Getting Ready To Launch!!

Project Kaisei Launches August 4th!!  More Will Come!

Pollution is one of the most ubiquitous and insidious problems currently facing the oceans. Synthetic materials, in particular, present a formidable hazard to marine life due to its abundance and inability to fully degrade. It is now estimated that 60-95% of marine litter consists of plastic polymers, a class of pollution that appears to be growing exponentially^{1, 2}. As this debris fragments, it becomes increasingly accessible to organisms that forage or absorb food particles.  In addition to physical blockage of the digestive system, ingested marine debris poisons organisms through a myriad of adsorbed lipophilic toxicants.  We now know that persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), and DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) are attracted to plastic resin pellets and plastic product fragments in concentrations up to 1 million times that of ambient seawater ^3-5. The need for action to correct this phenomenon is imminent considering the longevity of synthetic polymers and it’s long term ecological impacts on the food web .