Ocean Diagnostics Inc. (ODI) has completed the final commercial design for Ascension, a portable microplastics depth-sampling piece of equipment. Its backers say Ascension can help researchers make new discoveries about microplastics and microfibers below the ocean's surface by collecting data down to 400 metres.
"Studies suggest that 99.8% of oceanic plastic sinks below the ocean's surface where they can affect coral reefs and feeding grounds but, until now, scientists could only study microplastics below the ocean's surface with large, expensive research vessels and heavy winch systems requiring several crew members," said Ethan Edson, co-founder and the company's chief technology officer in a news release. "These limitations made it difficult for scientists to find answers about the accumulation, transport and fate of microplastics in the ocean."
Edson told The Chief that what typically has happened is academic researchers studying microplastics — tiny specks of plastic and fibres — in the ocean have only had expensive and antiquated tools at their disposal.
Currently, researchers require a large research vessel — which can cost $10,000 per day — with a winch and a crane to move a sampler into the water.
"It is really difficult to go out and collect a microplastic sample, take it back to the lab and create quantitative results. Most of that is because of lacking technology or equipment to do that research," Edson said, adding Ocean Diagnostics was founded two years ago out of frustration with that status quo.
Ascension is portable and weighs approximately eight kilograms (18 pounds) and can reach 200 metres from the side of a small boat, including a two-person canoe.
It can also be used to study plankton and total organic matter.
It includes a battery that lasts between one and 1.5 hours and seven filter channels. It is good for a depth of 400 metres and comes with a 200-metre tether.
"It is a small, portable — think of it like a filtration device — that can be lowered down through the water column on a tether and we can communicate with Ascension real-time back up on the top of the boat," he said. "We can tell Ascension to collect filter samples at a different depths, and we can have full control over where we sample, and as a result of that, we can collect these filtered samples and bring them back to the lab and analyze for microplastics later."
Details of the instrument’s price are still being worked out, but Edson said its cost would likely be equal to two days of traditional research.
"By having easier access to better data, scientists can better understand the long-term effects of microplastics pollution on our oceans and help to influence informed decision making," he said.
Sea to Sky connection
Squamish scientist Anna Posacka was appointed in mid-July as Ocean Diagnostics' chief scientific officer.
Posacka was formerly with the Plastics Lab at Ocean Wise.
Because microplastics are so small, they are very hard to extract from the environment, explained Posacka, who currently also serves on the Expert Advisory Committee to the US Congress, guiding recommendations to address microfibre pollution and is a member of the Board of Directors of Squamish Climate and Action Network, Zero Waste Division.
"Ultimately, the complexity around their sizes and [the] different sources they can originate from creates technical challenges for regulators, researchers and decision-makers and communities that want to better understand how these pollutants are getting into the environment and the impact they are having," she said of microplastics.
"So, the technology we are developing — Ascension, which is a sampling device, but we are also working on detectors and sensors that can sense microplastics in real-time in the environment — those technologies have the potential to accelerate the rate at which we can gather quality data and essentially get us to solutions quicker."
She said there is an urgent need to act on plastic and microplastic pollution.
"Currently, our latest estimate indicates that almost 15-million metric tonnes of plastics are being admitted to the global ocean every year. By 2040, that number is estimated to triple... So we are excited to work focusing on the technical challenges of the problem and therefore informing the best mitigation strategies for microplastics pollution."
Ascension should be on the market in a couple of months.
To learn more, go to the company's website.
**Please note, this story has been corrected since it was first posted to say that "by 2040, that number is estimated to triple" not double as was originally said.
