First we need to define what “FOD” is and how serious is the threat. In the aviation industry, there are two generally accepted meanings for the acronym FOD. One definition is “Foreign Object Debris”, which includes substances, debris or any articles that could potentially cause damage to a vehicle or engine (Figures 1 and 2). It is anything – large or small – inside or around aircraft and flig...

The spatial and temporal coverage of spaceborne optical imaging systems are well suited for automated marine litter monitoring. However, developing machine learning-based detection identification algorithms requires large amounts data. Indeed, when it comes to debris, ground validated data is scarce. In this study, we propose a general methodology that leverages synthetic in order avoid overfit...

A significant amount of marine debris has accumulated in the North Pacific Central Gyre (NPCG). The effects on larger marine organisms have been documented through cases of entanglement and ingestion; however, little is known about the effects on lower trophic level marine organisms. This study is the first to document ingestion and quantify the amount of plastic found in the gut of common plan...

Within the last few decades, plastics have revolutionized our daily lives. Globally we use in excess of 260 million tonnes of plastic per annum, accounting for approximately 8 per cent of world oil production. In this Theme Issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, we describe current and future trends in usage, together with the many benefits that plastics bring to society. At ...

Microplastics are small plastic particles (<1 mm) originating from the degradation of larger plastic debris. These microplastics have been accumulating in the marine environment for decades and have been detected throughout the water column and in sublittoral and beach sediments worldwide. However, up to now, it has never been established whether microplastic presence in sediments is limited to...