A Newfoundland-based invention will help to better monitor the amount of micro plastics on the surface of the ocean.

“BabyLegs” is the creation of Dr. Max Liboiron, the Director of Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research at MUN.

It uses baby’s tights, soda pop bottles and other inexpensive materials to trawl for floating micro plastics.

Most marine plastics are smaller than a grain of rice and are ingested by all sorts of marine life, including fish consumed by humans.

Dr. Liboiron is partnering with the Public Lab for Open Technology, which will help to produce BabyLegs kits for distribution to the public.

It will also host sessions on how to use the contraption to collect data that can be shared with scientists.

A scientific research trawl could cost as much as $3500 dollars, while BabyLegs costs around $20 and can be built and used by people without scientific knowledge, but produces similar data.

For more information on the crowdfunded science project: www.kickstarter.com/projects/publiclab/babylegs