Big Muddy Speaker Series presents:
Film & Discussion - "Exxpedition - Making the Unseen Seen"
This is a very special Big Muddy Speaker Series.
These is an example of some of the larger pieces of microplastics sampled during their ocean trawl.
photo courtesy of Exxpedition
In 2014, Callaway County resident Diana Papoulias joined a unique expedition. An all-woman crew of scientists, artists, visionaries and sailors boarded a sailboat for a trip across the Atlantic Ocean. The goal of the project, called Exxpedition, was to sample the entire ocean voyage for microplastics suspended in the water column and quantify the impact our plastic lifestyle is having on the most remote regions of the planet - our vast oceans.
Diana was the expedition scientist on the trip, helping to design sampling protocols. As a fish biologist for the US Geological Survey Columbia Environmental Research Center (a position she recently retired from), she had studies the effects of environmental toxins on fish in the Missouri River and other locations. She discovered a disturbing trend of intersex features in sturgeon in the Big Muddy and studied the causes of this (Find out more on this topic by checking out her Big Muddy Speaker Series talk on this topic). In other words, she was the perfect crew member for this expedition.
Diana will show a 45 minute film on the Exxpedition. She'll then describe the results of the data they recovered from the trip, a brief review of other science being done on the effects of plastic on our environment and open up the floor for discussion.
Meet Your Presenter
Diana Papoulias
, PhD, Fish Biologist
Diana Papoulias, PhD, is a retired fish biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey at the Columbia Environmental Research Center. She is now involved in non-profit work in Peru and Ecuador and is a board member for Missouri River Relief.
Related Presentations
Resources & Links
Dig deeper for more info on this topic.
- Diana Papoulias USGS Staff page, with links to her research and publications
- "Intersex Sturgeon in the Missouri River" - archive and video of Diana's Big Muddy Speaker Series talk about intersex shovelnose sturgeon
- Exxpedition website • Exxpedition Facebook
- Exxpedition Film
- Plastic Soup News - a news aggregation blog by Missouri River Relief's Melanie Cheney collecting stories about plastic pollution.
- Algalita Foundation - the original organization, founded by Captain Charles Moore, that documented the North Pacific Gyre, a collection point for plastic in the Pacific Ocean.
- BOOK - "Plastic Ocean - How a Sea Captain's Chance Discovery Launched a Determined Quest to Save the Oceans" - by Capt. Charles Moore.
Articles
- "By 2050, plastic will outnumber fish in the world's oceans, study says" - by Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post, January 20, 2016
- "Ocean's plastics provide a fortress for a mess of microbes" - by Chris Samoray, Feb. 5 2016, Science News
- RESEARCH - "Plastic Waste Inputs from Land into the Ocean" - Feb. 2015, Science Journal, Jenna R. Jambeck, Roland Geyer, Chris Wilcox, Theodore R. Siegler, Miriam Perryman, Anthony Andrady, Ramani Narayan, Kara Lavender Law
Organizations and Projects
-
5 Gyres - an international project measuring plastic pollution in oceans.
- plasticpollution.org
The Big Muddy Speaker Series in Rocheport
is hosted by these wonderful partners.
Click here for a list of upcoming presentations»
Special thanks to Les Bourgeois Vineyards for giving us the opportunity to use their beautiful space overlooking the Missouri River. All speakers are presenting for free! Thank you all for sharing your knowledge with us!
The Big Muddy Speaker Series also takes place monthly in Kansas City and St. Charles.
The Big Muddy Speaker Series is partially funded by the Columbia Ecological Services Field Office (USFWS) and the Mo. Dept. of Conservation.
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Join us for an evening with Zack Miller to learn about the Missouri River Center for Conservation Innovation.
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Leave No Trace Training on the Barge
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Join us for a special Big Muddy Speaker Series on the Living Lands & Waters Barge where Perry Whitaker will lead us in a Leave No Trace Training.
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Missouri River Relief: 25 Years on the Big Muddy
November 10, 2026Columbia, MO
Join us for a journey through time celebrating 25 years of Missouri River Relief's work on the Big Muddy.
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Plastic Pollution, Gulf Hypoxia, and Water Quality
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Jennifer Wendt from MidAmerica Clean Future guides us through understanding regional water quality challenges.
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