Until now, plastic contamination in Australian waters was mostly inferred from beach clean-up reports. There was no at-sea survey focused on sampling plastic debris in waters around this country.
I wanted to fill this gap. During my PhD research, I went on seven transit voyages aboard three Australian vessels: RV Southern Surveyor, RV Solander, and Comac Enterprise.
During these trips, I used a net called Manta Net to catch floating plastics at the ocean surface.
Small fragments of hard plastic were the most common type, but soft plastics, such as fragments of wrappers, and strings (mostly fishing lines) were also common.