The Plastic Tide

THE PLASTIC TIDE

Hover UAV is very proud to announce it will be joining forces with The Plastic Tide and Australian UAV. Harnessing drone imagery from a series of beaches around Australia and to use  the power of machine learning (artificial intelligence) to create a program that can detect, measure and monitor levels of plastics and marine litter washing up on our beaches. This will eventually help us to track where plastics and litter go in our oceans helping governments, regulators and officials make informed decisions on how to address what truly is THE PLASTIC TIDE.

THE ENDLESS PLASTIC TIDE

It is a tide that never recedes. Every  day, year on year it expands. Estimates are currently at 8 million metric tonnes going into our oceans every year. Trillions of pieces and counting, with over 60% of the oceans being heavily contaminated with plastics. With most pieces of plastic taking over 400 years to degrade, our oceans, all marine life, and even our own health and livelihoods are under threat.

Yet where is the missing 99%?

Answers can be found on the seafloor, in marine life, beaches and on our coastlines. The Plastic Tide harnesses drone imagery of beaches and citizen science to power Machine Learning Algorithms to eventually help us to track where plastics and litter go in our oceans, revealing where the missing 99% of plastics are.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

This is where you can help!  

Get involved in beach clean ups such as the beach cleans that Tangoroa Blue and Surfrider foundation frequently hold across Australia.

Or you can help by tagging all the plastics and litter you can find in the images we’ve surveyed at beaches across Australia. You are teaching our Machine Learning Algorithm, to find the plastics automatically – we need your help. To start tagging follow the link https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/theplastictide/the-plastic-tide/classify