Microfibers of the Mediterranean

A consortium of bacteria form on the microfibers of the Mediterranean Sea, becoming "floating homes for bacteria". Maria Luiza Pedrotti, a CNRS researcher at the Villefranche-sur-Mer oceanography laboratory  has reported the presence of a pathogenic bacterium on the tiny textile fibers found in the deep blue sea. The Mediterranean is the most polluted sea in the world by microplastics. How long have you been studying this phenomenon? - Maria Luiza Pedrotti : I became interested in plastic pollution in the Mediterranean when in 2014 I participated in the Tara Mediterranean expedition of the Tara Ocean Foundation. Initially, my research at the Villefranche Oceanography Laboratory (LOV) focused mainly on zooplankton. But, during this six-month expedition, I was struck by the quantity of plastics that we brought up in our nets. Plastics often mixed with zooplankton.