Microplastics are a major cause of marine pollution and are increasingly linked to harmful health impacts on humans.

Georges River College Peakhurst Campus students Willow Clark and Helena Pericleous took on the microplastics challenge when they entered – and won – the Year 7-9 Ocean Lovers Fish Tank Competition.

“We can barely see microplastics, but we know they are consumed by fish and corals and by humans,” Willow said.

“Our concept was to develop a filtration process to get rid of microplastics,” Helena said.

The floating pontoon caught the attention of Pete Ceglinski, founder and CEO of Seabin, which filters microplastics and plastic pollution from waterways. Since 2020 Seabin has removed 120 tonnes of marine litter from Sydney Harbour and filtered almost 24 billion litres of water for microplastics and litter.

“Fifty seven percent of all plastic pollution captured by Seabin in Sydney Harbour are microplastics, which could be catastrophic to human health,” Mr Ceglinski said.

“Microplastics are being compared to asbestos due to the minute particle size causing tissue inflammation, which may lead to early-stage cancer and more.”

Mr Ceglinski has offered to mentor Willow and Helena to further develop the pontoon, which the students hope to get to prototype stage.

Willow said the pontoon had weights to counterbalance it on each side so it can float without tipping over. It uses natural resources like sunlight to power solar panels and the ocean’s waves and currents to drive a built-in turbine and create kinetic energy for the battery and reverse osmosis unit that filters microplastics.

“The main battery unit runs on the kinetic energy produced for a seawater reverse osmosis unit where we can have different steps of filtration – removing larger things like sand and rocks until we can filter the microplastics and put the minerals back into the seawater,” she said.

The students’ submission to the Ocean Lovers Fish Tank Competition explained: “Solar panels on top of the buoy provide extra energy to the pumps located in the reverse osmosis system ensuring continuous operation. By targeting microplastics it stops nanoplastics being produced.”

High potential and gifted education opportunity

Willow and Helena, now in Year 10, entered the competition as a high potential and gifted education opportunity in the elective subject Marine and Aquaculture Technology.

Their teacher, Ahmad Bousaleh, who completed a marine biology degree before his teaching degree, said the subject was engaging and popular with students, particularly the practical and fieldwork components. Mr Bousaleh takes students to the Lime Kiln Bay wetland at Oatley to study mangrove ecosystems and on snorkelling trips to the Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve near Manly.

For Helena and Willow, Marine and Aquaculture Technology has opened their eyes to future careers.

Helena now wants to be a marine biologist. “I go to the beach a lot and I’ve loved marine biology ever since I was young and we first went to Forster for family holidays, so the elective has been a boon,” she said.

Willow is aiming for medicine or marine engineering to help the ocean environment. She surfs, fishes, snorkels and dives and lived for a time on Palau in the western Pacific Ocean.

Marine and Aquaculture Technology develops a student’s capacity to design, produce, evaluate, use and sustainably manage marine and water-related environments. Students in Years 7 to 10 study modules organised into seven focus areas: biology, ecology, leisure, aquaculture, employment, management, general interest.

GRC Peakhurst Campus principal Diane Wilson said the school each year ran one to two classes in Marine and Aquaculture Technology for Years 9 and 10 students.

In 2023 another group of students from GRC Peakhurst Campus won the Year 7-9 category in the Ocean Lovers Fish Tank Competition for their design of an ‘Artificial Upwelling System’, used to stir up nutrients on the bottom of the ocean and bring them to the surface. These nutrients are crucial for marine ecosystems supporting the growth of phytoplankton and the entire food web. The students were: Abby Clay, Tahlia Coulton, Abigail Mckenzie, Amelia Wilson and Mya Wong.

The Fish Tank Competition is aligned to the NSW curriculum and part of the annual Ocean Lovers Festival held at Bondi Beach. The competition, open to primary and secondary students, challenges young minds to create innovative, real-world solutions to protect the ocean.