On April 24, discover the impact of plastics on the world’s oceans with Giora Proskurowski from UW Oceanography.

While working on a research sailboat in the Pacific Ocean, UW Oceanography Research Scientist Giora Proskurowski observed water littered with confetti-size pieces of plastic debris, then the wind picked up and the particles disappeared.  After taking subsurface samples at a depths of up to 16 feet, he discovered that wind was pushing the lightweight plastic below the surface. That meant that decades of research into how much plastic litters the ocean, conducted by skimming the surface, may in some cases vastly underestimate the true amount of plastic debris in the oceans.

Free for UW Students!!