Hello Microplastics Adventurers!

Thank you for collecting water samples with the Adventure Scientists Worldwide Microplastics
project. Your efforts are helping us understand the distribution and concentration of
microplastics in the worlds waters, while also building the largest microplastics dataset ever.
Principal Investigator Abby Barrows has processed your microplastics samples, and were
excited to share the results of your work!

Lab Process
First, let me briefly explain the process your samples go through in the lab. Once Abby receives
your sample, she vacuum pumps each sample over a filter. After the filter has dried, Abby uses
a microscope at 45x magnification to look for pieces of microplastic that are less than 5
millimeters. Moving along the grid lines, the filter is systematically counted, with each plastic
piece categorized based on shape (round, microfiber, other) and color (blue, red, black,
transparent/white, other). The final count for the sample is divided by the sample volume. This
calculation helps to standardize the results, as incoming water samples are often not exactly
one liter of water.

Project Results
To date, 1620 of 2064 samples analyzed (78%) contained microplastics. 89% of marine
samples contained plastic, while 53% of freshwater samples contained plastic. 23,594 pieces of
microplastic have been counted. On average, we are finding 10 plastic pieces per liter of water.
You can check out the number of pieces per liter in each individual sample on the map on our
microplastics page.

Note: In the results listed here, we report the total microplastic pieces found in your sample.
However, for many of our calculations and for the online map, we report the total pieces per
liter. As such, your microplastic total on the map may appear different from your total below.

Also, please let us know if your sample isnt located in the correct place on the map, so that we
can fix it for you.

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Expedition-Specific Results

Freshwater Samples:

Chris and Amy

Chris Older and Amy Borch
California

Chris is a geologist and and Amy is an artist; both are instructors for Outward Bound.

Chris and Amy collected two samples, which contained two blue microfibers and one clear
microfiber.

Fortune Bay Expedition Team (FBET)

Amy Colby and Chuck Hayden
Lake Superior

Amy and Chuck collected three samples, which didn't contain any microplastics.

Haley Roe
Montana

Haley served as an intern for Adventure Scientists in the summer of 2016. She sampled at Fairy
Lake near Bozeman.

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Haley collected one sample, which contained 1 transparent fiber.

Madison Stream Team

Ethan Kunard, Dave Bricker, Tom Cracraft, Lawrence Anderson, Stephen Beaton, Liz Davis
Montana

These members of the Madison Stream Team collected 18 samples, which contained one red
microfiber and one blue and clear microfiber.

Pure Drops
Alex and Julia Dragomirescu
Lake Ontario

Alex and Julia collected 5 samples, which contained 1 blue fiber and 1 black fiber.

Rusty
Nick Rustigan
Montana

Rusty serves as the Technology Systems Manager for Adventure Scientists. He collected one
sample, which didnt contain any microplastic.

Marine samples:

BVI 2016
John, Mark, Maddie, Linda, and Liz Hallett and Merrill Warren
British Virgin Islands

Merrill and the Halletts collected four samples, which didn't contain any microplastics.

Fishing Mexico
David Minkler and Jacob Shidler
Pacific Ocean

David is a saltwater fisherman who took his samples while fishing off of Mexico. He, along with
Jacob, collected three samples, which contained 4 blue fibers, 6 clear fibers, and 3 black and
clear fibers.

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Niue - National Geographic Pristine Seas
Alan Friedlander and Jonatha Giddens

Alan is the Chief Scientist for National Geographic Societys Pristine Seas and Director of the
Fisheries Ecology Research Lab at the University of Hawaii.

Alan and Jonatha collected 20 samples, which contained 10 pieces of microplastic: four blue
fibers, one red fiber, one clear fiber, three black fibers, and one black fragment.

S/V Symbiosis
Scott Neuman and Wassana Noi" Laisukang
Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean

Scott is long-time sailor who worked in journalism. He and Noi collected their samples while
sailing along the Eastern US into the Caribbean.

Scott and Noi collected 10 samples, which contained 241 pieces of microplastic: 52 blue fibers,
40 red fibers, 67 clear fibers, 18 black fibers, four green fibers, three pink fibers, three red and
clear fibers, three blue and clear fibers, and 52 black and clear fibers.

S/V Halcyon
John and Becca Guillote and Gemina Garland Lewis
US Pacific Coast

John, Becca, and Gemina collected seven samples, which contained 7 blue fibers, 3
transparent fiber, and 2 black and clear fibers.

Project Trends
Though were finding an average of 10 pieces per liter for the project overall, there is much
more microplastic in marine samples. The concentration of microplastic in marine samples is
over 12 pieces per liter. This is much greater than the concentration in freshwater samples,
which is over 1 piece per liter.

Another interesting trend were seeing is 90 percent of the microplastic weve counted is fibrous:
the pieces are thread-like or line shaped. Finding a majority of these fibers in samples could
suggest that microfibers are the primary microplastic input into waterways.

Thanks so much, again, for your dedication to this program and our shared waterways!

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