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

The latest from Marcus aboard the Sea Dragon:

It's now day 3 in the South Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. There is more plastic in each of the two trawls we're using. We have a traditional plankton tow that can be used at 3 knots of speed maximum. Since we can't cross the ocean at 3 knots, we're limited to trawling a couple of hours each day. To solve this we built the HI-SPEED trawl. Imagine a miniature model of the Starship Enterprise from the Star Trek TV series. It looks like that, but with a big vertical mouth for gulping seawater. The beauty of this new design is that it can travel 7-10 knots and still capture the surface of the ocean without surfing above it or diving below. It's our new invention and it works beautifully. We've deployed it twice. Each time it's filled with more plastic as we sail deeper into the widening gyre. Here's a reminder from our Indian Ocean Gyre expedition of why Captains will love to high speed trawl:



We are now in the accumulation zone of the South Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. Every trawl is filled with the typical confetti of plastic fragments. It's now 10:00pm and the hi-speed trawl will be deployed till sunrise. At night we expect to find fish in the net, which we will investigate for plastic ingestion. There are 1,400 nautical miles and 10 days to go. More tomorrow...