04/06/2026
Matt Savoca and Jack Barkowski, researchers in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability Oceans Department based at Hopkins Marine Station Stanford University, will be presenting at Monterey this Sunday, April 12. Learn more: https://whalefest.org/symposium
🎤 Symposium Speaker Spotlight: Meet Matthew S. Savoca, Ph.D., of Hopkins Marine Station Stanford University, and California Marine Sanctuary.
Speaking Sunday, 4/12 at 11:45 am. Join us for free at the Historic Stanton Center at Monterey History & Art on Custom House Plaza.
Topic: “From Watershed to Whales: Tracking microplastics from land to sea in Monterey Bay.”
Synopsis: Plastic pollution has become one of the defining environmental challenges of our time. Tiny fragments known as microplastics - pieces smaller than a grain of rice - are now found almost everywhere in the ocean. But how do these particles travel from our cities and rivers into the marine food web, and eventually into the bodies of ocean wildlife? For the past decade, I have dedicated much of my research trying to answer these questions. Between 2023 and 2025 we tracked microplastics from inland rivers to the coastal waters of Monterey Bay, one of the most biologically rich marine ecosystems in the world. We collected samples from four major rivers, beach sands, surface seawater, and marine life including small fish, krill, and blue whales. After processing more than 15,000 liters of water and 1,500 liters of sand, we identified roughly 25,000 individual microplastic particles. Beaches turned out to be hotspots, with concentrations about thirty times higher than nearby waters. Early results show that these tiny plastics are already moving up the food chain and reaching the largest animals on Earth: blue whales. By following the journey of microplastics from land to sea, our work reveals how human activities on land shape the health of ocean ecosystems, and highlights how and where solutions can make the biggest difference.
Bio: Research Associate at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University and a Principal Investigator at the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation. He completed his Ph.D. in Ecology at the University of California, Davis in 2017, where he studied why marine animals mistake plastic debris for prey items. More recently, he has investigated how microplastics flow through pelagic food webs, using Monterey Bay, California as a model ecosystem to study these processes. His work has been covered by NPR, The BBC, and The New York Times, among other outlets. Matthew is also an active science communicator and has given a TEDx talk, spoken with California State Legislators about plastic pollution, and has written numerous popular science articles for venues including The Washington Post, The Marine Biologist magazine, and The Conversation. He serves, or has served, on international expert groups convened by The Environmental Defense Fund, The International Whaling Commission, and the North Pacific Marine Science Organization, which presented him their Early Career Scientist Award in 2022.
🌐California Marine Sanctuary Foundation: https://www.californiamsf.org
