Marine Microplastics Pollution Initiative

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) provided $51,950 in 2016-17 via the Partnership Fund to Dr. Peter Ross and a team of researchers at the Vancouver Aquarium, towards a project that examines the role that textile fibres play in marine microplastic pollution. Contamination of coastal ecosystems with microplastics is a growing threat to sea life. Invertebrates, fish, seabirds and marine mammals mistake plastic for food, leading to suffocation, blockage of the gut and/or malnutrition. A recent report on the Strait of Georgia showed as much as 3,200 microplastic particles per cubic meter of seawater, mostly fibres.

Project Number: HQ2016.9
Year: 2016
Partner: Vancouver Aquarium, Coastal Oceans Research Institute
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Peter Ross, Andrew Day
Eco-region: Pacific