Within a couple of months, a new tool for measuring underwater microplastics could be dipping into coastal ocean waters.

Victoria-based Ocean ­Diagnostics Inc. has completed the final commercial design for Ascension, a portable microplastics depth-sampling piece of equipment. Its backers say Ascension can help researchers make new discoveries about microplastics and microfibers below the ocean’s surface by collecting data down to 400 metres.

Studies suggest that 99.8 per cent of plastic in the ocean sinks below the surface, where they can affect coral reefs and feeding grounds, said Ethan Edson, co-founder and the company’s chief technology officer.

But, until now, scientists had to use large, expensive research vessels and heavy winch systems — requiring several crew members and costing up to $10,000 a day — to study the plastic. That has made it difficult for scientists to find answers about how plastic accumulates and moves in the ocean, Edson said.

“It is really difficult to go out and collect a microplastic sample, take it back to the lab and create quantitative results. Most of that is because of lacking technology or equipment to do that research,” Edson said, adding Ocean Diagnostics was founded two years ago out of frustration with that status quo.

Ascension is portable, weighs about 18 pounds and can be used in a small boat — including a two-person canoe.

It can also be used to study plankton and organic matter.

It includes a battery that lasts between one and 1.5 hours. It is good to a depth of 400 metres and comes with a 200-metre tether.

“It is a small, portable — think of it like a filtration device — that can be lowered down through the water column on a tether and we can communicate with Ascension real-time back up on the top of the boat,” Edson said.

“We can tell Ascension to collect filter samples at a different depths, and we can have full control over where we sample, and as a result of that, we can collect these filtered samples and bring them back to the lab and analyze for microplastics later.”

Details of the instrument’s price are still being worked out, but Edson said its cost would likely be equal to two days of traditional research.

“By having easier access to better data, scientists can better understand the long-term effects of microplastics pollution on our oceans and help to influence informed decision making,” he said.

Because microplastics are so small, they are very hard to extract from the environment, said Anna Posacka was appointed in mid-July as Ocean Diagnostics’ chief scientific officer.

“Ultimately, the ­complexity around their sizes and [the] different sources they can originate from creates technical challenges for regulators, researchers and decision-makers and communities that want to better understand how these pollutants are getting into the environment and the impact they are having,” she said of microplastics.

“So, the technology we are developing — Ascension, which is a sampling device, but we are also working on detectors and sensors that can sense microplastics in real-time in the environment — those technologies have the potential to accelerate the rate at which we can gather quality data and essentially get us to solutions quicker.”

She said there is an urgent need to act on plastic and ­microplastic pollution.

“Currently, our latest estimate indicates that almost 15-million metric tonnes of plastics are being admitted to the global ocean every year. By 2040, that number is estimated to triple. … So we are excited to work focusing on the technical challenges of the problem and therefore informing the best mitigation strategies for microplastics pollution.”

Ascension should be on the market in a couple of months.