The University of Malta, through the Oceanography Malta Research Group within the Department of Geosciences, recently hosted a beach demonstration of an innovative tool the group have developed through the ANDROMEDA project. The tool in question combines the use of citizen science as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) in order to enable the reporting and recovery of microplastics on beaches by engaged citizens, thus assisting both research-related efforts as well as ocean literacy and beach management ones, in line with the UN’s Ocean Sciences Decade (2021-2030).
The demonstration event held earlier this week at the beach at Rinella wanted to showcase with primary stakeholders the innovative ANDROMEDA tool being developed through the project. The event was attended by Environment Minister Miriam Dalli, by students from the St. Monica (B’kara) secondary school (who partook in the beach microplastic exercise themselves) as well as by representatives from the various ANDROMEDA project partners, by representatives from the Malta Tourism Authority (the MTA) as well as by a number of environmental NGOs, including Nature Trust (Malta), Zibel and Sharklab. The ANDROMEDA project tool adds to the other citizen science tools already operated by the Oceanography group, namely the Spot the Jellyfish and the Spot the Alien Fish ones.
The digital tool in question revolves around the use of an algorithm, developed by Dr. Adam Gauci and Prof. Alan Deidun and published in the Ocean and Coastal Management which extracts in an automated fashion a number of microplastic parameters from photos submitted by citizens participating in the campaign. The Oceanography team have produced a short video clip on showcasing the standard technique to be followed in order to extract microplastics from the beach. The same team, through ANDROMEDA project funds, will be donating a number of microplastic extraction packs to beach supervisors operating on Blue Flag beaches (notably, Golden Bay and Mellieha Bay) as part of beach management efforts by the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA). The public can ask to avail itself of such packs by approaching any of the supervisors themselves so as to participate in the ANDROMEDA microplastic citizen science campaign.
Once the microplastics have been extracted on the beach, they need to be positioned on a laminated sheet of paper sporting the campaign’s specific QR code and photographed by means of a WIFI-enabled tablet or mobile phone. The web-based system, which will be hosted in an app as well in the coming months, will then run the algorithm and provide the citizen scientist with metrics about the extracted microplastics, besides plotting the report on a map of the Maltese Islands. Along with the borrowed extraction kits, the extracted microplastics can then be deposited with the beach supervisors, who will be equipped with the necessary containers so that the same microplastics are removed from the environment. Besides Prof. Deidun, who acts as Principal Investigator (PI) on the ANDROMEDA project and Dr. Adam Gauci, other staff within the Oceanography Marine Research Group who assisted in the organisation of the event in question include Mr. Johann Galdies, Mr. Edward Sultana and Mr. Rami Kalfouni.
The University’s Communications Office prepared a short demonstrative for social media covering the salient aspects of the beach event . The JPI Oceans-funded ANDROMEDA project brings together a multidisciplinary consortium of 15 international partners to improve the quantification of Nano plastics and microplastics in our oceans and seas. ANDROMEDA will develop new sampling and advanced analysis methodologies that focus on smaller microplastic (< 10 μm) and Nano plastic (<0.2μm) particles to enable improved risk assessment of plastic pollution, along with in situ techniques and cost-effective measurement methods for improving the efficacy and efficiency of microplastic monitoring.
- Development of an instrument platform for in situ and cost-effective analysis of microplastics
- The advanced characterisation of Nano plastics and microplastic materials and for accelerated microplastic degradation, and
- The characterisation of microplastic degradation.
