Real-Time Notes From First Research Expedition to the Atlantic Gyre

This photo was sent via satellite, therefore the quality isn't the best

Positon:

21 28 74 North

63 35 21 West

The crew of the Sea Dragon are now on our third day of research, having left the USVI on the 9th.  We are trawling for marine debris every six or so hours, and the nets are deployed for 2 hours.  It is our goal to collect 25 samples on this leg and send them back to California for analysis.  So far we’ve managed to do four trawls, and each time there has been evidence of plastic debris and at least once, ingestion of plastic by a jellyfish.

Often, when people speak of the North Pacific Gyre, they’ll speak of a massive floating garbage dump.  This is an incorrect way to comprehend the problem.  What needs to be understood is the degree of scale that the ocean ellicits.  We are over 200 miles from the nearest landfall at this point, and trawling with a device with an opening of 60 centimeters wide and 30 high produces fragments and fragments of plastic, every –time.  I’m blown away by the volume of space that the ocean occupies;  yet everywhere, from the Pacific and now the Atlantic we find evidence of our own human stain in places never documented before.  Yes, the crap is here in the Atlantic too, that we can definitely now prove.

We talked as crew upon leaving the USVI, chatting about how any scientist wants to prove his or her hypothesis, but that it would have been far better to see us fail.  To see us find nothing.  Because that would mean that the horror that exists in the Northern Pacific is contained.  Well, we’ve just found out, in a first hand manner, that it’s no longer a concern to just one area of the world.

The crap is everywhere.

We can’t be under sail power when we trawl, as the boat speed is too great, so we’re resigned to cruising with the motor at about 1.5 knots during collection times. Last evening, my watch mates and I enjoyed the most beautiful sailing yet;  a reminder for me, personally why it’s of such importance to protect our oceans.  Our watch was from 14:00 to 20:00 hours, and Stephen Amato (the ship’s intern) and Leslie Moyer (A Bay area ocean activist) and I watched a waning moon rise into an incredible blanket of constellations: Orion, Cassiopia, Cepheus, Draco, The Seven Sisters, and more were spotted.  We had a few flying fish up on the deck, but otherwise, we had a quiet night of clipping along under full sail at about 8 knots.

It’s hard describe the feelings one has for his crewmates;  it’s like speedfriending.  There is such a surfeit of time at sea and you’ll find yourself knowing people at faster rates than you ever thought possible, you also find yourself less guarded, more generous, more empathetic, because if there is one thing that can’t happen under such tight quarters is conflict.  To let conflict emerge is a supreme detriment to the entire crew, and because of that, it’s quickly quashed any time it emerges.  On the flip side, in just three or four days, I’ve already found friends that will last a lifetime, as they share a passion for this issue, and a willingness to try to make a difference.  Special thanks to Aquapac and The Surfrider Foundation for helping me to make this voyage possible.

I apologize for the photo resolution.  Sending email via satellite is quite difficult.