Norwegian Maritime Museum presents awareness raising material designed by Archipelagos Institute on the breakdown of plastics in the seas, as part of the exhibition “Hope for the Ocean”.
This exhibition aims to raise public awareness on the problem of plastic pollution in the seas, a problem to which we all contribute! It is a fact that we live in the “era of plastic”, a time where plastics are consumed immensely and frequently disposed of irresponsibly to the natural environment, ending up in to our seas.
In contrast to what was believed until recently, the breakdown of plastics under the effect of UV radiation, salt and wave action can be very rapid- within only a few months (and not centuries). When they become in the form of invisible fibres, microplastics rapidly enter the food chain, and also reach our plates.
According to scientific publications of Archipelagos Institute, after the analysis of over 1200 samples of water, marine sediment, fish, invertebrates, from throughout the Greek seas, the dispersal of microplastic fibres is really worrying: only one out of the 1200 samples did not contain any microplastic fibres.
Archipelagos’ contribution to the exhibition “Hope for the Ocean” in Oslo, Norway, is recognition of the many years of our efforts in raising awareness but also combating this complex problem!
