SAHFOS ‘ocean indicator’ amongst plastic pollution monitoring tools for Round Britain eXXpedition crew
The all-female crew set to sail around Britain highlighting ocean plastic pollution will use a SAHFOS ‘ocean indicator’ amongst their monitoring tools.
A far smaller version of the Continuous Plankton Recorder, this ‘ocean indicator’ is easy to transport, can be used in coastal waters, at lower speed and can be set to tow at different depths.
SAHFOS Director, Professor Willie Wilson, feels the campaign will be a great awareness- raising exercise on plastics in our oceans:
“8 million tonnes of plastics end up in our oceans each year – we have to know more about the effects this is having on the UK coastline. It’s great our indicator can be used by the team to assist with their ocean monitoring.”
The crew left Plymouth on August 8th to circumnavigate Britain, they will stop in-port to host a number of awareness generating events along the way, returning to Plymouth on September 5th.
The photo shows the handover of the SAHFOS 'ocean indicator' to Megan Ross, part of the eXXpedition crew (photo, left to right: Lance Gregory, Marianne Wootton, Dr Clare Ostle (all SAHFOS), Professor Richard Thompson, Megan Ross (both University of Plymouth)
