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Sky 'Ocean Rescue' campaign on plastic pollution

Biologists of Wageningen Marine Research have contributed to the ‘Ocean Rescue’ campaign by Sky News, which made a high profile start on 24 January 2017 with its focus on the problems caused by marine plastic litter.

The Sky film team visited Wageningen Marine Research in December, filming on the beach and in the dissection laboratory.

The film team traveled all over the world for their film” ‘A Plastic Tide’. On January 24th, the film had its premiere, with additional live reports on television and Facebook from several of the locations, including from the Netherlands. Many elements of this campaign are now also available on YouTube.

‘A Plastic Tide’ - Documentary (duration 46 minutes)

A Plastic Tide

(Fragment Jan Andries van Franeker from 18:30 min. onwards)

Other short videos on YouTube:

Stomach contents of fulmars dissected during the filming for the documentary:

Fulmar NET-2016-022 stomach content. 18 Plastic particles, weighing 0.5627 gram (6 industrial granules, 1 sheet; 8 fragments and 3 lumps of hard rubbery material in terms of mass, this represents nearly double the North Sea average plastic content: the North Sea average is about 30 particles, 0.3 gram.
Fulmar NET-2016-022 stomach content. 18 Plastic particles, weighing 0.5627 gram (6 industrial granules, 1 sheet; 8 fragments and 3 lumps of hard rubbery material in terms of mass, this represents nearly double the North Sea average plastic content: the North Sea average is about 30 particles, 0.3 gram.
Fulmar NET-2016-023 stomach content. 7 Plastic particles weighing 0.0194 gram (1 sheet; 2 threads, and 4 small fragments) In terms of mass, this is far below the average plastic contents in fulmar from the North Sea. Additionally there were some paint chips and a piece of processed wood.
Fulmar NET-2016-023 stomach content. 7 Plastic particles weighing 0.0194 gram (1 sheet; 2 threads, and 4 small fragments) In terms of mass, this is far below the average plastic contents in fulmar from the North Sea. Additionally there were some paint chips and a piece of processed wood.

The Sky Ocean Rescue is an ongoing project,  see: