Microplastics Around Nantucket, the Known and the Unknown
UMASS Boston School for the Environment Professor Juanita Urban Rich on July 06, 2022, at 7 p.m.
Hybrid: In person at the Nantucket Atheneum or Zoom
Attend the first Nantucket microplastic symposium in person or remotely for an overview of microplastic research on Nantucket. Microplastics, plastic less than 5 mm in its biggest dimension, is everywhere.
The question they had was how much was here already on Nantucket and what type? What is the island’s baseline? In 2019, they began sampling the beaches and intertidal waters in Nantucket Harbor, Madaket Harbor, and Surfside beach. They examined oysters, bay scallops, and seal scat to see if it was making it into foodwebs. Then in 2021, they began looking at how much was deposited from the air, we all breathe. The aim was to learn what was there and what might be affecting the distribution. UMASS will present some of this data and what they have learned about its distribution on Nantucket Island and discuss some of the remaining questions such as what impact is it having? And what are we doing?
For more details about attending the symposium contact the Nantucket Field Station Director, Yvonne.vaillancourt@umb.edu.