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The Plastics Project
Our Plastics Project began in 2006 when PTMSC staff members, walking on the beach near our marine exhibit, discovered a large amount of small, colorless plastic pellets along the high tide line. 

They recognized them as pre-production plastic pellets, or “nurdles”, the starting material for making most of the plastics products we use daily. Carried around the world by freighter, these pellets frequently wash overboard and drift about on ocean surface.




Like other plastic debris in the ocean, these pellets are mistaken for food by marine life, where they contaminate food webs and cause a host of other problems, and like all plastics, they stick around forever.

Discovering nurdles on our "pristine" stretch of beach brought home to us the reality of plastics in local waters. Soon we were collaborating with the California-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which has been studying and teaching about the alarming accumulation of plastic in the North Pacific. We decided to begin an education program and to do research to learn about the extent of plastics contamination in the Puget Sound region.

A 2007 grant from Washington Department of Ecology helped us get the Plastics Project underway.

Find out about our Plastics Project activities on the pages below:


Plastics Education
Students dissect boli (regurgitated pellets) from albatross and discover where plastics in the ocean end up.
Beach Sampling
Citizen science volunteers sampling for micro-plastics on over 30 beaches around the US Salish Sea.
Gull Bolus Study
Do gulls on nesting on Protection Island ingest plastic? Learn about our study of plastics in gull boli.

Trawl Survey
More information to come....


What can we do?
We can all help reduce the impact of plastic on marine life by reducing our use of plastic. Try these ideas!
Plastics Summit
Learn about the recent gathering of citizens monitoring Puget Sound beaches for micro-plastics.

Visit the sites below to learn more about plastics in the ocean:

On pre-production plastic pellets, or "nurdles":
Trashed
International Pellet Watch

On plastic contamination in the oceans:
Algalita Marine Research Foundation
NOAA Marine Debris Program