hauke Kite-Powell, has recently been appointed to a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee to study U.S. contributions to global ocean plastic waste.
Tenacious citizens take on the plastics industry over an insidious pollutant
Evidence of pellet pollution has been piling up for decades. R. Jude Wilber of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution returned to the area and found that pellet concentrations had nearly doubled.
Microplastics & The Textile Industry
The study of marine microplastics is not new. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has been conducting research and publishing on this subject since the 1970s. Other organizations have been active as well.
Starting Oct. 1, foam containers for carryout food will be banned throughout Maryland. Not everyone is happy
As the first state in the country to ban foam food containers, Maryland will be a “very good case study,” said Chris Reddy, a scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
New Sensor to Monitor Microplastics in Cape Cod Canal
An ocean technology company installed a particle sensor Tuesday in the Cape Cod Canal to monitor plankton and potential microplastics.
How Long Does Plastic Persist in the Ocean?
It can be hard to predict the average lifespan of plastics in the ocean when so many different types exist. WHOI chemists Chris Reddy and Collin Ward are working to simplify these predictions
Read MoreThe many lifetimes of plastics
Infographics strive to give us a sense of how long plastic goods will last in the environment. But is this information reliable? The findings of a new study from WHOI may surprise you.
Read MorePlastics’ impact on oceans under scrutiny
“We have an opportunity now, where there is public awareness,” said Mark Hahn, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “They (plastics) don’t belong there (in the ocean).”
Microplastics research needs innovation, health focus
“Studying microplastics is hard because [they are] not a single contaminant like lead or a uniform contaminant like PCBs [polychlorinated biphenyls],” said NIEHS grantee Mark Hahn, Ph.D., a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “It is a diverse and complex mixture of materials.”
How Big Oil and Big Soda kept a global environmental calamity a secret for decades
The threat to human health is complex and poorly understood. “There are a lot more questions than answers at this point,” says Mark Hahn, a toxicologist at WHOI who studies microplastics.
Particles in Waves: Transport of Microplastics in the Ocean from a Particle Perspective
Michelle DiBenedetto, WHOI Sponsored by: Physical Oceanography Department
Read MoreMicroplastics in the Ocean: Emergency or Exaggeration (event recording)
October 15, 2019 – Watch this recorded public event entitled Microplastics in the Ocean: Emergency of Exaggeration? with a keynote presentation by Dr. Kara Lavender Law on the science of ocean plastic pollution and laying the foundation for solutions.
Dr. Law is a faculty member at Sea Education Association, where she studies the distribution of plastic marine debris driven by ocean physics and the degradation and ultimate fate of plastics in the ocean.
Keynote presentation is followed by a panel discussion on the international perspectives on marine microplastics research moderated by Dr. Heather Goldstone, host of Living Lab, WCAI, Cape & Islands NPR. Panelists include:
Dr. Chelsea Rochman
University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Hauke Kite-Powell
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, U.S.A.
Dr. Gunnar Gerdts
Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany
Dr. Hideshige Takada
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan
Dr. Collin Ward
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, U.S.A.
Sponsored by the Elisabeth W. and Henry A. Morss, Jr., Colloquia Endowed Fund
Learn more about marine microplastics here:
https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/pollution/marine-microplastics/
In the sea, not all plastic lasts forever
A major component of ocean pollution is less devastating and more manageable than usually portrayed.
Study: Styrofoam Might Last Only Decades, Not Millennia, in the Ocean
Researchers from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution say that sunlight can break down polystyrene within a few decades.
In the Sea, Not All Plastic Lasts Forever
Polystyrene, a common ocean pollutant, decomposes in sunlight much faster than thought, a new study finds.
Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected
The general consensus of governmental agencies is that it takes polystyrene thousands of years to fully break down. But a new study shows that it may instead degrade in decades or centuries when exposed to sunlight.
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