Fighting Ocean Pollution, One Research Kit at a Time
A new collaboration brings low-cost pollution monitoring to coastlines around the world.
Ocean ecosystems are facing a gauntlet of threats, from rising temperatures to microplastics, but one of the leading causes of ocean pollution is largely out of sight: nutrients. Over the past 50 years, the growth of farming, aquaculture, and coastal populations has meant more nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus flowing into the ocean.
Upward of 900 marine areas around the globe suffer from excessive nutrient enrichment, or eutrophication, which can lead to harmful algal blooms and low-oxygen dead zones that can wipe out marine ecosystems that coastal populations rely on for sustenance, tourism and recreation. Yet the full scale of the problem is unknown due to lack of data.
A two-year pilot project called GEM-in-a-Box aims to fill in the gaps through low-cost nutrient monitoring around the world, from Kenya to Malaysia to the Bahamas. GEM stands for Global Eutrophication Monitoring, and the initiative is led by Tula Foundation, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), and The Ocean Foundation in support of the Commonwealth Blue Charter Action Group on Ocean Observation. The GEM-in-a-Box pilot project received generous funding from Allen Family Philanthropies.