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Regenerative Tides: Sailing for Solutions (ReTISS) : Impact assessment report, IMPETUS Citizen Science Initiative, June 2025 – January 2026
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Old fiberglass boats left to rot in the water can shed tiny fiberglass particles that shellfish like oysters and mussels absorb, meaning they could end up on our plates. This pilot project trained everyday volunteers to map abandoned boats and check shellfish tissue for these particles, showing that citizen scientists can help fill data gaps and push for better ocean pollution policies.
Abandoned and end-of-life glass-reinforced plastic (GRP, or fiberglass) boats are an under-recognised source of marine pollution. As hulls degrade, they release microfiberglass particles into coastal waters, where they can enter food webs through filter-feeding shellfish, with potential consequences for biodiversity, coastal livelihoods and human health. Although evidence of fiberglass ingestion by marine bivalves is growing, little publicly accessible, site-specific data exists on where derelict vessels are located and in what condition, a gap often cited as a barrier to policy action. This report assesses the scientific, social, environmental and political impacts of Regenerative Tides: Sailing for Solutions (ReTISS), a pilot citizen science initiative delivered during the IMPETUS Accelerator (June 2025 – January 2026) in Brittany (France) and the UK, with observations also contributed from Portugal. Using a structured protocol on the ArcGIS Survey123 and StoryMaps platforms, 32 citizen scientists contributed 77 georeferenced, photo-documented observations of abandoned vessels, published as an open, interactive map. In a school-based programme, students and teachers examined oyster and mussel gill tissue from the Goyen River estuary under the microscope for microplastic and fiberglass fragments, with input from a University of Brighton scientific advisor. The pilot was exploratory and not designed to be statistically representative, but it demonstrates that citizen-generated data can inform future research, monitoring and marine waste policy discussions. Five stakeholder events reached at least 370 participants. The report also maps contributions to Sustainable Development Goals 14, 4 and 5 and closes with practical recommendations for replicating community-led monitoring of end-of-life boats.
More Papers Like This
Regenerative Tides: Sailing for Solutions (ReTISS) : Impact assessment report, IMPETUS Citizen Science Initiative, June 2025 – January 2026
AI summary Read the abstract
Old fiberglass boats left to rot in the water can shed tiny glass fibers that shellfish absorb, and since we eat shellfish, this could be another way plastic-like particles get into our food. This pilot project trained everyday volunteers and students to map abandoned boats and check local oysters and mussels for these fibers, showing that citizen science can help fill data gaps and push for better ocean waste policies.
Understanding Microplastic Marine Pollution with Citizen Science Partnerships
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Researchers at the University of Washington Tacoma partnered with boat-based environmental education groups in Puget Sound to train citizen scientists to collect microplastic samples using modified manta nets. The study demonstrates how citizen science partnerships can expand the geographic coverage of environmental monitoring while raising public awareness of marine microplastic pollution.
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Researchers tested citizen science as a monitoring method for surface water microplastics in the Baltic Sea using a custom manta trawl aboard a sailing vessel, sampling at seven locations and finding microplastic concentrations from 0.45 to 1.98 MP/m², and evaluated the viability of integrating citizen science into large-scale MP monitoring programs.
Testing Kayakers as Citizen Scientists for monitoring microplastics in the coastal marine environment
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Researchers tested the feasibility of using kayakers as citizen scientists to monitor microplastics in coastal marine environments through the 'MicroPlastic Hunters Project' in Italy, equipping volunteers with mini-manta nets to collect nearshore surface water samples starting in March 2021. The project demonstrated that recreational water sports participants could effectively fill spatial monitoring gaps left by conventional research vessel-based methods.
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