Today microplastic sampling in the Ligurian pilot area of our LIFE MUSCLES. We are there where the muscles – they are not called mussels or mussels – in the Gulf of La Spezia, in that stretch of sea between the Cinque Terre park and the Magra park, in the beautiful sea of Lerici awarded for years with the blue flag, in the sea of Portovenere in the bay of the splendid Palmaria Island.

There today the project representatives of the University of Siena, on a boat with Paolo Varrella, mussel farmer of the local partner Cooperativa Mitilicoltori Associati, worked with wp2 screen and pump with filtration apparatus, to collect surface and water column samples along 2 transects in the nursery and in the surrounding area, inside and outside the breakwater of La Spezia.

Other samplings will be carried out, one in winter and one in summer for each area, to elaborate data which is fundamental for the identification of the background necessary for the implementation of the project activities. L'

The laboratory analyzes will follow the harmonized protocols of the "Marine Strategy" and will have the objective of verifying the potential presence and effects of the fragments of the polypropylene socks, in biodegradable and compostable biopolymers and of the degradation products deriving from the mussel production cycle .