Seminar

Marine plastic pollution is recognized as one of the major environmental issues of the 21st century, as every year more than 8 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean (Geyer et al., 2017). Rivers have been identified as one major sources of plastic debris into the Ocean (LeBreton et al., 2017) but direct input from coastal cities, via runoff, is another source of plastic debris into the Ocean. Hong Kong is located near the Pearl River, one of the top five rivers in term of plastic input into the Ocean, however the Pearl River flows towards Hong Kong water only during summer months (May-September), generating a potential strong seasonality into the plastic input in Hong Kong waters. In this presentation, I will give an overview of the work done to monitor the plastic pollution observed in Hong Kong. I will detail the main processes that lead to the presence of microplastic in Hong Kong waters and how the marine organisms are impacted by their presence. Finally, I will explain the research gap which will help to move to a sustainable use of plastic material.