By Charlie Willis – Food security and human health are under threat from microplastics in our oceans. But to what extent? The journal article; ‘Marine microplastic debris: An emerging issue for food security, food safety and human health’ by Gabriel et al. (2018) addresses the scale of the microplastic impact regarding marine-life and subsequently its…
By Alisa Reid – Plastic pollution is a critical long-term problem with ~400Mt produced annually [1]. Microplastics are an important contributor; classified as <5mm in diameter. There are two classes; primary (manufactured at size) or secondary (eroded to classification size) [2]. This pollution is challenging to successfully mitigate as their size often enables them to…
By Luke Josef Misra – Introduction. In recent years microplastics have come to the forefront of media attention. Microplastics, which are defined as plastic pieces less than five millimetres long, are believed to be the most plentiful form of plastic in the oceans [1] at up to 92.4% [2]. A peer reviewed article by Li…
by Lukas Szpojnarowicz – Our oceans face many growing threats, particularly caused by the presence of plastic debris and polluting microplastics. A journal article written by Vegter et al. (2014) addresses the environmental challenge of mitigating pollution, by compiling the global research efforts of 27 marine scientists, and 196 initial research questions (rqs) – which were…
by Tyler Broad Like everybody else, I am still haunted by the mental images that I took from the Blue Planet II series: turtles trapped inside plastic nets, an albatross dying from a plastic toothpick piercing through its insides, and a pilot whale refusing to let go of her dead child. As Attenborough tells us,…