Nacho Dean in Tenerife to measure microplastic in the ocean

Ever heard of scientific tourism? Don’t worry, you don’t need any special education or qualifications to participate in it – just a curious mind and the willpower along with friends to influence and make a difference in maintaining and restoring our beautiful planet in a viable sustainable way for the future.

Nacho Dean together with La Espana Azul, an Ocean Born Foundation, Ocean Beer and MYND Hotel organised three specialised informative and fulfilling days of activities including presentations at the MYND Hotel, a beach clean up and an intriguing boat trip to collect water samples. The aim of the boat trip was to investigate and learn how best to counter the major threat we face along with nature and the flora and fauna of our environment caused by microplastics in the oceans. We believe that the issues represented here raise critical issues for which not only governments but also we individually need to take responsibility for acting more effectively together and we can only do this if we are better informed.

Canary Green was fortunate to have the opportunity to experience a first-hand initiative in information gathering by venturing out on an exciting sailing expedition with Nacho Dean and his team from La Espana Azul. Ever wanted to feel like a true marine biology researcher and put yourself in their shoes? Well, here’s the chance! Together with Nacho we collected the first samples around the cliffs of Los Gigantes, or to be more exact from the Franja Marina Teno Rasca ZEC zone, a special marine protection area in Tenerife. This practical exploration will enable valuable research to be carried out investigating the amount of microplastics in our sea.

Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic (by definition smaller than 5mm) which are sometimes not even visible to the human eye. They can originate from cosmetics, textiles, fishing nets or larger items such as water bottles and pose an especially dangerous threat through poisoning directly marine life and habitat and indirectly all kinds of flora and fauna associated with the food chain in and around our seas and oceans including of course ourselves. Once present this threat exists for hundreds or even thousands of years taken for the plastic to decompose. If you have noticed tiny multi-coloured particles glistening in the sand while relaxing on the beach and wondered what they were – the answer could certainly have been microplastics because of their increasing prevalence around the world. Nothing is spared their reach from the smallest to the largest inhabitants of the ocean when microplastics are often consumed by marine animals such as plankton later to be eaten by whales. They also appear in various kinds of commercial seafood and by impregnating our drinking water systems can be consumed regularly by us in both food and drink. Clearly microplastics represent a life endangering menace meriting urgent attention.

During our expedition the collected water samples seemed surprisingly clean with only a few coloured particles at first glance but we will only know the truth when they have been checked scientifically. We are obviously keenly awaiting discovering the outcome and looking forward to hearing the final results. Dean and his team will continue taking samples where we visited along with others from around the islands so that analysis and comparison of the results provides a much clearer picture of the situation on which to base necessary action.

Thank you Nacho for the opportunity to join you on this exciting and important expedition

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