Working Group 42: Indicators of Marine Plastic Pollution
Motivation and Goals:
Marine debris is increasingly recognized as a threat to biota in the ocean, and especially North Pacific and its marginal seas are reported as ‘hot spots’ for its abundance. However, organismal and non-organismal indicators, which are consistently available across the North Pacific region, for plastic pollution status and trend and ecological impacts are not established.
Terms of Reference
  1. To review pollution (e.g. abundance, distribution, composition, and potential impacts) across different size categories in the North Pacific and its marginal seas;
  2. To identify multiple organismal and non-organismal indicators of plastic pollution and its environmental impacts including associated chemicals in the North Pacific and its marginal seas;
  3. To recommend guidelines for monitoring environmental indicators and a target improvement goal for the established indicators;
  4. To convene a topic session and/or workshop on environmental indicators and impacts of plastic pollution and coordinate a special issue in an international peer-reviewed journal;
  5. Contribute to FUTURE by publishing a final report summarizing results of the Working Group deliberations.
Products
Annual Meetings

Reports

2023, 2021, 2020, 2019

Session and Workshop Summaries

PICES-2021:
S8, Using environmental indicators to assess baselines, targets, and risk of plastic pollution in the North Pacific

PICES-2019:
S7, Environmental indicators of plastic pollution in the North Pacific

Symposia and Meetings 
International Symposium on Plastics in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Region, March 2–4, 8–9, 2021, Reykjavik, Iceland

Global Microplastics Symposium, Virtual, April 13–15, 2021

Europe SETAC Annual Meeting, Virtual, May 3–6, 2021

3rd National Microplastic Conference of China, June 7–9, 2021, Qingdao, China

ICES ASC 2021, Virtual, September 6–10, 2021, ICES/PICES Theme Session J, Advances and challenges in marine litter pollution

The 7th International Marine Debris Conference, September 18–23, 2022, Busan, Korea
TS-1.2  The future of the science of monitoring
TS-2.12  Plastic transport monitoring from source to the marine environment
TS-2.13  Chemistry to understand quantities, sources, transport, fate, impacts, and solutions
TS-2.16 Mass and Material Balance Approach to Quantifying Plastic Flows
TS-2.17  Debris Accumulation in Wetlands: Sinks & Physical Impacts
TS-2.1  Ecological Risk Assessment Frameworks for Determining the Risk to Natural Resources from Marine Debris
TS-2.2  Inland to the Ocean: Evaluating Sources, Pathways, Fate and Transport from Upstream to Prevent Ocean Plastic
TS-2.4 Behavior and Fate of Nano- and Microplastics in the Atmosphere and Ocean
TS-3.5  Satellite and Airborne Remote Sensing of Marine and Coastal Litter
TS-8.14  Untangling: Innovative Solutions for Lost Fishing Gear Management
Journal Papers
Savoca, M.S., et al.
Towards a North Pacific Ocean long-term monitoring program for plastic pollution: A review and recommendations for plastic ingestion bioindicators.
Environmental Pollution, Vol. 310, 1 Oct. 2022, 119861

Uhrin, A.V., Hong, S., Burgess, H.K., Lim, S. and Dettloff, K.
Towards a North Pacific long-term monitoring program for ocean plastic pollution: A systematic review and recommendations for shorelines.
Environmental Pollution, Vol. 310, 1 Oct. 2022, 119862

Shim, W.J., Kim, S.K., Lee, J., Eo, S., Kim, J.S. and Sun, C.
Toward a long-term monitoring program for seawater plastic pollution in the north Pacific Ocean: Review and global comparison.
Environmental Pollution, Vol. 311, 15 Oct. 2022, 119911
FINAL PRODUCT
PICES Sci. Rep. No. 66
PICES Press
Summer 2021, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 14–16
The (Virtual) International Symposium on Plastics in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Regions
Related Materials
PICES-2018 SG-MMP Report
Study Group on Marine Microplastics

PICES Sci. Rep. No. 56, 2020
Report of Working Group 31 on Emerging Topics in Marine Pollution

