Abigail P. W. Barrows | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | |
Known for | microplastics research |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Marine science |
Institutions | Adventure Scientists |
Abigail P. W. Barrows (born 1984) is an American marine research scientist [1] and advocate based in Maine. [2] Barrows is the Principal investigator for the Global Microplastics Initiative with Adventure Scientists, where she directs microplastics research that is used to inform conservation-focused legislation, and she initiated the first baseline data map of microplastic pollution distribution in the waters off the coast of Maine. [3] [2] [4]
Barrows grew up in Stonington, Maine, a town on the island of Deer Isle, off the coast of Maine. [2] [5] From a teenager, she knew she loved the outdoors after participating in an OutwardBound trip. [6] She began to learn about and love the ocean which helped her pursue her career. In 2006, Barrows graduated with a bachelor's degree in zoology, with a focus on marine biology from the University of Tasmania, Australia. [6] After returning to Stonington, Maine, Barrows completed her master's degree in microplastics from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine in 2018. [7]
Barrows studies plastic pollution in global waterways. [8] Barrows' biological studies led her to travel much of the world including Papua New Guinea, the Himalaya, and South and Central America. [9] She later focused her studies on microplastics, having recognized plastic pollution as a global issue. [10] [11] Barrows has leveraged her research to help pass legislation to reduce plastic consumption. [12]
In 2011, Barrows took a job coordinating educational programming at the Shaw Institute where she focused on environmental health. [2] She later directed global microplastic pollution research from 2013 to 2017, and consequently published research in collaboration with the Shaw Institute. [13] In December 2017, Abby played a part in accomplishing the enacting of a bill that would cease microbead containing products from being made within the state of Maine. [14] She has published 12 scientific papers, where her work on microplastic prevalence has been cited hundreds of times. [1] Burrows worked with Adventure Scientists, an organization that links researchers with outdoorsmen and women. [15] This collaboration yielded the largest known and most diverse microplastics dataset as of 2019. [16] [5] Her work has identified that plastic pollution is present in New York’s Hudson River, and in popular bottled water brands - specifically, an average of 325 plastic particles were found for every litre of water being sold, in an analysis of 259 bottles, across 19 locations, in nine countries. In a study she contributed to, it was found that around an average of 300 million individual anthropogenic microfibers are released per day on the upper part of the Hudson River. [5] [17] [18] [19]
Barrows is currently the owner of Deer Isle Oyster Company, based in Stonington, Maine, where she is trying to develop and create plastic-free aquaculture gear, and operates an oyster aquaculture farm, Long Cove Sea Farm. [20] [21] [5] This includes working on prototypes of wooden oyster cages, selling oysters in compostable beechwood bags, and testing a mycelium buoy, a fungal alternative to a plastic buoy. [22] In 2021, Barrows was awarded a $15,000 grant by the USDA's Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program to identify ecologically friendly materials for aquaculture systems. [23]