Giving Compass' Take:

• The Guardian reports on an all-female group of scientists and activists who are hands on in their approach to investigate and help our world's plastic crisis. 

• What other organizations are taking this kind of approach to helping stop plastic pollution? How can we learn from the data they collect and make an impact? 

• Here are 7 massive wins in the fight against plastic pollution in 2018. 

When I arrive at the marina in Victoria on a late-July morning, the sky and water are complementary shades of azure. On the deck of the 72ft shiny-bright Sea Dragon, moored here in the island capital of British Columbia for just one day, are four young women, part of the crew of the research voyage “eXXpedition”. They’re hauling buckets of black sludge up to the deck from the ocean floor.

The team will meticulously pack the wet sand from the harbor floor into little glass jars. These jars will be added to a library of sand, water and air samples that they’ve collected over the past six weeks from across the north Pacific. They’ll ship some of those samples off to Plymouth, England, to be analyzed by eXXpedition’s marine scientist Imogen Napper. The idea is that by cataloging this library, she and the team will begin to get a better sense of what kind of plastic is out there in the ocean.

Read the full article on the all-female scientists and activists group investigating plastic by Eve Andrews at The Guardian