20 Years Sailing Through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Mae Dorricott
Algalita are at the forefront of plastic research; surveying the state of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and encouraging behavioural change around its use. We caught up with Raquelle - Algalita Crew member and South Pacific coordinator, who has just landed back from their latest expedition across the Pacific.
Algalita is an NGO founded by Captain Charlie Moore. It was over 20 years ago when Captain Moore highlighted the ominous threat of the swirling aggregation of plastic out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It soon became known world-wide as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is the size of Texas I remember hearing once… but that was nearly 10 years ago.
Back in 2001, Charlie and his team identified that for every 1 lb of naturally occurring zooplankton, the basis of our ocean’s food chain, there were 6 lbs of plastic outweighing it. A ratio of 6:1 and proof that there was ingestion of plastic at this small scale of the food chain, was a huge spark that has lit the fire still burning now for a world without single-use plastic.
Algalita now are still at the forefront of encouraging change in the context of plastic usage, connecting young people with scientists, experts, politicians and businesses to have real conversations about plastic consumption. As originators in the field of plastic pollution prevention they are not just in the game of cleaning up trash - but aimed at mending a broken system by shifting the way humans think about their environment.
And amongst all of that, they are still surveying the state of the Pacific Gyre. This past year the crew spent 21 days out at sea… and it’s the worst they have ever seen.
For every 1 lb of naturally occurring zooplankton there are 6 lbs of plastic outweighing it. Photo: Algalita
Can you give a brief outline of what you guys were doing for 21 days out in the Pacific?
The core focus was to revisit and sample our 11 monitoring stations (first set up in 1999) to quantify sea surface plastics and plankton. We also worked alongside researchers from the International Pacific Research Center at University for Hawai’i, who have been mapping plastic accumulation. Our sampling will be used to ground truth the microplastic densities within the accumulation area.
As always we documented macro (larger debris) that we encountered... This time, however, it was what we could afford to process in the time we had, as the density was so high we didn’t have enough hands to collect, record, process, and document at the rate it was passing the vessel. We kept any coral or rafting specimen of interest that we found on the debris, gooseneck barnacles, Brizomes and pelagic crabs. Additionally, we collected other species such as coral, sponges, mussels and oysters, specimens not supposed to be growing in oligotrophic areas (100s of miles from land, and kms from the sea floor).
Also upon this voyage the Korean Broadcasting System, the national public broadcasting agency for South Korea, accompanied us to document the voyage and produce a documentary to raise awareness throughout South Korea.
Raquelle with Capt. Charlie Moore surveying their sample. Photo: Algalita
What's it like to be out at sea for such a long time with a small team?
In all honesty it is tough, you are confined to a very small world with no personal space, you operate on little sleep, in often high stress situations (big seas, sailing, maintenance issues) where the clock doesn’t stop. However, it is also a great place that teaches you resilience, compassion and understanding.
You learn to understand the importance of what you do or don’t do, say or don’t say, and the impact that has on people, and you learn respect; respect for the ocean, for the vessel that is your island, and for the people you are with; to respect their needs, their space and them as individuals in both their strengths and weaknesses. And you learn to value the small things, laughter, kindness, fresh fruit, and water.
You've been out to the Pacific with Captain Moore before... how was this voyage different from the last?
I’ve done over 18,000 nm with Capt. Moore now in both the North and South Pacific, but this one was certainly different... Not only was it much more intensive because it was such a short period of time but it was emotionally heavy because of what we saw. In the 20 years that Captain Moore has been researching this was the worst, by far, he’s ever seen. It is hard to find words to describe it to be honest, but it is the weight of how proceeded the plague is, and it’s worse the more time you’ve spent at sea because you know how bad it really is.
Being so far from human civilisation and yet being so thick in our waste was really unsettling. It makes me wonder, how have our priorities as beings shifted so drastically during such a short existence to being so destructive.
“In the 20 years that Captain Moore has been researching this was the worst, by far, he’s ever seen.”
This voyage is part of your 20 year monitoring programme, but can you tell us any results from this trip?
We don’t have any results just yet as all our samples have to go into the lab for analysis. However, subjectively, we noticed differences in the ecology, such as very little life in the samples of highest density, than what we have experienced there before. New fish species we hadn’t seen living in plastic debris before and an astronomical amount of fishing and aquaculture debris.
Fishing nets and aquaculture equipment are common sights on the voyage. Photo: Algalita
Did you have any stand out moments during this trip?
Hmm… we saw a great green flash! Possibly one of the best I’ve seen! Can’t ever get enough of dolphins either. We rendezvoused with some of the greatest humans from The Vortex Swim - was pretty awesome coordinating with and then meeting up with a group of like-minded and motivated people, fighting the same fight, yet full of positive vibes and aspirations!
Raquelle with members of the Vortex Swim. Photo: Algalita
When people see the images of the plastic soup samples you collect, it can be pretty damn depressing... how can we, as individuals, help this issue?
First and foremost I think it is really important that we look at our own individual relationship with our waste, what are we throwing away, why are we throwing it away, where does it go and how does it get there? What would happen if it didn’t go anywhere but stayed in our homes, on our properties? What would we change about how we live? And then start enacting that in our lives, because at the end of the day we are filling up our planet, which is our home.
We have to understand that it is a complex issue with many avenues that need solving. We need not to try and take it all on or expect it to just go away, but what we should expect is change. Change in how we see “waste”, change in our infrastructure and policies, change in production and manufacturing, and change in the value of plastic.To reach that change we as individuals need to support each other as we are making small changes, we need to support our communities that are taking steps to combat the issue, and we need to support the leaders that are looking towards that change, or find leaders that will.
A water sample taken on the voyage. Photo: Algalita
Inspiring stuff from the amazing team at @Algalita // @Algalita. Find out more about the amazing work that Algalita are doing here. And here is a link showcasing some of their research.