Abstract
Since January 2019, the Saint Stanislaus (SSC) Marine Science program has worked with the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, University of Texas at Austin, in a global citizen scientist research project. The project focuses on the pollution epidemic regarding microplastics, specifically nurdles. Nurdles are small pieces of plastic that are the raw materials for larger plastics. Nurdles are often found washed up on the shores in the Gulf of Mexico region, as well as the rest of the world. Marine organisms mistake nurdles for food resulting in the absorbtion of toxic chemicals which can biomagnify through the food chain. The purpose of this research project is to bring awareness of this environmental issue, pinpoint their locations, and to prevent their spread throughout the Gulf of Mexico. SSC focuses on the beaches of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Marine Science classes conduct surveys on a regular basis, spending 10 - 20 minutes searching for and picking up nurdles in the strandline. After each survey, nurdles are counted and the data is submitted monthly to the Nurdle Patrol website. This data is then utilized at the state and national level in hopes to prevent further spread of nurdle pollution and to hold those manufacturers accountable for loss of these pollutants. Daily counts of nurdles found on our beaches have ranged anywhere from 20 nurdles per class to over 1,500. At the beginning of last school year, our total was 14,791 nurdles. Today, it is over 35,000 nurdles. Although a large number, it is only a fraction of the number of nurdles being spilled around the world. A recent spill in the Mississippi River near New Orleans contained 743 million nurdles. SSC is monitoring this to further understand the rate at which nurdles spread throughout the Gulf region.
