From the NW Straits Commission June Newsletter:
A dynamic group of over 70 field volunteers gathered at Fort Worden in May for the Citizen Science Summit on Plastic Pollution in the Salish Sea, hosted by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center and co-sponsored by the Northwest Straits Commission. Since 2008, these and other committed citizen scientists around the region have sampled beach sediments at 15 sites to study tiny fragments of plastic (known as microplastics) in the sand. Early results of the Center’s project provide shocking numbers: an estimated six metric tons of microplastics, plus 3.4 tons of glass, cigarette butts and other debris, have washed up on Puget Sound beaches. Dr. Joel Baker, an expert on chemical pollutants at the University of Washington/Tacoma, served as the event’s keynote speaker. For more information on the summit and the microplastics project, contact Jen Kingfisher at jkingfisher@ptmsc.org.
Filed under: Jefferson County |
