On Åland, the seasons change quickly and vividly. In summer, the nights never really grow dark as the sun hovers just below the horizon. Only a few months later, autumn creeps in and softly cloaks the island in darkness again. The rhythm of the seasons is mirrored by the biological station itself; researchers, professors, and students arrive and depart, bringing with them microscopes, incubators, mesocosms, and field gear to study the local flora and fauna peaking in the mid of summer.
This year’s GAME project is the final chapter of a series of studies on light pollution. Together, we, Pauline & Linus, are studying the effects of artificial light at night (ALAN) on epiphytic filamentous algae. Like the GAME site in Japan, Akkeshi, the biological station Husö here on Åland experiences very little light pollution, making it an ideal place to investigate this subject.
We started our journey at the end of April 2025, just as the islands were waking up from winter. The trees were still bare, the mornings frosty, and the streets quiet. Pauline, a Marine Biology Master’s student from the University of Algarve in Portugal, arrived first and was welcomed by Tony Cederberg, the station manager. Spending the first night alone on the station was unique before the bustle of the project began.
Linus, a Marine Biology Master’s student at Åbo Akademi University in Finland, joined the next day. Husö is the university’s field station and therefore Linus has been here for courses already. However, he was excited to spend a longer stretch at the station and to make the place feel like a second home.
Our first days were spent digging through cupboards and sheds, reusing old materials and tools from previous years, and preparing the frames used by GAME 2023. We chose Hamnsundet as our experimental site, (i.e. the same site that was used for GAME 2023), which is located at the northeast of Åland on the outer archipelago roughly 40 km from Husö. We got permission to deploy the experiments by the local coast guard station, which was perfect. The location is sheltered from strong winds, has electricity access, can be reached by car, and provides the salinity conditions needed for our macroalga, Fucus vesiculosus, to survive.
To assess the conditions at the experimental site, we deployed a first set of settlement panels in late April. At first, colonization was slow; only a faint biofilm appeared within two weeks. With the water temperature being still around 7 °C, we decided to give nature more time. Meanwhile, we collected Fucus individuals and practiced the cleaning and the standardizing of the algal thalli for the experiment. Scraping epiphytes off each thallus piece was fiddly, and agreeing on one method was crucial to make sure our results would be comparable to those of other GAME teams.
By early May, building the light setup was a project in itself. Sawing, drilling, testing LEDs, and learning how to secure a 5-meter wooden beam over the water. Our first version bent and twisted until the light pointed sideways instead of straight down onto the algae. Only after buying thicker beams and rebuilding the structure, we finally got a stable and functional setup that could withstand heavy rain and wind. The day we deployed our first experiment at Hamnsundet was cold and rainy but also very rewarding!
Outside of work, we made the most of the island life. We explored Åland by bike, kayak, rowboat, and hiking, visited Ramsholmen National Park during the ramson/ wild garlic bloom, and hiked in Geta with its impressive rock formations and went out boating and fishing in the archipelago. At the station on Husö, cooking became a social event: baking sourdough bread, turning rhubarb from the garden into pies, grilling and making all kind of mushroom dishes. These breaks, in the kitchen and in nature, helped us recharge for the long lab sessions to come.
Every two weeks, it was time to collect and process samples. Snorkeling to the frames, cutting the Fucus and the PVC plates from the lines, and transferring each piece into a freezer bag became our routine. Sampling one experiment took us 4 days and processing all the replicates in the lab easily filled an entire week. The filtering and scraping process was even more time-consuming than we had imagined. It turned out that epiphyte soup is quite thick and clogs filters fastly. This was frustrating at times, since it slowed us down massively.
Over the months, the general community in the water changed drastically. In June, water was still at 10 °C, Fucus carried only a thin layer of diatoms and some very persistent and hard too scrape brown algae (Elachista). In July, everything suddenly exploded: green algae, brown algae, diatoms, cyanobacteria, and tiny zooplankton clogged our filters. With a doubled filtering setup and 6 filtering units, we hoped to compensate for the additional growth.
However, what we had planned as “moderate lab days” turned into marathon sessions. In August, at nearly 20 °C, the Fucus was looking surprisingly clean, but on the PVC a clear winner had emerged. The panels were overrun with the green alga Ulva and looked like the lawn at an abandoned house. Here it was not enough to simply filter the solution, but bigger pieces had to be dried separately. In September, we concluded the last experiment with the help of Sarah from the Cape Verde team, as it was not possible for her to continue on São Vicente, the Cape Verdean island that was most affected by a tropical storm. Our final experiment brought yet another change into community now dominated by brown algae and diatoms. Thankfully our new recruit, sunny autumn weather, and mushroom picking on the side made the last push enjoyable.
By the end of summer, we had accomplished four full experiments. The days were sometimes exhausting but also incredibly rewarding. We learned not only about the ecological effects of artificial light at night, but also about the very practical side of marine research; planning, troubleshooting, and the patience it takes when filtering a few samples can occupy half a day.
