Beyond What Meets the Eye: Microplastics Research, Sampling & Communication Training

Led by: Coastal Action

These two scaffolding workshops contributed to the overall knowledge and hands-on experience necessary for effective microplastic research and associated action. The workshops will provide space for participants to collaborate on project development using collaborative and integrated approaches, to provide skills and support to bridge research gaps across community-based microplastic projects in Atlantic Canada. 

The first workshop was part of the Clean Ocean Summit 2.0 Conference hosted by Clean Foundation in Halifax, Nova Scotia on November 18-19, 2019, which included a one-hour panel discussion entitled “Beyond what meets the eye: Sampling for microplastics in your community” during the summit’s plenary session (100 participants); and a half-day microplastic action group breakout session (25 participants) to provide participants the opportunity to collaborate on new and existing microplastic projects using the themes and tools presented. The second workshop was held in Spring 2020 to harness the knowledge and brainstorming progress accomplished during the November 2019 workshop and put it into practice by training and working in-field. This field experience included building the microplastic trawl equipment and reviewing hands-on sampling protocols.