Danish
Icelandic
Verkís Participates in International Conference on Marine Plastic Pollution
Verkís participated in Atlantic Plastics 2026, an international conference held at Harpa in Reykjavík from 20–22 October. The conference brought together scientists and experts from around the world to discuss marine plastic pollution, its spread and potential solutions.
Verkís contributed to the opening of the conference with a short presentation and hosted an exhibition stand. Visitors could learn about Verkís’ bottle-message project, in which bottles were released into the sea near Eldey in 2016, and explore their journeys through Verkís’ online map viewer, available at www.pame.is.
Bottle Messages Inspired Research into the Great Auk
The journeys of the bottle messages inspired researchers studying the great auk. Equipped with GPS receivers and satellite transmitters, the bottles drifted across the North Atlantic, carried by winds, waves and ocean currents, before washing ashore in Scotland and the Faroe Islands.
Their journeys caught the attention of Dr Jessica Thomas and her colleagues, who studied great auk DNA to investigate the population’s history and the reasons for its extinction. The findings were published in the scientific paper Demographic reconstruction from ancient DNA supports rapid extinction of the great auk. Arnór Þórir Sigfússon, an animal ecologist, and Vigfús Arnar Jósefsson, a mechanical engineer at Verkís, are co-authors of the paper.
At the Verkís exhibition stand, visitors could see two of the original bottle messages, photographs documenting their journeys and an online map viewer showing the routes taken by several bottles across the world’s oceans. The project demonstrates how tracking the movement of these bottles can provide insights into ocean currents and connections between different regions.
International Collaboration for Healthier Oceans
Atlantic Plastics 2026 was the third international conference on marine plastic pollution organised by the Icelandic authorities. This year’s conference explored the Atlantic Ocean from north to south, focusing on the sources and distribution of plastic, its effects on marine ecosystems and human health, and ways to reduce pollution.
The conference provided a platform for sharing research findings and strengthening international collaboration on shared challenges and potential solutions.
Explore the journeys of the bottle messages through the online map viewer on the Verkís website.
World goals
