Professor Jonathan Cohen and a small team of graduate students research microplastics in the Delaware Bay, separating out tiny plastic fragments from bits of wood or metal. Delaware Bay Microplastic Research 1
San Diego, California – In a rare glimmer of hope amid growing environmental crises, a group of student researchers in San Diego may have found a low-cost, high-impact solution to cleaning polluted ocean water — and they’re doing it with recycled foam.
Led by Dr. Michel Boudrias, an associate professor of Environmental and Ocean Sciences at the University of San Diego, the team is testing out a product that looks deceptively simple: a floating boom made from sustainable materials. But what these booms lack in appearance, they more than make up for in performance. After months spent drifting in Mission Bay and San Diego Bay, they emerge bloated with pollutants — oil, diesel, heavy metals, microplastics, and even invasive marine species.
Partnering with local company Earthwise Sorbents, the USD team has been studying the booms as a tool to not only remove contaminants from water, but to also provide crucial data about the microscopic threats lurking in Southern California’s bays and marinas. Their findings suggest the booms are more than just functional — they could be transformative. They’re inexpensive, made in the U.S., easy to deploy, and capable of absorbing a wide array of pollutants over a lifespan of three to four months.
Now, Boudrias and his students are thinking bigger. Conversations are underway with the Port of San Diego and other environmental groups about scaling the project, including potential deployments up the West Coast and across the country. There’s even discussion of adapting the booms to help mitigate runoff from the Tijuana River, a persistent source of sewage pollution along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The team isn’t just cleaning water. They’re also cultivating what Boudrias calls the “next wave of ocean protectors.” For students like Gunner Kolon, a graduate researcher from Texas, the project is more than academic — it’s personal. Kolon found his passion for marine conservation after earning a scuba certification at age 12, and now sees the boom project as a way to give back to the environment and build a career doing so.
Undergraduate Nikki Cardino echoed that sentiment, emphasizing both the ecological and civic stakes: “People often forget that organisms live in these ecosystems where we put our boats.”
While policymakers struggle to keep up with the scale of global climate disasters, this small-scale intervention feels like a rare, replicable win — one born from the collaboration between scientists, students, and local innovators. And in an era of complex, often overwhelming environmental challenges, that stinking, stained boom may be the smell of real progress.
