Professor Maria Cristina Fossi will organize and participate at the SETAC 2018 special session “8.02 Harmful effects of plastic litter and mitigation strategies in the Mediterranean Sea“. This special session envisages to showcase the Mediterranean answer to the global problem of marine litter and as such share experience on how Academy, Industry, Governance actors and different key regional stakeholders in their various capacities can work together in a coordinated manner to address Mediterranean marine litter management.
PlasticBusters MPAs Med Interreg project deploys the multidisciplinary strategy and common framework of action developed within the Plastic Busters initiative led by UNISI SDSN Mediterranean (Prof. M. Cristina Fossi) since 2013.
Researchers from the US, Australia and Italy, in a study published in in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, looked at data on threats to large filter feeders from microplastics.
Microplastic pollution can impact filter-feeding marine megafauna, namely mobulid rays, filter-feeding sharks, and baleen whales. Emerging research on these flagship species highlights potential exposure to microplastic contamination and plastic-associated toxins. Research and its wide communication are needed to understand the magnitude of the issue and improve marine stewardship.
Professor Maria Cristina Fossi, as one the scientists who took part to the film, was invited at the screening and discussion of the film “A Plastic Ocean” on November 13 2017 at Harvard University, United States of America .
Professor Maria Cristina Fossi will partecipate at the second meeting of the Regional Cooperation Platform which will take place on 9-10 November 2017, in Barcelona, Spain. The meeting will review the progress achieved on the implementation of the Regional Plan on Marine Litter Management in the Mediterranean, along with the joint work plan of the Regional Cooperation Platform.
Professor Maria Cristina Fossi, coordinator of the Plastic Busters project, will participate as a key-note speaker to the One Ocean Forum, organised by Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (YCCS) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO in Milan (Italy) on the 3rd and 4th of October.
The Ocean Plastics Lab is an exciting exhibition about science: It showcases the contribution of science to understand and combat the problem of plastics in the ocean. The exhibition is designed as a hands-on science lab, inviting visitors to assume the role of scientists and over the course of four consecutive containers explore the extent and impact of plastics in the ocean. Plastic busters members contributed to the DETECT impacts container setup.