Turtle Watch is back after maternity leave(s)!

Hi there it´s been a while! As it looks, Turtle Watch is doing a comeback in autumn 2016! What have we been up to between 2011 and 2016, someone might ask. The answer is: mostly reproducing. Five years and three kids later, we are more than ready to head back to the sunny beaches of Thailand.

At the moment we are busy planning our research which will be targeting the plastic problem in the waters of South East Asia. Did you know that between 1950 and 2015, the world´s annual production of plastics grew from 1.5 million tons to 299 million tons?

Plastic is found in all habitats both on land and in sea and even in areas far from human settlement. Plastics are transported across the globe by winds and oceanic currents and high concentrations of floating plastic can accumulate in convergence zones which I am sure you have all seen horrible pictures of. 

​Plastic can be ingested by many marine animals such as turtles or dolphins who mistake it for medusas which they feed on or they can get entangled in floating plastics. However, we will be looking at plastics mostly on a smaller scale. Plastic is broken down to tiny microparticles which accumulate in the sand where they alter the physical properties of the sand. Small plastic particles are also ingested by invertebrates such as clams and can have wide effects in the food chain. How much microplastic is then found? We will find out during winter 2016!