EDMERP Details

General

Project Title

SeaCleaner

Project Acronym

SeaCleaner

Project Reference

Associated programme

Start Date

2013-01-01T00:00:00

End Date

Geographic Area

Geocoverage

Sea Area

Tyrrhenian Sea

Observations

Data Theme

Environment

Chemical oceanography

Description

Abstract

SeaCleaner is a Citizen Science project, the result of an idea by CNR-ISMAR and INGV, which deals with the problem of anthropogenic waste in the marine environment. The problem of plastic in the sea is a growing problem which, in recent years, has received increasing political, media, social and scientific attention. Among the many research projects dealing with this problem is the SeaCleaner Project, a citizen science project born in 2013 thanks to an idea by Silvia Merlino of the CNR-ISMAR (Institute of Marine Sciences) and the collaboration with INGV (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) of La Spezia. Since the early years, the project has seen numerous collaborations with research bodies and institutions (DLTM, ENEA, CNR-ICCOM, UNIPI) and associations (ToScience, Marevivo LIPU and Legambiente). In recent years, however, stable collaborations have been created with some research institutes, including the Institute of Clinical Physiology, the Institute for Bioeconomy and the Institute for Chemical-Physical Processes, all three of the CNR, and with the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Piedmont, Liguria and Valle d'Aosta. The focus of the project is to obtain information on the presence, distribution, quantity and typology and impact of anthropogenic wastes in the marine environment, one of the emerging environmental problems of the last decades, especially in isolated or protected coastal areas. In SeaCleaner this problem is faced from different points of view: -through monitoring dedicated to the classification and quantification of anthropogenic marine waste accumulated in coastal areas, and to the study of the accumulation dynamics of marine litter. These monitoring and studies are performed both according to the standard manual collection and classification protocols (Merlino et al., 2015, 2016, 2018 and Giovacchini et al., 2018), and often with the help of volunteers and students (citizen science) , which by means of innovative technologies, such as that of aerial drones; - through experiments aimed at studying how the effective degradation of commonly used materials and plastics, both standard and biodegradable or compostable, proceeds in a marine environment on the surface, at depth, and in a simulated beach environment; - through further experiments that allow tracing and following the routes that the waste takes once it leaves the rivers (considered to be the main vectors for the release of anthropogenic waste into the sea), and therefore understand what the conditions and conditions are in the different areas studied the main areas of accumulation of such debris; - through education and dissemination, two important and priority tools to ensure that the knowledge acquired in the field of research can be transformed into awareness of the problem by everyone, and therefore translate into appropriate behaviors and actions aimed at preventing and reduce these problems. Since 2013, the SeaCleaner project has involved about 3,500 students, researchers and volunteer citizens in monitoring anthropogenic marine waste (in English "Anthropogenic Marine Debris" or AMD) that are found stranded on our coasts. The logo of the project itself was created by high school students engaged in a school-work alternation internship in 2014 (Merlino et al., 2015).

Project website

https://sites.google.com/view/seacleaner/home-page

Originators

Coordinator

CNR, Institute of Marine Sciences S.S. of Lerici (SP)

Contact name

Silvia Merlino

Fax

+39 0187 970585

E-mail

sdc@sp.ismar.cnr.it

Other Partners

CNR, Institute of Marine Sciences S.S. of Lerici (SP)

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Geomagnetism, Aeronomy and Environmental Geophysics Department

Administration

Local identifier

2790

Creation Date

2023-04-03

Revision Date

2023-04-03