When we design scientific instruments, we think of about users that are scientists with degrees in well-funded institutions, but also rural Newfoundlanders, who also have research questions and a right to answer them. To this end, we have several guidelines for how we design and build our tools.
The P.E.T. is a do-it-yourself ocean plastic monitoring device based on filtering plastics through a mesh bag containing textured balls constructed out of materials easily found in household settings.
Your can use beach clean ups to create data about local marine macroplastics. This protocol uses the Marine Debris Tracker so data goes into a public data set that scientists can use.
Created with baby’s tights, soda pop bottles, and other inexpensive and easy to find materials, #Babylegs can be used to trawl for floating marine plastics by hand or from a vessel.
The P.E.D. R.O.C. is a shoreline microplastic sampling instrument specifically designed to be used on rocky coastlines, a terrain which is very prevalent in Newfoundland.