From Desert to Seafloor
Fig. 1) team Strata That Matta: Victoria C., Maeghan D., Maddie B., Vale B. (from left to right)
The months leading up to OCEAN CORE Academy were filled with another type of adventure for me, surveying the badlands of New Mexico in search of dinosaur bones. Yet, my work in the Gulf Coast Repository consisted of examining ocean cores using a microscope. Although these experiences couldn’t be any more different, the two were similar in that each attempted to answer the same question: what did Earth look like in the past?
I focus much of my research on vertebrate paleontological and geological fieldwork, such as prospecting for fossils, measuring strata, or describing ancient paleoenvironments and faunal assemblages. While I knew about microfossils, I had not fully grasped how much geological history is present in them.
Fig. 2) fieldwork, NM (May 2026)
History Through a Microscope
This leads me to one of the most memorable parts of OCEAN CORE Academy, learning to prepare smear slides and identify what existed within the ocean cores. Ocean sediments are fairly recent in that they have not yet been lithified, each layer represents tens to hundreds of years of depositions onto the seafloor. What I looked at was much deeper!
It was a momentous occasion when I first saw a radiolarian beneath the microscope! These tiny fossilized organisms provide surprisingly detailed insights into ancient environments. The conditions in which different groups of microfossils thrive vary, but by tracking how they fluctuate between layers, we can reconstruct climatic shifts over geologic time.
Team Strata That Matta correlated a transition from calcareous to siliceous ooze layers with a cooling climate!
Fig. 3) my first time seeing microfossils
Fig. 4) radiolarian Fig. 5) coccolithophores Fig. 6) sponge spiccules
Bringing OCA Back to AZ
Upon my return to Arizona, I will carry this new perspective with me. As I move forward with future projects and field seasons in New Mexico, volunteer at the Arizona Museum of Natural History, and pursue my degree, the skills I developed here will prove to be invaluable for strengthening my own research.
Prior to attending OCEAN CORE Academy I viewed microfossils as existing, yet somewhat separate from my projects. This place has challenged that perspective. I came to understand that many of the most detailed records of Earth’s past are the microfossils hidden within a single grain of sediment!
Fig. 7) class of OCA 2026
Written by OCA 2026 student, Maddie Baare
From Desert to Seafloor
Fig. 1) team Strata That Matta: Victoria C., Maeghan D., Maddie B., Vale B. (from left to right)
The months leading up to OCEAN CORE Academy were filled with another type of adventure for me, surveying the badlands of New Mexico in search of dinosaur bones. Yet, my work in the Gulf Coast Repository consisted of examining ocean cores using a microscope. Although these experiences couldn’t be any more different, the two were similar in that each attempted to answer the same question: what did Earth look like in the past?
I focus much of my research on vertebrate paleontological and geological fieldwork, such as prospecting for fossils, measuring strata, or describing ancient paleoenvironments and faunal assemblages. While I knew about microfossils, I had not fully grasped how much geological history is present in them.
Fig. 2) fieldwork, NM (May 2026)
History Through a Microscope
This leads me to one of the most memorable parts of OCEAN CORE Academy, learning to prepare smear slides and identify what existed within the ocean cores. It was a momentous occasion when I first saw a radiolarian beneath the microscope!
Before, I had been hunting for fossils measured in centimeters/meters, but now I am studying those measured in micrometers. These tiny fossilized organisms provide surprisingly detailed insights into ancient environments. The conditions in which different groups of microfossils thrive vary, but by tracking how they fluctuate between layers, we can reconstruct climatic shifts over geologic time.
Using these changing microfossil assemblages, my team correlated a transition from calcareous to siliceous ooze layers with a cooling climate!
Fig. 3) my first time seeing microfossils
Fig. 4) radiolarian Fig. 5) coccolithophores Fig. 6) sponge spiccules
Bringing OCA Back to AZ
Upon my return to Arizona, I will carry this new perspective with me. As I move forward with future projects and field seasons in New Mexico, volunteer at the Arizona Museum of Natural History, and pursue my degree, the skills I developed here will prove to be invaluable for strengthening my own research.
Prior to attending OCEAN CORE Academy I viewed microfossils as existing, yet somewhat separate from my projects. This place has challenged that perspective. I came to understand that many of the most detailed records of Earth’s past are the microfossils hidden within a single grain of sediment!
Fig. 7) class of OCA 2026
Written by OCA 2026 student, Maddie Baare
I have been studying plastic pollution for more than a decade. I’ve analyzed hundreds of samples in labs, pored over data and spent years thinking hard about where plastics go once they leave our hands and enter the environment. I love doing work on the water—this was a big part of my previous professional roles in Alaska and in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands.
