MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. The Clean Arctic-Vostok-77 scientific expedition will kick off on August 15 with the ecology survey of the Kola Peninsula. The first of seven routes will focus on the sea pollution with microplastics carried by the Gulf Stream, the Clean Arctic project's leader Andrey Nagibin, who will lead the expedition, said at TASS press center.

"The Gulf Stream begins at the Caribbean Islands, runs along the entire coast of the USA, Canada, Britain, Sweden and Norway. Additionally, the Gulf Stream means ice-free ports, we call it the "North Atlantic litter carrier." About 70% of the Barents Sea contents is what the Gulf Stream has brought. We are talking about plastics, and they are brought from outside, we want to check this," he said.

On August 15, the expedition on board the Klavdiya Yelanskaya ship leaves Murmansk, goes ashore in the village of Chapoma, then walks 120 kilometers through the tundra and the Tersk coast bays to sample everything, including sand on the surf, to understand what the White Sea throws out. Then, the expedition will drive to Umba. Next, in Apatity the expedition's second team will begin working. The team will collect data for sociology studies of the Sami and the Izhma Komi living there, he continued.

The expedition will feature scientists from various research centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences, volunteers from the Russian Geographical Society's youth club. It will be the first survey mission of the total 77 missions planned for this expedition.

Clean Arctic-Vostok-77 is the biggest scientific expedition in terms of the number of participants in continental high-latitude scientific expeditions over the history of the North's studies. The route has been structured to observe the objectives, set by the Russian Academy of Sciences' research centers, and in accordance with due studies under university grants. Over a year-long term, 700 participants from more than 20 research centers and federal universities will conduct 200 studies at routes that will be 12,000 km long. Such a large-scale expedition is organized for the first time in recent 40 years.