Plastic Tides Science- Trawl Design
Plastic Tides is actively involved in sampling microbeads in the water. On our first expedition in Bermuda, we used a trawl designed by the Plastic Ocean Project that is dragged behind a boat to sample the floating microbeads. As we used the trawl behind our man-powered paddle boards, we found it to be quite challenging.
We now have a new design, using PVC pipes, net, rope, bolts and rods. Our design is such that the front of the pontoons rises above the water to facilitate the drag.
pipe cutting
final trawl assembly with our Plastic Tides Youth Internship interns
GoPro Shot from the trawl itself. This is how we trawl for microbeads that are floating on the surface of the water. Our two interns are paddling in synchrony to pull the trawl forward while the others are collecting data:
Rainbow, one of our interns is taking environmental data such as date, time, coordinates (start & finish), wind speed, water temperature, water clarity (with a secchi disk)
