Virtual plastic tracker

Heni Unwin, a Kairangahau (researcher) at Cawthron Institute, speaks with LEARNZ educator Shelley Hersey about Ocean Plastic Simulator (referred to as the virtual plastic tracker in the video). The app uses computer modelling to visualise where virtual plastic dropped in the seas around New Zealand might end up.

Discussion point: What are two ways people can use the tracking app for conservation purposes?

Transcript

SHELLEY HERSEY

Here on Tahunanui Beach, it looks like a really clean beach, but if you look closer, you actually find little bits of plastic all over the show, and this can end up in the ocean. Heni, you’ve been working on some software that helps to find where plastic goes in the ocean.

HENI UNWIN

Yeah, so at Cawthron, we have developed a website where we’ve utilised tides, winds and currents and put it in a computer simulation where you can then drop virtual plastic into the ocean and find out where it goes and where it lands on beaches.

SHELLEY HERSEY

I’m glad to hear that it’s virtual plastic and not real plastic. Why is that information useful?

HENI UNWIN

A lot of the time for plastic, once it enters the ocean, it’s sort of out of sight out of mind, you don’t really know where it’s going, so this is just a tool to help you find out where it’s going and then maybe go to certain beaches where it could accumulate.

SHELLEY HERSEY

So, once the app is finished, people will be able to use it. What sort of features can they see on the app?

HENI UNWIN

What they can do on the app is they will be able to drop virtual plastic into the ocean in four different places – in the Cook Strait, Tauranga moana, Hauraki Gulf and Nelson/Tasman Bay. They can even drop it inside the estuaries to see where it goes in and out. And what it will show you is like a black dot is where you drop it, a blue dot is where the plastic has been moving around, a red dot is when it has landed on a beach and a green dot is when it’s been stranded when the tide has gone out and it might get picked up again by the tide again. There’s also on there features of why plastic is bad and more information on what plastic does in the ocean, as well as there’s Māori’s connection to the moana and why we need to take care of it to ensure that it’s there for our future generations.

SHELLEY HERSEY

Really important. I guess once you see where a lot of plastic ends up, that’s where you could focus your efforts for a clean-up?

HENI UNWIN

Yeah, you can focus your efforts for a clean-up there, or you could potentially see where it has come from so you can see at another area, in another region, maybe looking at their waste management systems to try and improve them.

SHELLEY HERSEY

Hey, well thanks for explaining that, Heni. And I’m looking forward to being able to use the app and you too will be able to use it. It’s going to be finished around June this year?

HENI UNWIN

Yeah, we should be launching in June, and we’ll have a big launch party for it as well.

SHELLEY HERSEY

Kia ora. Thanks, Heni.

HENI UNWIN

Kia ora. Thank you.