Student Takeover: An afternoon with Mar de Fonda

As a Marine Biology and Conservation program, we have seen and learned many things about our marine environment, including the importance of protecting the oceans and the impact of marine pollution. Through the Seabin project, we were able to get a closer look at how prominent marine pollution is. Based in Sydney, they place their amazing bins in marinas and other heavily polluted areas in the ocean that need assistance fast. 

Mallorca is located on the Mediterranean Sea. Although it is beautiful, key habitats are threatened by heavy pollution. Billions of micro-plastics fill the seas, Mallorca being no exception. That’s only one component to climate change and the decay of the Mediterranean ecosystem. The plastics are detrimental to this beautiful and precious space. They are the reason our fish are dying, our beaches are polluted, and our food and water are tainted. Yet people take little action and show little interest in resolving these problems. Seabin showed us their interest in solving this problem. They showed us how a product so minuscule (compared to the amount of plastic in the ocean) can have an impact. 

The Seabin is designed to suck up the surface water of the ocean and filter out any plastics floating. The amount of plastic that Seabin has collected is appalling. I got to see first hand the waste that ends up in the ocean. For example, there were food wrappers, a banana peel, a CD, and tons of cigarette butts. Personally, I prefer to keep my afternoon snack and my music out of the ocean, away from other animals' homes. By showing their product to young students, especially those who share the same love for the ocean that I do, we were taught that human impact and waste is detrimental. And although the Seabin is very important to help the ocean, it is just scratching the surface. So, by having small changes such as a machine that filters tons and tons of plastic out of the water, we as humans can reverse the effects of climate change and pollution one day at a time.