Old tires, discarded cups, and cigarette butts litter the magnificent Saguenay Fjord, a marine protected area in eastern Canada that attracts belugas and other whales seeking respite.
Cliffs sculpted by glaciers flank the fjord that connects to the Saint Lawrence River, far from any major city. The marine sanctuary was granted protected status 26 years ago.
"It's one thing to legislate to make it a protected area, but then how do we maintain it?" said Canadian biologist Anne-Marie Asselin before diving in search of trash.
With her team from the Blue Organization, she navigates the brackish waters of the fjord to document pollution in the area.
The objective is twofold: to identify the most common waste to target the plastics that should be banned from sale, and to predict the banks most at risk of being polluted, based in particular on currents, to better target cleaning campaigns.
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