Swimming From Japan to USA, Through Gyre, in Gigantic Plastic Bottle

Photo: Nick Moir, Sydney Morning Herald

Australian filmmaker and environmentalist Richard Pain has announced that he will attempt to swim across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the United States, directly through the North Pacific Gyre, in a gigantic plastic bottle.

If successful, Pain would be the first swimmer in history to complete the 5,500-mile journey. But what seems to be drawing the most attention to Pain’s journey is not how far he will be swimming, but what he will be swimming in: a 20-foot bottle made from thousands of used water bottles.

Pain hopes the plastic bottle, which will be towed by a boat with his fiancee, Natasha, pregnant with their first child, on board, will do double duty as a shark cage and a reminder of the plastic waste that is threatening the Pacific Ocean.

“I want to create that iconic media image that everybody picks up and says, ‘Oh my God, there’s a man in the middle of the ocean in a gigantic water bottle,’ ” he said.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, which has a great article on Pain:

Mr Pain has been obsessed for years with the massive garbage patch that is trapped by currents in the North Pacific. “You look down into it and it’s nightmarish,” he said. “All these birds are eating it and dying, and now it’s entering the food chain.”

Pain’s big swim isn’t just about raising awareness about pollution in the ocean. He hopes the endeavor will help raise $1 million for research into cleaning up the North Pacific Gyre.

“The ideal would be for me to walk in the water in Japan, the land of plastic, start swimming and emerge months later on Santa Monica Beach with Richard Branson handing me a cheque and looking at his watch and saying, ‘You made it with five minutes to spare.’”

Pain will quite literally be a message in a bottle.

[Via: Sydney Morning Herald]