Since 1996, the Northwest Pacific Region Environmental Cooperation Center (NPEC) has carried out several surveys of marine litter on beaches with citizens‘ participation under the framework of the Association of North East Asia Regional Governments (NEAR).
Recently, the ocean microplastic problem has worsened. With this background, NPEC developed a survey method for visual sampling of microplastics on beaches and compiled survey guidelines for conducting surveys with citizens. The method was released in March 2021 in five languages: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, and English.
From 2021, NPEC has publicized the guidelines widely. NPEC has been requesting the participation of NEAR member municipalities in Japan, Korea, and Russia to conduct a survey with these guidelines. The survey method described in detail in the guidelines counts the number of microplastics and sorts them by type, such as hard plastic, styrofoam, etc. NPEC wants to identify the current status of ocean microplastic pollution with this unified and detailed survey method.
It is highly recommended that the survey of marine microplastics is carried out as part of the environmental education for school students and wider public.
Further, NPEC plans to prepare a report of the survey results in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Russian and distribute it to related municipalities, organizations, and governmental organizations. The survey results will also be databased and made public. NPEC hopes it will help to raise peoples’ awareness of the marine environment.
Pictures: Taken by Tomoko Mori with NPEC
