Illustration of a beach shoreline that shows piles of trash peeking through the cream and brown colored sand. The text located on top of the illustration, over the light blue sky, reads, “What comes to mind when you hear about plastic pollution? You may think of plastic bags, straws, and wrappers littering a beach.”

Socks, food, and the ocean—they all have one thing in common: microplastics.

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To tackle the microplastic pollution problem, researchers and policy experts from the Aquarium and @mbari-blog created an open-source library dedicated to helping researchers trace these tiny culprits back to their source. Check out the webcomic below to learn more!

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A convoy of orange and gray garbage trucks drive from the left hand side of this illustration to the right. Each truck is overloaded with garbage and from the truck in the center, a large cloud of fumes cover s the upper third of the illustration. The text located over the fumes reads, “Every 40 seconds, a garbage truck full of plastics enters our ocean and begins to break down into tiny particles called microplastics.” The source for this info is cited at the bottom of the illustration.ALT
Figure of a person drinking from a cup with a straw covers the left side of the image. The human respiratory system as well as the stomach and liver are illustrated over the figure’s t-shirt, noting how microplastics are entering the person’s body as she drinks from the cup. On the lower right hand side, there’s isolated illustrations of a salad, burger and fries, as well as a can of beans. The text on the upper right corner reads, “These microplastics show up everywhere – they’re present in our food, drink, and even inside our bodies.”ALT
An animated illustration of a diver underwater observing a bright red kelp crab that is standing on a long string of golden yellow giant Kelp. A polka dot-like pattern gently appears and disappears on the illustration, showcasing falling marine snow (in white dots) and microplastics (in dark pink dots). The exhaled bubbles from the diver’s diving mask turn into a speech bubble, located on the upper right corner of the illustration. The text on the speech bubble reads, “In the ocean, you can find microplastics in every habitat – including some hidden in plain sight.”ALT
In a laboratory setting, two researchers with bright blue lab coats interact with each other next to a Raman Spectroscopy laser machine. One researcher is entering the frame from the right hand side, while the other researcher is standing farther away on the left hand side and closer to the laser machine. The blue text box above the figures reads, “ Cue the Aquarium research heroes and policy pals that are entangling the mystery of how these plastics end up everywhere.”ALT
An illustration of a large magnifying glass is hovered over cream and brown colored sand at the beach, highlighting microplastic in white, orange, and blue colors. There’s circles with question marks pointing to each patch of particles while a cream-colored text box on the upper left hand side reads, “Together with our friends at MBARI, they created a library to identify different kinds of microplastics.”ALT
Similarly designed as the illustration in the previous panel, this time the question marks pointing to the microplastics reveal that each colored particle originated from an item. The question marks in each circle are replaced with a single-use take out box, a pair of socks, and a smartphone. The text on the upper left corner of the illustration reads, “This free and open-access resource allows scientists to connect the dots between microplastics waste that they find in the environment and its original source.”ALT
Two figures are illustrated in business suits walking towards the U.S. Congress building. One figure is located closer to us on the left hand side – she is holding a stack of papers in her right hand and looking at the person in the center that is walking closer to the steps of the U.S. Congress building. The text in the gray-colored text box on the upper right corner reads “Policymakers can use this knowledge to help tackle plastic at the source.”ALT
Standing on the same beach site as illustrated in the first panel, two scientists in white coats are facing the beach while holding a clipboard and tablet, analyzing the data they have gathered. The text on the upper left corner reads, “Tools like this resource library can help us as we work together to solve global issues.”ALT

You can read more about the library on our website. Together we can take down plastic pollution! 💙🌍

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