FanPLesstic-sea team meeting in Finland 2019

The Fanplesstic-sea project team met for the second time in the end of September 2019. Main issues for the meeting was to discuss the progress and activities for the next project implementation period.

An excellent walk-through by the team from Aalborg University gave new clarifications on how to conduct the samples on microplastics, necessary preparation work and important things to consider before and when taking samples.

The Norwegian partner, SALT was the partner that conducted the first samples (except from Aalborg University) in the project and they shared their lessons learned from the samples taken in Norway in beginning of July. Further the meeting focused on the first draft of the report covering the existing research on microplastics presented by HELCOM where more information will be incorporated before the final version of the report will be published. Various capacity building and awareness raising initiatives were presented and shared among partners, there among the waste-collecting-day arranged by the Russian partner, ECAT and their participation in Russian TV channel to highlight the need to understand and be aware of microplastics and how the general public can contribute to decreasing the levels of microplastics and plastics in the environment.

The meeting was coordinated by LUKE, Natural Resources Institute Finland and was held in the university area in Espoom outside Helsinki. Part of the meeting was also a networking evening with various Finnish stakeholders involved in microplastics with aim to share ideas and to support a better research and awareness on microplastics.

All partners attended the meeting and the dates for the next project meeting is not yet confirmed.