Our partner, 5 Gyres, recently release a major study on plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. The study is a very big moment for public awareness around marine debris, plastic pollution, and our oceans.
We’re very happy that S.V. Sea Dragon was lucky to be part of a huge amount of the data collection through several ocean expedition, and we wish to congratulate everyone involved in this massive study.
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Finally after days of rain, storm and strong winds, we made our first trawl. The trawl was an ‘all hands on deck’ task. We put out the trawl in calm seas, travelling at 2 – 3 knots of boat speed. All the path was recorded in detail with Marine Debris Tracker, as were the conditions, like wind, speed, and direction. Everyone watched the trawl with curiosity as is it sliced through the water, resembling an animal gobbling plankton on the surface. The ocean looked pristine and deep blue, but the trawl told a different story.
Read MoreI’m leaving tomorrow to travel south to Falmouth and join Pangaea Exploration’s yacht Sea Dragon for a voyage through the North Atlantic Gyre to the Azores and then Lanzarote. We’ll be exploring ocean plastic pollution and wider questions about human nature relations and consumerism. Why do we treat the ocean as a dump? And why do so many of us end up consuming so much more than we need? Above all, we’ll be trying to figure out what solutions to this issue might look like.
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Here on board Sea Dragon, the last few days have been a whirlwind of activity. We returned from a very successful trip with The Ocean Cleanup on Saturday, and on Monday we head back out to sea with BAMZ, the punchily-acronymed Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo. In the intervening time, we are getting the boat ready for our voyage to Iceland with The 5 Gyres Institute.
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Early observations of the samples show that most of the plastic and debris was being found in the top three nets, so approximately the first meter of the water column. Julia, the scientist spearheading this project, has her work cut out for her as she analyses the information collected. Once the two trawls were completed for the day, it was time for lunch – quesadillas or Casey-dillas, as they were renamed by Casey.
Read MoreToday we officially casted off for what will be the last time until we return to Bermuda. We were a little slow casting off due to the customs officers having difficulties with locks and keys. Once those issues were sorted, we were quickly on our way! Within the first 2 […]
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We’ve got a mix of 13 crew members from all over, including the UK, Holland, United States, Brazil, Sweden, and one person all the way from Bermuda! We spent the larger part of the morning assembling our multi-level trawl, which is paramount in collecting any plastic debris. It collects debris at various levels to create a depth profile of plastics within the gyre.
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