Aurora Expedition’s Sylvia Earle recently supported the identification of pollution from space during expedition cruises in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland.

According to Eyesea, the operations are part of a partnership between the company and Grundo, which aims to harness satellite image spectrometry to enhance the detection and tracking of marine plastic and hydrocarbon pollutants in remote locations.

Satellite image spectrometry analyzes the spectrum of light reflected from the Earth’s surface, the company explained in a press release.

By capturing and processing this data, Eyesea can identify specific materials based on their unique spectral signatures.

The Sylvia Earle helped to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system, the company added, reporting and recovering rope in Greenland and a plastic bag from a beach on Northwest Passage’s Parry Island.

In what Eyesea said was a landmark achievement, the satellite image spectrometry system successfully confirmed the presence of the recovered debris on satellite imagery, highlighting its potential to locate even the smallest pollutants in remote environments.

“Our partnership with Grundo represents a major leap forward in Eyesea’s mission to develop a portfolio of tech tools to support pollution monitoring and recovery,” said Graeme Somerville-Ryan, Co-Founder of Eyesea.

“We can now detect even small pieces of plastic from space. This transforms how expedition vessels and remote communities can identify, report, and address environmental hazards, both in terms of area and location,” he added.

Eyesea and Grundo have now expanded the deployment of this technology to support clean-up work and monitoring in the Galapagos Islands.

This collaboration not only aims to improve environmental health but also to raise awareness and drive action towards a more sustainable future, the company said.

“Our satellite image spectrometry technology is designed to provide unparalleled accuracy in environmental monitoring. We are working with Eyesea to add Grundo’s spectrometry overlay to their analytics platform. We are thrilled to see it making a real difference in identifying and mitigating pollution,” said Dr. Miller Mendoza Jiménez, Co-founder and CTO of Grundo.