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Blue Dot: Microplastics in the marine environment

Zeke Spooner (top) with team members sampling tide pools at Bodega Marine Lab.
UC Davis
Zeke Spooner (top) with team members sampling tide pools at Bodega Marine Lab.

Host Dave Schlom is joined by Zeke Spooner, a Ph.D student at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, to talk about microplastics.

They discuss the challenges in determining sources of plastics in the marine environment (note the brightly colored clothing above used to help identify clothing fiber contaminants) and how ubiquitous plastics are in ocean waters.

They talk about the ways microplastics get into even some of the most pristine waters and the marine organisms that live there. It's a fascinating look at plastic pollution, even an eye-opening discussion of how difficult it is to avoid it in your own home environment!

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.
Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.