Small Plastics in Coastal Waters: Two Pumps Compared

Microplastics, tiny plastic particles, are a growing concern in our oceans. They can hurt sea creatures and pollute our waters. Scientists are now focusing on the smaller ones, less than 300 micrometers, because we don't know much about them. This study compared two filter pumps, the AAU-UFO and KCD, to collect these tiny plastics from the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea. They found that both pumps worked well, collecting similar amounts of microplastics.The most common shapes were fragments, and the most common types of plastic were polyester, polyethylene, and polypropylene. These tiny plastics made up over 90% of the total microplastics collected. The number of microplastics found was much higher than what was seen before with other methods. This shows how important it is to study these small plastics.