Baltic Sea Expedition 2014

Marine plastic litter poses a threat to the ecosystem by being mistaken for food and ingested, and by containing additive chemicals and binding environmental pollutants. The aim is to assess the amount and type of marine plastic litter in different size fractions in the open ocean of the Baltic Sea, and to measure what effect it can have on living organisms. Sampling is performed by newly developed high volume pump and conventional plankton trawl, the former sampling 50µm particles and the latter 330µm particles. The samples are characterized based on how much plastics, what type, and possible risks/effects, by spectrophotometry, mass spectrometry, and bioanalytical effect analysis.

See the film from the expedition