Cintia Gisele Bavera gets into her wetsuit, grabs her board and enters the sea. He is not going to surf waves, but to row for a nautical mile – an hour of exercise – to collect microplastics. He will do this by dragging a small fishing net. What is collected will go to a scientific laboratory at the University of Barcelona, which will analyze its source and origin (clothing fibers, remains of bags, pellets). The objective is to obtain an x-ray of the pollution of the sea area closest to the coast, where the oceanographic research ships, in charge of taking these samples, cannot access due to the shallow depth and the presence of bathers.
Cintia was born in Buenos Aires and has lived in Spain for 20 years; During the pandemic, he left his stable and well-paid job in banking in Barcelona to dedicate himself to protecting the sea. She is one of the volunteers for Surfing for Science, a citizen science project that collects data on the enormous amount of microplastics floating on three coasts of Spain: Catalonia, the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands.
Fishing for these small plastics, larger than 0.3 mm, is carried out every 15 days in the same coastal area for a year. Contributors navigate with a small, non-motorized boat, such as a kayak, paddle, or surfboard. The net, designed and made for the project, hooks behind it, dragging and bagging these tiny particles.
The collection is done near the shore, where plastic flows are greatest, as it generates “the transition between the sources and the final destination, between the continent and the oceans.”
It is a pioneering project in the world that helps us understand the sources and dispersion mechanisms of microplastics in the coastal area, a first step to act and design strategies aimed at reducing their arrival.
Anna Sanchez Vidal
— Professor at the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the University of Barcelona
“It is a pioneering project in the world that helps us understand the sources and mechanisms of dispersion of microplastics in the coastal area, a first step to act and design strategies aimed at reducing their arrival,” explains Anna Sánchez Vidal, professor at the Faculty of Earth Sciences at the University of Barcelona, the principal investigator of a program that has financial support from Surfrider Foundation Europe, a non-profit organization that aims to protect the oceans.
Microplastics reach the water in multiple ways: direct discharge to beaches, through fishing or recreational boats, through industrial discharges, river contributions, runoff or wastewater. They can come from the degradation of larger objects such as containers or bags or be released directly into the environment in the form of fibers or pellets. “Depending on these spills, we will find one type of microplastic or another,” explains the oceanographer.
The samples collected by these “citizen scientists”, as the researcher calls the volunteers, are processed and characterized in the laboratories. Properties such as color, shape and polymer give clues to its origin.
Why is it important to determine the source of contamination? To translate scientific evidence into concrete measures. Sánchez Vidal gives examples. The presence of many hygiene products will require more efforts in wastewater purification. If pellets are found, the companies responsible for the leak can be identified. And if microplastics from artificial grass abound, the competent authorities will be able to design mechanisms so that rainwater from soccer fields passes through a treatment plant first.
“The final objective of the project is twofold: there is the scientific part, determining the abundance and characteristics of microplastics in areas very close to the coast; and we also seek to increase the scientific culture of society in relation to plastic pollution,” summarizes the researcher.
The results
The project was launched in 2020. It was promoted by a student of Marine Sciences at the University of Barcelona, who designed an innovative network to collect plastics on the coast for her final degree project. With this tool, the university’s team of oceanographers decided to collect samples along the entire coast of Barcelona to “understand the magnitude of the tragedy of microplastics.”
But the human arms were missing in the water. The agreement with rowing clubs and nautical activities schools made it possible to find volunteers willing to help. Sánchez Vidal estimates that in these four years more than 500 people have participated.
“We now have a total of 15 networks distributed on these three coasts. It should be clear that scientists could not be doing these projects alone. The citizen role is vital. It is not very appealing to row in winter in the Basque Country, but the volunteers have done it,” he highlights.
The analysis of the samples has shown that Barcelona is the place where there is the highest concentration of microplastics per square meter. That in the areas near the Tarragona petrochemical plant, pellets accumulate massively.
One thing that has surprised us is the number of pieces of artificial grass, which has raised the alarm. This product is being sold as a solution to drought. There is a boom in artificial gardens to save water
Anna Sanchez Vidal
— Researcher at the University of Barcelona
“One thing that has surprised us is the number of pieces of artificial grass, which has raised the alarm. This product is being sold as a solution to drought. There is a boom of artificial gardens to save water. From our analysis it is clear that many fragments end up in the oceans,” warns the expert.
Therefore, he insists on the importance of knowing where microplastics come from. “If you come home and find that you have left the tap running, the first thing you do is turn off the tap. Then one takes the mop. We want to close the tap of plastic entering the marine environment. Classification by origin allows us this x-ray. The second step is public policies, which no longer depend on us,” he emphasizes. On this point he regrets the lack of interest.
The specialist clarifies that it is no longer just about the impact on marine fauna, which ingests these microplastics, causing drowning, obstructions, a decrease in growth rates or death due to starvation caused by the feeling of satiety. “The problem is public health,” he says.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), there is evidence of the presence of microplastics in the fishery and aquaculture products that humans consume. More than 220 different species have been found to ingest microplastic waste in natural conditions: mussels, oysters, clams, brown shrimp, crayfish, anchovies, sardines, among other fish and shellfish.
Recent scientific studies have detected microplastics in human organs, such as the lungs, brain, digestive tract, liver and genitals.
The UN has warned this year, through the World Economic Forum, that if the current trend continues, by 2025 the ocean will host one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish, that is, in 2050 there will be more plastic than fish.
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