5 Gyres - Understanding Plastic Pollution Through Exploration, Education, and Action

Latitude: 30 04.312 S,   Longitude: 112 51.078 E

Our first 24 hours on the Indian Ocean! Neither of us can quite believe we’re here.

When the opportunity arose 2 weeks ago to join a Dutch expedition from Perth to Mauritius, leaving...immediately, we both jumped at the opportunity. All right, I admit I had a few concerns, “but we JUST got home from 2 months on the Atlantic! And what about looking for a house to live in, and I’ve missed my family, and....” But having married a perpetual adventurer, it didn’t take long for his “life is short, opportunities like this just don’t come along often” approach to rub off on me.

This is truly a once in a lifetime experience. The expedition, headed up by a Dutch production company, retraces Darwin’s route around the world. Along the way, they are producing 35 documentary films, exploring various aspects of life since Darwin – from coral reef ecology to sea level rise to plastic.

And so we find ourselves passengers on the 250-foot clipper, the Stad Amsterdam, one of the most beautiful vessels we have ever seen. She carries 50 people – scientists, filmmakers, producers, authors, and a crew of 25 in charge of sailing the boat – i.e. no night watches for us!

We had our first chance to trawl today, an unexpected surprise. We had just spent an hour in discussion with the film crew about how to balance the ships need to arrive in Mauritius on time with our interest in trawling. Slowing a boat of this size is a major undertaking, and time is of the essence.  Marcus found a workshop and welding machine on board, and may try to design a high-speed trawl. Which would be a huge help.

And then magically, the boat slowed to 3.5 knots on her own, just long enough for us to throw the manta trawl in. Here’s what we pulled up:

A bowl full of juvenile Portuguese Man O War, with one visible piece of plastic. Our first piece of plastic from the Indian Ocean Gyre. And not likely to be our last.