With the care needed to spot miniscule pieces of plastics, volunteers sifted through sediment from three 1-meter-by-1-meter roped off sections of Rotary Park beach.

The volunteers were Skagit County Beach Watchers working in conjunction with the Port Townsend Marine Science Center last fall to determine just how much plastic has been deposited on Puget Sound beaches.

The plastic pieces may look tiny, but they have a big impact on marine life.

“Plastic fragments and films are ingested by marine organisms, leading to either choking, illness or starvation,” according to the science center. “Additionally, plastic is not biodegradable. It can be broken down into smaller and smaller bits, but once it gets down to the molecular level, the chemicals remain in the environment.”

The 18-month project, “Plastic Pollution Awareness for Puget Sound Schools and Communities,” will help create a baseline of plastic on Puget Sound beaches — and help the center teach people about recycling and reusing plastics, or better yet not using it at all, through its interpretive exhibits at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend.

The center used existing research on shoreline drift patterns to determine which beaches within seven counties of Puget Sound, micro-plastics are likely to end up. Approximately 80 percent of marine plastic is carried by wind or water from the land.

On Oct. 15, Beach Watcher coordinator Adrea Banks led her team to two of those beaches to look for plastics — Rotary Park beach and Cabana Beach just west of Skyline Marina. They were primarily looking for plastics, but they also took collected tiny pieces of glass, cigarette butts, metals and other man-made items.

Science center marine program educator Jen Kingfisher helped the volunteers scrape off the top layer of sand and gravel and dump it in a bucket.

Volunteers then went to work, sifting the material through a 5 millimeter mesh sieve and then through a 1 millimeter mesh sieve. They bagged anything they could see with the naked eye that wasn’t organic, which at Rotary Park turned out mainly to be glass in various sizes and colors.

But just like the samples of plastic, the glass “gives a snapshot of what’s happening on this beach at this time,” Banks said. “Glass is heavier than plastic so may give an indication of how material travels.”

Later at the Washington State University Extension office, more volunteers using hand-held magnifying glasses and bright lights sorted through the remaining material.

Sand, seaweed, shell pieces and bits of wood were separated from plastics, metals, rubber, glass and anything else inorganic. The plastic pieces were further categorized into pellets, fragments, films, foam, filament and cigarette parts and sent to the science center to be weighed and analyzed by the staff.

Kingfisher will return in April to conduct sampling again with the local group for the second part of the micro-plastics monitoring study. The fall and spring sampling times were chosen to get data before and after the winter storms.

Before sampling on Fidalgo Island, Kingfisher had been at sandy beaches in Kitsap County and was heading to Snohomish and Clallam counties while her cohorts were in Whatcom and Island counties. Sampling assistance was coming from several citizen scientists groups, including Shore Stewards, Master Gardeners and lots of Beach Watchers, Kingfisher said.

The project was made possible through a $54,600 grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology.

While studies have been done on the plastic that gathers in the center of currents in the ocean, very little is known about plastics in Puget Sound.

“We want to quantify it and find out where it is,” Kingfisher said.

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How you can help

• Change how we think about plastic

• Kick the bottled water habit

• Refuse plastic bags. Take your reusable bag

• Dump the “throw-away” mentality

• Never litter in the marine environment

• Tie it down, secure it or stow it

• Enforce litter laws

• Cut six-pack holders into pieces before disposal

• Properly dispose of trash

• Buy less — reduce consumption

• Return to glass and metal packaging

• Buy 100 percent recyclable

• Educate others

• Pick up trash

• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — Really!

(Compiled from the pamphlet “Problems with Plastic” developed by the Washington State University Island County Extension Beach Watchers.)

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WSU Beach Watchers

Washington State University Beach Watchers receive 100 hours of expert training in marine life, environmental processes, geology and more.

In return, they agree to give back 100 volunteer hours to whatever interests them, be it scientific surveys, educating the public or designing outreach programs.

The next WSU Beach Watcher training in Skagit County begins March 17 and runs through May 1. Classes are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays.

Applications are due March 2.

For more information on the program or training, go to http://www.beachwatchers.wsu.edu/skagit or contact coordinator Adrea Banks at (360) 428-4270, ext. 223 or .

For more information on the Port Townsend Marine Science Center and its microplastics project, go to http://www.ptmsc.org.