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Micro-Plastics in Southwest Florida Waters

Oregon State University
Micro-Plastic

By now you’ve probably heard of the giant patch of plastics floating in the Pacific Ocean, and things like micro-beads from cosmetics turning up in waterways, and the animals that inhabit them - you may even have seen reports about a plastic bag turning up in the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench. While its durability is one of things that makes plastic so useful, it’s also what’s turning out to make it so dangerous - it can take centuries for some plastic materials to degrade, and more and more of it is winding up in the environment. We’re localizing the issue with new data collected by the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program. It’s been using citizen scientists to collect some baseline information on where micro-plastics can be found in waters across southwest Florida. We’re joined by its executive director, Jennifer Hecker.

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.