Julie presenting her microplastics research at an Ocean Matters Lecture at the Vancouver Aquarium, credit: Ocean Wise

I begin my conversation with Julie as she is cycling home from work in Cambridge, England. Her life looked very different one year ago as she finished up her master’s degree at Simon Fraser University (SFU). Our discussion spanned from her impressive resume, to the simple actions we can take in our day to day lives to reduce our plastic consumption and care for biodiversity in our local environments.

Julie’s research displayed at the Vancouver Aquarium, credit @juliedandthesea

Julie Dimitrijevic holds a BSc in Biology from the University of Victoria and a MSc in Marine Biology from SFU. Growing up on the west coast of British Columbia, she always held a love for marine environments and knew that she wanted to work on projects with an applied focus. This led her to collaborating with the Ocean Wise Conservation Association for her master’s thesis where she looked at microplastics in blue mussels. She specifically explored “the number of microplastics mussels have in them and if mussels are good indicators of plastic pollution within the marine environment.”

While Ocean Wise is best known for their management of the Vancouver Aquarium, they are also an education and research based organization leading shoreline cleanups, a sustainable seafood certification program and their more recent Plastic Wise initiative.

Julie had the unique experience of working on microplastics as the topic of plastic pollution was brought to the forefront of media and government policy. “When I started my masters and I told people that I worked on microplastics, they would say ‘what’s a microplastic and why should I care?’ I then went from explaining what microplastics were and why they mattered to having everyday conversations about plastic pollution”

Google Trends results for ‘microplastics’ search term from 2014 – 2019

This is easily illustrated by looking at the trend of the term ‘microplastics’ as a google web search over the past 5 years. Julie started her thesis work in June 2016 and finished in December 2018. She describes seeing this rise in attention as “the most rewarding part of the project.”

After finishing her masters, Julie set off on a new adventure by moving to London, England. An opportunity with the UNEP – WCMC took her to outside of the capital city to the smaller town of Cambridge. Describing her position: “I am an Associate Programme Officer in the Business and Biodiversity Programme. I work for the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), where we are considered the biodiversity experts for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).”

Explaining her responsibilities further, Julie says her team, “has the most contact with the corporate sector, where we work to communicate the importance of natural capital and businesses’ dependency on biodiversity by encouraging companies to incorporate the value of nature into their business strategies and corporate decisions.”

Julie in the lab working on her microplastics in blue mussels project, credit @juliedandthesea

Our discussion then veered away from Julie’s work life into her personal views on climate action and hope. As a microplastics and biodiversity champion, she describes some changes that we can make to reduce our harmful impacts on the environment, and increase our positive impacts.

Concerning plastic pollution, she recommends “don’t let yourself buy a take away coffee cup…take your own cutlery with you if you can, take the time to bring your own lunch versus buying take out…think about the quality of a product before you buy it.”

On the topic of biodiversity, she says, “you can increase the biodiversity of your local habitat, think about what are the local flowers, plants, and species that could promote greater diversity…planting a little garden is a huge thing”

Julie has experienced working on a variety of environmental issues - I probed her on how to stay both motivated and positive when looking at these overwhelming problems:

Close up of blue mussels, credit: Ocean Wise

“Just accept that you won’t be able to solve everything, pick one, maybe two challenges…Just focus on that and try to do a good job. We cannot solve our problems singularly but working together we can achieve a lot.”

I also ask her about where she draws inspiration from on a day to day basis. While she does mention the famous English broadcaster and natural historian, David Attenborough, “for the fact that he was very positive and never put the pressure on the individual by saying, oh this is your fault…he would always try to uplift people.” What I found to be her more poignant answer was that she draws inspiration from the people around her.

She finds that “the conversations that I’ve had with people and the passion that people share with me when they find out what I do” bring her the most encouragement.

I connected with her sentiment as I often find myself drawing inspiration from the little moments - connecting with new friends about your favourite hiking spots or seeing someone else in the Starbucks line-up with their reusable coffee cup - when I need that push to stay positive and hopeful. While the big steps such as UN conferences and climate marches are so important, I also encourage everyone reading this to constantly appreciate the small wonders of our planet. Have just as many conversations about your love for the world around you as you do about our climate crisis. We need to balance out these topics and remember why we’re fighting so hard for this earth – it’s a pretty amazing place.

Learn more about blue mussels and the research Julie conducted at Ocean Wise through a short Ocean Up Close video, podcast interview or her Ocean Matters lecture.

Biodiversity and Blue Mussels with Julie Dimitrijevic