PICES Sci. Rep. No. 46, 2014
Report of the Study Group on Marine Pollutants
WG-42 PICES Members as of December 2024
Dr. Sarah Dudas
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Pacific Biological Station
3190 Hammond Bay Rd.
Nanaimo, BC
Canada V9T 6N7
Sarah.Dudas@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Dr. Jennifer F Provencher
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Science and Technology Branch
National Wildlife Research Centre C/O Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Drive, Raven Road
Ottawa, ON
Canada K1A 0H3
jennifer.provencher@ec.gc.ca

Dr. Peter S. Ross
Coastal Ocean Research Institute
Pacific Science Enterprise Centre
4160 Marine Drive
West Vancouver, BC
Canada V7V 1H2
peterross1741@gmail.com

Dr. Kazuhiko Mochida
Environmental Conservation Division, Environment and Fisheries Applied Techniques Research Department, Fisheries Technology Institute
Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA)
2-17-5 Maruishi
Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima
Japan 739-0452
kmochida@fra.affrc.go.jp

Prof. Hideshige Takada
Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
3-5-8 Saiwaicho
Fuchu, Tokyo
Japan 183-8509
shige@cc.tuat.ac.jp

Dr. Shuhei Tanaka
Department of Technology Ecology, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies
Kyoto University
Yoshidahonmachi, Sakyo-ku
Kyoto, Japan 606-8501
t-shuhei@eden.env.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Prof. Daoji Li
State Key laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research
East China Normal University
500 Dongchuan Rd.
Shanghai, People's Republic of China 200241
daojili@sklec.ecnu.edu.cn

Dr. Connie Ka-yan NG
Department of Chemistry and State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution
City University of Hong Kong
Yeung Kin Man Academic Building, 83 Tat Chee Avenue
Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
People's Republic of China 0000
kayan.ng.connie@gmail.com

Dr. Chengjun Sun
WG-42 Co-Chair
Marine Bioresource and Environment Research Center
First Institute of Oceanography (MNR)
6 Xianxialing Rd., Hi-Tech Park, LaoShan District
Qingdao, People's Republic of China 266061
csun@fio.org.cn

Prof. Juying Wang
42 Linghe St., Shahekou District
Dalian, Liaoning
People's Republic of China 116023
jywang@nmemc.org.cn

Dr. Sang Hee Hong
Oil and POPs Research Group
Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST)
41 Jangmok-1-gil, Jangmok-myon
Geoje, Republic of Korea 53201
shhong@kiost.ac.kr

Dr. Miran Kim
Seabirds Lab. of Korea
Sinpyeong-ro 155-2, Jijeong-myeon
Wonju-si, Gangwon-do
Republic of Korea 26352
seabirds.lab.korea@gmail.com

Prof. Seung-Kyu Kim
Department of Marine Science
Incheon National University
119 Academy-ro, Yeonsu-gu
Incheon, Republic of Korea 22012
skkim@inu.ac.kr

Dr. Wonjoon Shim
Risk Assessment Research Center
Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST)
41 Jangmok-1-gil, Jangmok-myon
Geoje, Republic of Korea 656-834
wjshim@kiost.ac.kr

Dr. Iana Blinovskaia
Safety in Emergency Situation and Environmental Protection
Far Eastern Federal University
8 Sukhnova St.
Vladivostok, Russia 690003
blinovskaya@hotmail.com

Mr. Nikolai Kozlovskii
Pacific Geographical Institute FEB RAS
7 Radio St.
Vladivostok, Russia 690041
Nkozlovsky12@mail.ru

Dr. Jennifer M Lynch
WG-42 Co-Chair
Center for Marine Debris Research
National Institute of Standards and Technology
41-202 Kalanianaole Hwy
Waimanalo, HI
U.S.A. 96795
jennifer.lynch@nist.gov

Dr. Matthew Savoca
Department of Oceans, Hopkins Marine Station
Stanford University
120 Ocean View Blvd.
Pacific Grove, CA
U.S.A. 93950
msavoca13@gmail.com

Dr. Amy V. Uhrin
NOAA
Marine Debris Program
1305 East-West Highway, SSMC4, Room 10240
Silver Spring, MD
U.S.A. 20910
amy.uhrin@noaa.gov