Scientists Begin 5-Month Mission On Plastic Pollution

Scientists have begun a five-month mission to study how plastic pollution in Africa’s main rivers and climate change stresses are impacting microorganisms in the Atlantic ocean.

The Survey Is Being Staged From The 33-Year-Old Tara Research Schooner, Which Arrived In South Africa’s Cape Town Ahead Of The Expedition Up The West African Coast.

They will trace the sources of plastic pollution at river mouths, to understand their distribution and the types of material involved.

The Researchers Will Analyse How Nutrients And Pollution In Major African Rivers – The Congo, Orange, Gambia And Senegal – Are Affecting The Atlantic.

The research station will also cast nets that can go up to 1,000 metres below the ocean’s surface, to collect samples from ecosystems called “microbiomes”, to be analyzed in labs on land.

The data gathered will help answer key questions about the world’s oceans.