Pangaea Exploration

Post Tagged with: "plastic"

Cruising

by panexplore_u6q245 September 22, 2014 in Uncategorized, Blog, Pangaea, legacy Comments are Disabled

Highlights of the trip so far have involved dolphins; Steph giving an excellent talk about her research with laptop slides on deck and dolphins arching in the background; and bioluminescent dolphins lighting up a dark night like waterborne fireworks. From our perspective, in many ways so out of our element, that there are creatures so at home in the sea seems amazing. Amazing and, inevitably, bittersweet to watch them leaping and sparkling given what we know about how we are changing their world.

Brilliant

by panexplore_u6q245 September 19, 2014 in Uncategorized, Blog, Pangaea, legacy Comments are Disabled

Brilliant. That’s the word in mind today. The combination of people, skills, professions, interests and passions on board – marine scientists, photographers, film-makers, plastic pollution activists and campaigners, commercial project managers, conservationists, philosophers, generally interested folk and, of course, sailors. With luck and a fair wind, bringing these perspectives to bear on the horrible challenge that is ocean plastic pollution will throw up some genuinely constructive ideas and solutions.

Ocean Plastic Pollution – and the Gyre to Gaia sailing adventure

by panexplore_u6q245 September 16, 2014 in Uncategorized, Blog, Pangaea, legacy Comments are Disabled

I’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.

Sea Dragon anchoring in Norra Kvarken

by panexplore_u6q245 August 27, 2014 in Blog, Pangaea, legacy, Orebro University Comments are Disabled

It was a beautiful Swedish sunny Saturday the 9th of August when the crew for leg 3 of this Baltic Sea Expedition gathered in the harbour of Sandhamn in the archipelago of Stockholm. We were all excited when approaching this magnificent sailing boat, the Sea Dragon, that was about to be our home for the next seven days. The aim of this trip is to set sail for the northern parts of the Gulf of Bottnia in the Baltic Sea and take samples of the water along the way.

Losing A Bet To The Captain

by panexplore_u6q245 August 27, 2014 in Blog, Pangaea, legacy, Orebro University Comments are Disabled

I know – never challenge the Captain. But as the Scientific Officer on board I thought I might have a chance.

Introducing the trawl

by panexplore_u6q245 August 27, 2014 in Blog, Pangaea, legacy, Orebro University Comments are Disabled

Jessika Hagberg (Örebro University) and Louise Hedenskog (Thorén Business School, Örebro) throw the manta trawl in the water between Sweden and Germany in the southern part of the Baltic Sea. This excercise is repeated twice a day and trawling takes an hour each time most days of the expedition.

Sailing the Baltic Sea

by panexplore_u6q245 August 9, 2014 in Blog, Pangaea, legacy, Orebro University Comments are Disabled

For the first trawl, the Manta went in by a ten point throw by Bert and Jonas, and the rest helped get organized for the remaining sampling using the pump and the bucket. When the pump was in the water, we where thrilled to get 15 minutes for a swim off the boat. It was absolutely fantastic!!!

Greetings from Iceland

by panexplore_u6q245 July 8, 2014 in Uncategorized, Blog, Pangaea, legacy Comments are Disabled

For us, and our small team of emerging artists, it won’t be plastic but rather whales and dolphins that will be our watchwords. But, one cannot help bleeding into the other. As more whales wash up on beaches with stomachs full of plastic, how not to feel the weight of Sea Dragon’s most recent research as we gaze across the bright blue sea?

Getting Ready

by panexplore_u6q245 May 29, 2014 in Uncategorized, Blog, Pangaea, legacy Comments are Disabled

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.

Smells like salty team spirit?

by panexplore_u6q245 May 20, 2014 in Uncategorized, Blog, Pangaea, legacy Comments are Disabled

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.

Casting Off!

by panexplore_u6q245 May 19, 2014 in Uncategorized, Blog, Pangaea, legacy Comments are Disabled

Today 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 […]

From Scattered Bolts to A Cohesive Unit

by panexplore_u6q245 May 19, 2014 in Uncategorized, Blog, Pangaea, legacy Comments are Disabled

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.