MARINEPLASTICS RESEARCH

The Ocean Research Project (ORP) has been dedicated to understanding plastic debris in the ocean through extensive research expeditions. Since completing its first marine debris expedition in 2013, ORP has explored plastic pollution across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans.

In 2013, the team spent 70 days mapping the eastern side of the North Atlantic garbage patch and collecting plastic debris samples. The following year, ORP undertook a groundbreaking 6,800-mile nonstop voyage from San Francisco to Yokohama, Japan, to study microplastic pollution in the Pacific.

More recently, ORP has expanded its focus to the Chesapeake Bay. This project investigates how microplastics and other pollutants affect this vital estuary, aiming to connect global oceanic challenges with regional environmental health.

CHESAPEAKE BAY PLASTIC SURVEY

Screen Shot 2023-11-28 at 1.21.20 PM.png

Chesapeake Bay Plastic Survey

The Chesapeake Bay Plastic Survey aims to establish a baseline for monitoring plastic pollution trends in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Ocean Research Project (ORP) assessed bay-wide plastic pollution by exploring plastic particle count. The long-term objective is to help develop plastic pollution as a water quality indicator for monitoring future bay health. A threshold is in development for plastic pollution and scores will be published in the 2025 Chesapeake Bay Report Card from our results.

Key questions we aim answer with future donations.

How much plastic could accumulate in the bay bottom in the future?

When should the bay waters be sampled to best represent the plastic concentration of any sampling location?

Project Overview

ORP’s study is the first to determine the particle concentration of plastic pollution across the United States’ largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay. The information from this pilot project informs Chesapeake Bay Program partners at the federal, state, and local levels on best practices for future man made micro debris monitoring..

The Issue of Plastic Pollution

Plastic debris, generated by modern human civilization, has infiltrated the deepest trenches of the world’s oceans and concentrated in massive surface areas. An estimated 5.5 trillion pieces of plastic debris are in the world’s oceans. This plastic debris originates from land due to the overuse of plastics in daily life and improper waste disposal. Once plastic trash enters the ocean, nature’s forces and the migration of marine species and birds determine how the plastic material and chemical compounds move and accumulate through the complex marine environment, including the food chain and the Plastisphere. Much of this plastic debris is concentrated in large oceanic current circulation regions called gyres.

Importance of the Survey

The Chesapeake Bay Plastic Survey will:

Establish a Baseline: Provide essential data for monitoring plastic pollution trends.
Inform Future Efforts: Guide a dedicated multi-year sampling program by Chesapeake Bay Program partners.
Enhance Understanding: Improve knowledge of the impact of plastic pollution on the Bay and its connection to broader environmental changes.

Related Research and Findings

To better understand the nature of plastic debris in the ocean, ORP has conducted multiple research expeditions in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans. These expeditions have provided critical data on the concentration, composition, and extent of plastic debris in the ocean.

Due to the flexibility sailing vessels offer, our trips were able to dedicate a larger amount of time to collecting samples across a much broader area than typical fuel consuming research vessels would typically cover. ORP’s findings have provided an important baseline for marine surface debris data, as well as improving knowledge of the concentration, composition and extent of plastic trash in the ocean. We conducted our research in a manner that ensured the samples could be used to support further research as part of plastic pellet toxicity studies at the University of Tokyo’s Pelletwatch program. In addition, ORP’s research was designed to allow us and participating scientists to further define the diversity of the Plastisphere, specifically the roles played by bacteria and viruses in their evolving relationships with plastic debris in the ocean.

Key Publications

ORP's extensive research has contributed to several influential publications, including:

Click here to see a full list of ORP's publications.

LEARNMORE

Marine Pollution Bulletin: Discover more about chemical transfer risk in the seafood chain in our collaborative publication.
Arctic Ocean Plastic Pollution: Our research on minimizing pollution in the Arctic Ocean highlights the global nature of plastic waste and potential solutions using earth-friendly bio-materials.