Exxpedition, Leith Labs (a community science project) and Kids Against Plastic set up in Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre today, with the Sky Ocean Rescue Whale outside 

Leith Labs use these fantastic desk microscopes, which magnify about 100x, and the image can be photographed on a mobile phone

I collected loads of samples of degraded plastic from Musselburgh beach to look at

Amongst the grains of sand I found many microscopic fibres, this one is the length of a grain of sand - possibly washed out to sea in waste water after washing an item of fleece clothing

These are synthetic fibers from a small tuft of fibrous material 

Another fibre amidst grains of sand - these were not hard to find

The presence of these tiny fibre in such abundance is a real issue - they act like sponges, attracting all sorts of persistent organic pollutants such as dioxins and flame retardants, which act like hormone disruptors - they are eaten by tiny creatures, feeding into the food web and eventually to us.