And here’s where it took me! I was thrilled to have the opportunity to join the first leg of eXXpedition’s voyage in the South Pacific this past spring, trading my lab coat for a lifejacket to study microplastics at sea. Sailing from Auckland, New Zealand, to the Bay of Islands aboard the 70-foot research vessel Wind Shift over 10 days, our crew of 12 women conducted ocean water-surface sampling via manta tow nets (a long cone-shaped mesh net), cleaned up debris on remote beaches and examined city streets with measuring tapes and field equipment. Our purpose? To collect key data to help us better understand the flow of plastics from land to sea.
Our all-female guest crew—hence the XX in “eXXpedition”—brought aboard expertise from the fields of structural engineering, circular economy strategy, sustainable fashion, plastics research, robotics and more. Together, we represented a remarkable cross-section of disciplines united around a shared concern for the health of our ocean.
Seeing it with my own eyes
We found plastics of all shapes and sizes everywhere we went—in the city streets of Auckland, while crossing the Hauraki Gulf and even at Aotea Great Barrier Island (one of the most remote and protected stretches of New Zealand’s coastline). Our ocean is vast and some of these places felt far removed from the centers of human activity, but this eXXpedition was a good reminder that plastic doesn’t respect remoteness. It moves, accumulates and shows up where we least expect.
Working alongside local NGO Sustainable Coastlines, we arrived on a remote stretch of beach on Aotea Great Barrier Island to audit and clean up any plastics we came across. What we found there told the same story our Auckland street surveys did: We found bottle caps, food packaging, fragments, plastic pellets and fishing debris. The everyday materials of modern life—but weathered, broken and scattered.
Science at sea
One of my favorite parts of the voyage (which was also one of the most challenging, if I’m being honest!) was the sea-surface manta trawl analyses we did onboard. I found out quickly that sorting microplastics from krill-laden seawater samples under a microscope while sailing is not for the faint of stomach.
The most common plastic culprit we found in those samples? Microplastic fibers. This type of microplastic is no wider than a human hair and is the most common type of microplastic found in the environment. Microplastic fibers can come from a variety of sources like cigarette butts, weathered ropes or wet wipes, but actually, most microplastic fibers shed from synthetic clothing and textiles. Laundering is a major source— shockingly, a single load of laundry can generate up to 18 million microfibers.
And yet, we found these tiny plastic fibers floating in the ocean many miles away from the nearest washing machine.
In my lab research, I have found microplastic fibers time and time again, but there’s something even more sobering about hand-picking them out of a seawater sample collected from pristine-looking waters. It was a good reminder of why understanding where plastic comes from, how it moves and where it ends up is so critical to addressing the problem at its roots.
Filter Out NSFW Microplastics
What I’m bringing back
Studying plastic pollution from the deck of a boat in some of the most remote waters in the Southern Hemisphere made me appreciate the work I do even more. It also made me appreciate how important people are in this giant puzzle of plastic pollution solutions. The plastic pollution crisis is a human problem, and solving it requires all of us. The courage and dedication of the women I shared those 10 days with is something I won’t forget. Going to sea, doing the science and pushing through discomfort to collect data that matters was not easy. We were seasick some days and exhilarated others. Despite that fact, we showed up for it fully, every day.
The plastic is out there, even in far-flung corners of the ocean. And the answer is not to be paralyzed by that fact, but to use it as fuel. Every sample we collected is now a data point in a larger story about where plastic comes from and where it goes. Every cleanup, every surface trawl, every street block walked and every hour spent at a microscope are parts of building the evidence base that informs policies, regulations and systems-level changes that can actually turn this crisis around.
Cleaning up beaches and coastlines is valuable and necessary work. But we also must stop plastic from entering the ocean in the first place—through stronger policy, better product design and real investment in waste management infrastructure everywhere. Luckily, when it comes to the most common microplastics in the ocean— microplastic fibers—there is already an effective, affordable solution to immediately reduce microplastics coming from our laundry by roughly 90%: washing machine filters. These filters act just like laundry lint filters in our dryers, capturing fibers in tightly-woven mesh and effectively preventing them from leaving our homes and leaking into the environment.
What can you do?
There’s no better time to tackle plastic pollution than right now, during Plastic Free July
! Take two minutes to add your name and call on your elected leaders to combat those pesky, dangerous microfibers that are pouring into our ocean daily—like the ones I found from my samples at sea. Together, we can stop plastic pollution at the source and protect our ocean forever and for everyone.
My biggest takeaways from this experience? People are remarkable. Our ocean is remarkable. And our ocean is worth fighting for, including from 70 feet of sailing vessel in the South Pacific, staring down a microscope with a pair of tweezers and a queasy stomach.
The eXXpedition South Pacific I voyage ran from April 27 to May 6, 2026, sailing from Auckland to the Bay of Islands. Learn more about the research team and our itinerary at https://exxpedition.com/voyage/auckland-to-bay-of-islands/.
The post Microplastic Pollution Research at Sea appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
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