School Email Exchange

Do you ever find organisms that were obviously harmed by plastics?

Question submitted by George Stevens Academy

We did not find any organisms that were harmed by plastics during our expedition.  Researchers in several laboratories will get samples of organisms we found living on the plastic, who will be looking for answers to this question.

Kristen Mitchell, Mike Gil and Heidi Hirsch carefully remove organisms from a boat fender.  The samples they collect will be studied for plastic ingestion at labs ashore.