This year, the ICBM supported the litter-collecting event on the small island of Mellum, which is organized annually by the Mellum Council, the custodian of the bird island. Two research boats of the ICBM, OTZUM and ZEPHYR, in the early morning hours of August 5 carried more than 40 voluntary helpers near to the shore line of the island in the Jade bay orifice.

“Macroplastics“ spokesperson Prof. Dr. Jörg-Olaf Wolff, accompanied by the doctoral candidate Florian Hahner, were two ICBM representatives of the Oldenburg University hosted project around plastic litter in the North Sea, who were in on it, as well as Dr. Sibet Riexinger on behalf of the ICBM public relations.

The participants in the 2017 "spring cleaning" collected more than 14,000 plastic litter items this time, summing up to the huge volume of about 12 cubic metres. Besides the remains of fishing nets, the litter collectors picked up plastic drinking bottles and several other kinds of synthetic repositories such as a packaging tray for a drilling machine.