Professor Martin Hassellöv joining in as Science Advisor
Welcoming Professor Martin Hassellöv from the Department of Marine Science at the University of Gothenburg as “Science Advisor” is a true milestone for the project. Our 2000 Nautical Mile journey is being offered as a vessel for scientific research projects to Universities and scientific institutions. Martin accepted an invitation and generously joined the project to help us collect data in a scientific manner and to assist us with valuable competence and guidance.
“I see this as an interesting Citizen Science opportunity. Bjorn and his crew are planning for a unique journey, passing through three sensitive bodies of water, seven countries, and thousands of nautical miles in a “clean” boat with no fossil fuel, no exhaust, and a biocide-free coating. This gives us a unique opportunity to collect valuable data and observations – trawl for microplastics, sampling water pollution as well as collecting data and experiences from new innovative energy sources – hydropower via the propeller and solar energy via textile solar panels in the sails.” Martin Hassellöv
SAILING FOR SCIENCE – HRIMFARE EXPEDITIONS
Martin is also a skipper and originator of Hrimfare Expeditions – performed from a Challenge 67’ sailing yacht with the primary objective to be a platform for marine scientists to communicate their knowledge about the state of the sea. In addition, Hrimfare will be an ambassadorship for good environmental boating technologies, to minimize the environmental and carbon footprint of its operations.
Hrimfare was in 2014 accepted by the UN as an official flagship for their campaign SafePlanet, where marine plastic debris and environmental contaminants was communicated.
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MORE ABOUT MARTIN
Martin Hassellöv leads the research group on marine environmental nanochemistry, studying marine pollution in its solid form, from the nanometer scale to the ecosystem level. The marine environment is subjected today to multiple stressors, including ocean acidification, climate change, overfishing, and pollution. The pollutants may consist of molecular contaminants, but also in solid forms. The solid forms of marine pollution include objects that are very real, such as the massive plastic pollution of the oceans, including the smallest particles; the so-called micro-plastic, but also synthetic nanoparticles. Today we know that microplastics (<5 mm) are found in all sea basins, in deep-sea sediments, in isolated mountain lakes, and even embedded in Arctic sea ice. In addition, microplastics are found in hundreds of different species of marine life including seabirds, fish, and mammals. The extent to which synthetic nanoparticles involve or could involve an environmental impact is the focus of intensive research. Knowledge of nanoparticles occurrence, their environmental properties, and toxicities was limited by major analytical challenges, which is one of the core activities of our research group, which has a unique set of instruments for the analysis and characterization of contaminant particles from the nano to the millimeter scale in real environmental samples.
