IMP.act
Managing for Microplastics: A Baseline to Inform Policy Stakeholders
Abstract
Marine anthropogenic litter and microplastic pollution has long been recognised as a global environmental threat with ubiquitous distribution. These novel emergent pollutants have been highlighted by the 2012 Manila Declaration of the United Nations Environment Programme, by the 2017 G7 Leaders Summit and more recently by the National Geographic, who all have acknowledged its impacts and effects on "marine and coastal life, ecosystems and potentially human health".
The persistence of microplastics in the marine environment is a major cause for concern and despite recent efforts to map and estimate amounts, there is still a considerable lack of knowledge regarding its sources, distribution and effects on ecological functioning. Literature on this topic shows that microplastics are not only restricted to surface waters, and have also been recorded in intertidal and benthic sediments; sea ice and aquatic fauna, ranging from zooplankton to cetaceans.
The IMP.act - managIng for MicroPlastics: A baseline to inform poliCy sTakeholders - project aims to develop a long-term management plan using an ecosystem-based approach on Galway Bay and its environs, on the West of Ireland. This management plan intends to establish a working framework dedicated to marine anthropogenic litter and microplastic pollution, according to descriptor 10 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 56/CE/2008) and sampling focuses on microplastics in several habitats including the benthos (intertidal and subtidal) and a variety of marine fauna from different environmental compartments (surface waters, water columns and sediment).
Sources of microplastics will be identified through monitoring several of the major inputs from both outside and within the Bay itself including the influence of the River Corrib.
A model of the ecosystem will be developed based on previously collected data and new field data, focused on hotspots of accumulation and distribution patterns of microplastics within the bay.
The resulting model can be used as a management tool to inform both managers and policy makers about potential microplastic inputs and accumulation areas in Galway Bay, while serving as a potential tool to promote and/or create mitigation strategies to minimise the impacts of microplastics in this area.
This baseline data will directly contribute to the 10th descriptor of the MSFD and to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 4:Quality Education and Goal 14: Life Below Water.
Goals
IMP.act aims to:
Identify the main inputs, hotspots of accumulation and sources and distribution patterns of microplastics (MP) in Galway Bay and its environs;
Assess quantitative and qualitative MPs retrieved from environmental samples across Galway Bay;
Assess ingestion of MP in characteristic marine species in this geographic area;
Provide a spatio-temporal basis for statistical and distribution models;
Create educational outreach and awareness materials and
Develop a management tool to inform policy makers.
IMP.act Webinar
I am delighted to invite you to participate in the IMP.act webinar on microplastics in Galway Bay.
The aim of this webinar is to disseminate project results, and to engage with other marine litter and microplastic pollution awareness initiatives that are taking place in Ireland. As such, we have invited to be part of this event:
Catherine Barrett from Ireland’s Seafood Development Agency Fishing for Litter Initiative;
Sinead McCoy from An Taisce’s Clean Coasts;
Sabine Springer, artist and scientist,
Haleigh Joyce and Fiona Kavanagh from GMIT.
This event will also have a scientific panel and the launch of a digital booklet about the perceptions about marine litter and microplastic pollution in Ireland.
Project updates
Sampling and processing protocols and papers
Sediments
Intertidal sediments
This sampling protocol is a simple way of collecting sediment samples from beaches and coastal areas to be used both in research and citizen science projects. It includes an easy methodology adapted from the OSPAR marine litter guidelines and the BASEMAN Sediment protocol that you can use in your local beach here in Ireland.
01/05/2019
Surface water samples
Floating microplastic debris at the ocean's surface represents about 1% of all plastics found in the environment, with the remainder thought to be either deposited along the coast or sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Floating microplastic densities were assessed in Galway Bay, Northeast Atlantic Ocean. A total of 1182 floating microplastic particles were retrieved from a total surface seawater volume of 2039.86 cubic meters. The average microplastic density (0.56 ± 0.33 MP per cubic meter) is based on a sample of 20 manta trawls. This study reports for the first-time primary microplastics (microbeads) floating in Irish coastal waters. For more details access the open-access paper:
16/06/2020
IMP.act online survey
As part of the IMP.act project data collection, we are launching an online survey to estimate perceptions about marine anthropogenic litter and microplastic pollution in Ireland.
The survey takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes to complete and it consists of 40 questions. There are no right or wrong answers, as our interest is your current knowledge and opinions about the subject.
We are looking forward to your answers!
04/03/2019
The survey will be online until the 31/05/2019, so if you have not submitted your answers yet, please do so before the deadline. Thanks for your collaboration!
