EPHEMARE

Full house at the at the European Parliament SEARICA conference Mission Ocean: Science and Innovation for a Healthy Ocean

MaREI’s EPHEMARE team Kathrin Kopke and Sophie Power travelled to Brussels to attend the SEARICA conference Mission Ocean: Science and Innovation for a Healthy Ocean on the 10^th of April 2018 at the European Parliament. The conference focused on discussing the issue of marine plastic pollution with international and cross-sectorial guests and coinciding with the Ocean Plastics Lab visit to the European Parliament as part of its travelling exhibition. The Invitation to this event and displays at the Parliament utilised an image submitted to the EPHEMARE photo-contest which was facilitated through MaREI.

EPHEMARE researchers from left to right: Camilla C. Carteny (University of Antwerp), Kathrin Kopke and Sophie Power (MaREI, University College Cork) at the European Parliament event.

Panel L-R: Olga Mironenko, founder of the award-winning start-up Holy Jelly; young Indonesian activist, Melati Wijsen, co-founder of Bye Bye Plastic Bags; James Honeyborne, award winning producer of the world renowned BBC Blue Planet 2 series; Gesine Meissner, German MEP and president of Searica; Signe Rasso, Deputy-General DG Research and Innovation; Michael Meister, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Ocean Plastics Lab

The Ocean Plastics Lab (OPL) exhibited in front of the European Parliament in Brussels from the 9^th to the 19^th of April 2018. The exhibition is a ‘hands-on’ lab, showcasing the contribution of science to understand and combat the problem of plastics in the ocean, with interactive installations, displays, and animations on loan from laboratories, research institutes and various other science and civil society partners worldwide. We were delighted to contribute images from the IMPACT2017 international microplastics photo contest, which was facilitated and implemented through MaREI.

We not only got the chance to visit and explore the exhibition in Brussels, but to directly engage with attendees of the SEARICA conference at the OPL at Container 3, which exhibits the EPHEMARE contributions.