Nurdle Patrol

Nurdle Patrol is a citizen science project based out of Port Aransas, Texas. This project is run by the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute and focuses on bringing the community together to tackle plastic pollution, specifically focusing around nurdle awareness and removal efforts.

A nurdle is a very small pellet (typically less than 5mm in length) of plastic that serves as raw material in plastics manufacturing. When nurdles are discarded, these microplastics often end up on beaches and in surrounding water bodies. Nurdles are hazardous to the wellbeing of an ecosystem because they can be accidentally ingested by organisms which causes physical harm and even death.

The Nurdle Patrol’s main focus is to gather information about nurdles, locate where they are, and remove them from the environment as well as create awareness about nurdle issues.

Texas Stream Team’s Role in Nurdle Patrol

Texas Stream Team citizen scientist can get involved in Nurdle Patrol by becoming certified and reporting their data to Nurdle Patrol. Once trained, while citizen scientists are monitoring at their monitoring site, they can mark that a Nurdle Patrol survey was conducted on their Environmental Monitoring Form.

Website: https://nurdlepatrol.org/

Contact: Jace Tunell at jace@utexas.edu