Introduction
For the past three years, Sharla and this dedicated team
have been carrying out the first survey of microplastics in Icelandic waters at sea,
by using a filtering device called a manta trawl.
And then we throw it out, do we?
[Sharla] Why don’t we hold it from here?
[Alexander] Throw, then we delicately place it in the water, OK?
It’s rather a graceful thing, isn’t it?
– It is very graceful.
And it looks like a manta ray,
you know, with the mouth open so. – It does, it does.
– That’s where manta trawl comes from. – Yeah.
Depressingly, the team have been finding the area around Húsavík
has been seriously affected.
Microplastics
So what do the microplastics themselves do to whales?
– One of the concerns about plastic is that pollutants stick to plastic.
And so even though the whales can probably swallow microplastics
and because they have such a large digestive system get rid of it,
the pollutants stuck to the plastic, when they’re eating the plastic,
is then absorbed in to their body. – Right.
Scientists are concerned that these pollutants might cause infertility
and lead to whale populations declining.
So it’s imperative they know how much microplastic there is in the water.
First the trawl is hosed down to make sure nothing is left in the net.
Then the stuff that’s been caught is passed through two sieves,
one with holes just half a millimetre wide,
so even the smallest particles of plastic will be retained.
Then it’s time to examine our potentially deadly catch under the microscope.
There’s a reassuring bounty of these, these guys,
the plankton, not plankton, yes plankton.
– Yeah, zoo plankton. – Zoo plankton.
– The whales are here to eat these guys.
-It’s just hilarious isn’t it to think that the whales, these huge whales are eating this.
And they have to eat like one tonne of this a day.
Wow. Nothing particularly plasticky-looking here is there at this stage.
No. No. Just maybe this little suspicious film-looking piece.
– Yes. – Yeah, but so far,
it looks quite clean, which is great.
– That is good.
Whales
Well it’s a relief to see that the waters here today are plastic-free.
I just wish they weren’t being as whale-free as they seem to be at the moment.
I’ve never seen a whale.
I think today is going to be the day.
Oh, well, fingers crossed we see something.
Oh look, yes, something going on over there. Ah!
Look at that.
A pod of pilot whales is off the port side.
That’s left, isn’t it? Port? Yeah.
Wow, wow.
There’s tons of them.
Even the experts on board seem madly excited to see them.
They are almost never here.
And it’s actually the first time I see them, you know,
in the bay, and I’ve been here since 2014.
That’s just the most wonderful sound, isn’t it?
I don’t know, it’s like a… lots of people opening bottles of ginger beer.
Something like that.
I have now seen a whale! I have now seen a whale!