06/04/2019
We take this opportunity to thank the 320 anonymous participants from 19 counties for completing the IMP.act survey.
31/05/2019
We are already processing the survey data among other activities within the IMP.act project. Stay tuned for more updates soon.
23/07/2019
The results of the on-line survey are being compiled into a digital booklet that will be available soon. Stay tuned for more details.
20/05/2020
We are organising a webinar workshop to disseminate the results of the project and to launch the digital booklet of the survey. Stay tuned for more updates on this webinar. We will provide links soon for stakeholders to attend. The workshop will happen in September 2020.
27/07/2020
Creating visual identity
To improve communication with key stakeholder group, communication strategies are fundamental. One of those strategies is the ability to recognise the project in national and international events. The logo of this project represents a big drop of water falling into the ocean with smaller splash droplets. The logo intends to represent that even small events cause several effects (ripple, splash, etc), and it is intended to be a metaphor for the effects of microplastics in the marine environment. This is the logo and strapline used throughout the deliverables of this project.
19/12/2018
Work Packages
IMP.act research goals are divided into five work packages:
WP1 - Baseline characterisation of microplastic sources, inputs and relevant stakeholders in the study area;
WP2 - Data collection in Galway Bay and environs;
WP3 - Spatio-temporal basis for models;
WP4 - Outreach, awareness, science communication and dissemination of results;
WP5 - Data integration to inform policy.
Deliverables
Outreach and dissemination
IMP.act Webinar
On the 02/10/2020, a Zoom webinar was organised that included as panelists:
Catherine Barrett from Ireland’s Seafood Development Agency Fishing for Litter Initiative;
Sinead McCoy from An Taisce’s Clean Coasts;
Sabine Springer, artist and scientist,
Haleigh Joyce and Fiona Kavanagh from GMIT.
This webinar was hosted by João Frias, Elena Pagter and Róisín Nash from GMIT.
A total of 87 people attended this event, where 25% were in Connacht, 18% in Ulster, 10% in Munster and 5% in Leinster. About 35% of participants were based in Europe and 7% in Asia.
In this event a booklet on the perceptions about marine anthropogenic litter and microplastic pollution in Ireland was released and can be found in Deliverable 4.2 by clicking in button below.
New Open Access paper on floating microplastics in Galway Bay
A new golden open access manuscript has been published in the scientific journal Marine Pollution Bulletin under the title:
“Floating microplastics in a coastal embayment: A multifaceted issue”
H2020 Career Progression for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) fellows in Ireland
Attendance in the MSCA event in Dublin, 12th September 2018, where I pitched the IMP.act project to Jim Carroll, editor of RTEBrainstorm
International Coastal Cleanup 2018 - Galway
Beach cleanup action in #Galway in the 15th September 2018, along the shoreline at Claddagh beside Nimmo’s Pier. #InternationalCoastalCleanup #citizenscience #marinelitter #microplastics
National Day of the Sea in Portugal in FCT-UNL
Invited speaker to raise awareness about marine litter and microplastic pollution in the one-day event organised by the Library of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (16th November 2018)
International Conference #MICRO2018 in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
Sharing results from JPI-Oceans BASEMAN project and from IRC funded IMP.act project between 19th and 23rd of November 2018
IMP.act.sea.I cruise (CV19003) on board of the R/V Celtic Voyager
A team composed of young researchers, MSc students and PhD students boarded the Celtic Voyager between 2nd and 6th of February 2019, to collect water surface, sediment and biota samples that contribute to the IMP.act project. The link below directs to the Marine Institute Scientists at Sea blog
JPI-Oceans Seminar January 2019
The seminar aimed to inform and interact about ongoing JPI Oceans actions and projects and their policy impact; to galvanize synergies and collaboration with the European Commission, European Parliament and other international (scientific) organisations and highlight the added value of JPI-Oceans and its importance in the marine research policy landscape.
The seminar was organised at the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, Rue Ducale 1, Brussels on 17 January 2019 from 12.00 to 17.00.
Photos by Willem De Moor avaliable in the JPI Oceans gallery. More details in the link below
IWDG - Dolphin necropsies in the Regional Veterinary Laboratory Cork
On the 21st of March 2019, we head down to the RVL in Cork to observe our first dolphin necropsies performed by an expert veterinary doctor.
Funding and Partner Organisations
IMP.act is supported by the Irish Research Council in the framework of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND Collaborative Research Fellowships for a Responsive and Innovative Europe (CAROLINE) scheme, under the fellowship reference CLNE/2018/524.
The project is a partnership between the Marine and Freshwater Research Centre of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (MFRC-GMIT) and the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG).
