Real-Time Notes from the Atlantic Gyre: Discovering the Atlantic Garbage Patch

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:

Discovery: The Atlantic Garbage Patch

25 33 18 North

62 26 47 West

After a temporary break in the weather and a fairly brutal night, the crew was up and in science mode again.  Just around 11 am, the sun broke and Marcus and Anna spotted what’s called a wind row or flotsam line.  The sea was fairly calm, and we followed the row.

Flotsam lines like this form on the boundary of the Gulf Stream and the stuff contained in them are either recycled through the gyre or pushed to shore—  they don’t remain in the gulf stream.  After several days of low yield sampling, more than 500 miles outside of Bermuda, we stumbled upon what we’re now calling the Atlantic garbage patch. 

For over an hour, we followed the line, scooping up debris every few seconds.  One rubber boot, 15 plastic bottle caps, random shards of plastic, a shotgun shell, clothes hangers, plastic bags—plastic, plastic, plastic.  Though we’re still not in the epicenter of  what comprises the Atlantic gyre,  we’re beginning to see an increase in debris. Anna and Marcus fear the density of the plastic will increase as we approach Bermuda.

Part of the ocean that comprises the Atlantic Gyre is the Sargasso Sea, so named for Sargassum, a green, free-floating plant that’s abundant here.  Big Sargassum patches are typically good indicators for the presence of marine debris.  Sure enough, they were full of the stuff.  What’s even more disturbing is the amount of debris that can’t be seen. Until happening upon the garbage patch, we hadn’t actually been trawling with the Manta trawler, the device that filters the sea water for micro pieces of plastic fragments.

If you’re following my updates, then I’m sure you’ve already heard me say this—  but to be this far out into the wilderness,  far, far away from any landmass and find that our ocean is ubiquitously filled with this stuff continues to challenge my abilities of comprehension.  The brute facticity of what we’re witnessing first hand is inescapable–  humans are breaking the ocean.

Once again, science will have to wait for calmer weather.  We’re full sail on a close reach with a double reefed mainsail and staysail (sails with decreased surface area for harsher conditions) averaging about 9-10 knots to the NE.  We’re trying to make up some ground and make Bermuda by the 17^th or 18^th.  The Sea Dragon can knock off about 200 miles a day easily if we have the right wind, but when the MantaTrawl is deployed to collect our plastic samples, we can’t go over 2.5 knots or the samples we’ll be compromised.  But, as I said in an earlier post, the North Atlantic is a far different beast than the North Pacific, and weather is a constant issue, so we talk advantage of the breaks in weather to conduct science.  Right now, we’re tracking a big low pressure system set to hammer the Bermuda and we’re hoping to stay ahead of it and make landfall safely.  If we can’t get there in time to beat the storm, we’ll have to stay offshore until it passes.

Thanks to Surfrider and Aquapac for getting me out here.

Editor’s note: We received the (above) video footage four days after the original post went online. We have updated it to include the footage.