Hello!
We have completed our mission to clean the beach Vinha d’Areia close to our marina on the 13th of November!
Our team and two more guests from our morning tour got together on the field to strike the trash that was brought there by winds and currents.
We removed five bags of plastic debris, mainly mesoplastic fragments (around 5 mm) or larger pieces. Small particles such as mesoplastics or microplastics are generally the result of the breakdown of larger plastic objects. They are the most dangerous as they are more difficult to see and remove, and once into the sea they get mistaken for food by ocean wildlife. Plastic can occlude the stomach of animals and release toxic compounds already present in the material itself or bound by affinity during its endless journey in our environment. These dangerous substances accumulate in the bodies of animals (and humans!) along the food-chain through a process called biomagnification. Just to give you an idea, a recent study found that we ingest an amount of plastic equivalent in weight to a credit card every week!
Clearly, removing plastics from our environment is a necessary step but will never solve this problem at its roots. We MUST reduce as much as possible plastic use, if not totally eliminate it from our daily life. We know, it is not an easy challenge, but stay tuned as we will soon provide some tips to help you in this mission! 🙂
Your thoughts on this?