Real-Time Notes From the Atlantic Gyre: Big Weather and Ocean Trash

Wend magazine Editor-in-Chief and Surfrider Foundation Ambassador Stiv Wilson is on a sailboat with Dr. Marcus Eriksen of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation on an environmental research mission to explore plastic in the Sargasso Sea.

Here is his latest update, sent to Wend HQ via satellite:

HEAVY

23 55 09 N

62 53 04 W

It’s Tuesday 13:38 GMT, and the sea has gone rough.  We’ve encountered a fairly significant series of low pressure systems that is making the science work impossible.  Typically, from our position, the dominant wind comes from the West, so as we try to gain latitude northward towards Bermuda, being perpindincular to the wind makes for easy ground making.  But this system is a bit unusual and we’re taking our weather straight on the nose, from the North which makes gaining ground northward extremely difficult.

It’s our fifth day at sea and we’re 515 nautical miles south/southwest of Bermuda. Our current goal is just SE of there to a waypoint where we expect to find one of the densest marine debris zones in the Atlantic.  But the current state of the sea makes getting there tough business.  I’d estimate our seas at about 12-20 feet, and quite jumbled which makes getting about deck and the cabin difficult.

Currently, we’ve experienced sustained winds of 23 knots for over 24 hours now, with gusts up to 30+ and our on our watch we’re taking pretty heavy, bone-chilling spray.  Yesterday morning we were in calmish seas, 85 degrees and sunny. Now it’s full foul weather gear and chilled bodies on deck.

When tussling about like this, even the most stalwart salts are prone to extreme seasickness.  Already, seasickness has claimed most of the crew save for the Captain, the first mate and myself (I am blessed to be entirely unaffected by seasickness).  I can’t imagine the pain my fellow crew is suffering, but I can witness it in their faces as they attempt to carry on, one breath away from vomiting at any moment.  Seasickness is not only difficult to deal with, it’s extremely enervating and several of the crew have been relegated to their bunks by no choice of their own.  Being a soul unaffected, I attempt help pick up any slack.  I maintain good spirits as doing anything else is of real detriment to the crew.   I help the captain and mate with the running of the ship as best as I can and I’m taking artful care with the preparation of our meals as good food at sea raises spirits like nothing else.  Anna is quite gifted in the offshore culinary arts as well.

I’m feeling a bit sad for Anna and Marcus, as we’ve only managed to collect 7 gyre samples of the about the 25 that we hope to get on this leg of the voyage.  But the sea state makes trawling for plastic dangerous and impractical. They knew from the outset that documenting plastic pollution in the Atlantic would be much more challenging because unlike the Pacific Gyre,  the Atlantic doesn’t have that constant high pressure system that becalms the sea and makes research easy.  The only time that the high pressure would sit over our position is in May, but then you’re right on the cusp of hurricane season and thus, you’re essentially gambling on when the hurricane season will actually start and the risk then can be too great.  But if we can gain some latitude northwards we should have a couple days without strong weather where research will be more efficient.

Though sitting for five more days in inclement weather isn’t what anyone wants, everyone remains in good spirits.  But right now, here, in the Atlantic, taking two steps on deck is a challenge and being angry because of it is a useless emotion conjured by an egoist.  Though I can feel Anna and Marcus’s disappointment, there remains a very bright side (depending on your perspective- and ours is that a hypothesis of plastic concentrations in the Atlantic is confirmed) the first 7 samples have all shown strong evidence of plastic pollution.  This is absolutely astonishing to think about given our position and how far we are from any land mass.   To me, it’s fair to say that the shit is everywhere.  When looking at the samples, it might not appear like much, but remember, we’re taking only a 60-by-30 centimeter transect of the ocean’s entire surface volume.  You do the math.