SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — While the product may look strange, Dr. Michel Boudrias is leading a team of students at University of San Diego with what might be the future of ocean cleanup.
“It smells like a like a fish market,” undergraduate student Nikki Cardino says. “But like not one that you wanna buy any fish from!”
That stench is the smell of success, if you ask the group.
After months submerged in Mission Bay or off the coast, the boom turns from bright white to muggy brown, and is filled with microplastics, hydrocarbons, heavy metals like copper and arsenic, and even invasive species.
“It's one of the most effective ways of doing this,” Associate Professor of Environmental and Ocean Sciences at University San Diego Dr. Michel Boudrias says. “This is why the [Los Angeles] port and the marinas are very interested in working with us.”
Dr. Boudrias and his team of students is partnering with Earthwise to study how these sorbents can be a low-cost, and high-impact way to clean our water.
“It's about cleaning up the oceans, makes sense that you have surfers and marine scientists working together,” Dr. Boudrias says.
One of his students is Gunner Kolon, a Texas native and University of San Diego graduate student, who found his passion for the ocean after getting his license to scuba dive at 12.
“When I came to San Diego it was a perfect opportunity to dive deeper into that passion and learn more and get into projects just like this.” Kolon says.
And this project, the team believes is just the beginning.
“This is going to end up in ports all across the world eventually,” Cardino says. “This is something that's relatively inexpensive, it's accessible and I think that is a huge part of what is gonna make this project work.”
Unlike cheaper, overseas-made versions, Earthwise’s booms are made in the U.S.
“The most important and I think that makes it different is that we're not just putting it there and letting it happen,” Dr. Boudrias explains. “We've added the science piece.”
And for Dr. Boudrias, it’s about more than cleaning oceans, the research is also about building the next wave of ocean protectors and allowing students to become part of the larger San Diego ecosystem in the Blue Economy through workforce development.
“It’s a place for me to train my students and give them jobs and careers in the future,” Dr. Boudrias says.
