Before starting this trip I had close to zero sailing experience and my sea voyages were a few ferry rides. After 2 weeks at sea I have learned and experienced so much it is hard to sum it all up.
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The Ocean Cleanup: Final day of trawling
Last day of trawling today, and now we point straight for the Azores! 33 successful trawls under our belt.
Read MoreThe Ocean Cleanup: The ocean during night watch
Plastic pollution is more much important that I could ever imagine in deep waters. The trawlings today happened without any problem. Everybody seems confident for the utility of the research, so am I. We already have 297 samples for TOC to study. We are at the beginning of something big!
Read MoreThe Ocean Cleanup: Collecting plastic debris
In addition to our trawl sampling, we are accumulating quite the collection of larger plastic debris! So far on our journey we have retrieved crates, jugs, buoys, fenders, hausers, and floats.
Read MoreThe Ocean Cleanup: Halfway between Bermuda and the Azores
During the past 6 days, we have successfully deployed our Multi-level Trawl 18 times and are doing test-runs of our new Sighting Survey app, which will be officially launched during the upcoming Mega Expedition. We plan to arrive at the Azores on the 13th of July with 363 ocean plastic samples, 13 happy people, and a finalized version of The Ocean Cleanup Survey App for both Apple and Android smartphones.
Read MoreThe Ocean Cleanup: Plastic in the North Atlantic Gyre
On first impression, it seems possible to confirm the theory of a higher accumulation of plastic in the area called the center of the gyre. But only when all the samples have been processed in the Ocean Lab, and the results analyzed and discussed, will we be able to definitely confirm this theory. By the time this blog is posted, our team on the Sea Dragon will have already set sail in the direction of the Azores, where the boat and all the team will again reach safe land after having crossed the Atlantic Ocean collecting samples.
Read MoreThe Ocean Cleanup: Reaching the center of the North Atlantic Gyre
Lead Oceanographer for The Ocean Cleanup Foundation Julia Reisser wears a hat resembling the foil bags that trawl samples are stowed in for safe keeping. Written on her hat? Trawl 33, Net 11!
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The Ocean Cleanup: The illusion of emptiness in the ocean
Flying fish rush over the waves. First mate Shanley has spotted bioluminescence. We felt like we could almost touch the dolphins that briefly played around the boat. The emptiness is an illusion, that much is clear. There’s not just plastic in there, there’s life, there’s beauty. And this is what I think we came here for – life and beauty, to experience, and preserve.
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The Ocean Cleanup: Setting sail from Bermuda to Azores
We were soon back to routine sailing until about 1720 hours when Captain Eric spotted something large and white floating about 100M off the port bow. In addition to the trawl’s catch, we had been seeing mezzo-plastics (several cm-long), some larger, floating by all day but this object was big, coiled on itself like a great white serpent. Eric called out and immediately turned the boat toward the “thing” – we did not know what it was.
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Boyan Slat & Ocean Cleanup: Trawling in the North Atlantic Gyre
Today, with a now experienced crew and a comfortable 15 knot-wind, three back-to-back trawls were performed, each around an hour in length. Lots of millimetre to centimetre-sized particles were visible in the samples of the top few nets. Team member Francesco is currently working with some volunteers to clean the nets’ cod ends and prepare the samples for transportation.
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Boyan Slat & The Ocean Cleanup: Second day at sea
It’s our third day on board the Sea Dragon, our second day at sea. Most of us have never been on any type of sailboat, so the first and second day consisted of a lot of very basic training: how to pump the head, coil a rope, where all the supplies are kept. While still in the quiet harbor in Bermuda, we practiced putting the multi-level trawl in the water, each of us assigned a specific task, working as a team to ensure it was deployed safely.
Read MoreGulf Stream: A Seasoned Seasickie
Something within is driving me to find that awe moment of sailing that I had experienced from my first ever sailing on the Corwith Kramer and the second trip with Sea Dragon around the Dominican Republic. Reaching these moments where I felt high off of life is much more rewarding when I had to work for it.
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