The accumulation of plastic debris in the ocean over the last 50 years is a direct consequence of our consumer society, and has become one of the major environmental problems of our time.

Few information is available on how plastic debris circulates and is accumulated in the Mediterranean Sea. The dispersion and accumulation processes of plastic debris, the chemical components that plastic fragments carry along or its interactions with the biota are yet insufficiently studied.

For this reason, the Tara Expeditions Foundation financed and organized the TARA MEDITERRANEAN expedition (2014) collecting 3 500 sea water samples of the polluted sea surface from 280 locations.

The main objective of this expedition is to better understand the composition of microplastics, the organisms that colonize them, and their impacts on the Mediterranean environment. With a consortium of 14 renowned laboratories from different countries, the most important basin scale surface water plastic sampling in the Mediterranean Sea to date is carried out.

Currently, the database is being analyzed to:

- develop forecasting tools, models and indicators to understand the basin-scale distribution, quantification and characterization of plastic debris in the Mediterranean Sea;
- build a polymer database of chemical components, mass and abundance of particles in the Mediterranean Sea.

Data quality and high-level analyses are essential to ensure that choices made to address the problem of marine litter are based on the best available science. The outcomes of strong research will guarantee that the proposed management strategies will be the most effective in ecological and economic terms.

The database will be open access to the scientists, stakeholders and citizens engaging in initiatives requiring the use of this database to elaborate measures for the reduction of marine pollution and achievement of good environment status for the Mediterranean countries and to ensure healthy lives for the population of this basin.

Thanks to the expedition, the Foundation has also built a network of players and acquired field experience on a regional scale. Thus, the expedition visited 18 harbors, in 12 countries of the Mediterranean and welcomed 18 000 visitors onboard and had a great media impact. The expedition was also the occasion to encourage the discussions between the different stakeholders affected by the environmental issues within this almost-closed sea (several workshops were organized in Barcelona, Beirut, Bizerte, Marseille and Tanger).

In order to pursue the work done with the expedition, on May 2015, the Tara Expeditions Foundation initiated with others partners (the Foundation Prince Albert II of Monaco, Surfrider Foundation Europe, the Mava Foundation and the IUCN), the task force Beyond Plastic Med (BeMed). This initiative aims to support innovative and concrete solutions to reduce upstream plastic pollution in the Mediterranean Sea.

On June 8, 2016, BeMed launched a call for micro-initiatives aimed at all Mediterranean countries. Eleven projects from Greece, Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, Albania, Lebanon, Tunisia and Montenegro were honored in Monaco on March 2017 for their innovative nature whether technological, institutional or related to public awareness and outreach.