Adios Easter Island, Bogus Moai, and Onto The Western South Pacific Gyre
By Anna Cummins on April 20, 2011
|
|
Tweet |
|
|
|
(Blog post by Stiv Wilson)
After a bit of a challenging embarking, where a strong southwesterly swell hammered the exposed volcanic coastline made for dangerous navigation in the runabouts, we're heading 276 degrees west by north, transecting the more disperse area of the South Pacific Gyre. Once the crew was settled aboard, several of the divers from our compliment explored a sunken Moai, which we learned was a fugazi. Apparently, the underwater Moai which serves as an attraction for many divers was a concrete facsimile placed by islanders to create a spectacle. While the divers dove, the surfers aboard, Jess, Kitt, Toby and myself, stood at the bow looking at macking, near perfect bomber waves from out the back as locals ripped it, hooting and hollering. We wished collectively we had one more day on land to ride.
After supper, we left under cover of darkness, with a waxing moon illuminating our path. Anna, the Swedish chemist who 5 Gyres works with on The United Nations Safe Planet Campaign took the helm, steering with astonishing accuracy for a first time helms(wo)man. Stoic and steely, she looked like a pro from the first breath of air filling our sails. Again, as in each leg of the South Atlantic, we had a tear in the mainsail that required immediate attention but thanks to Jeff and Jason and a couple of headlamps, the repair was swiftly made.
It's a nice schedule. We have a mere 2,300 miles to cover in roughly 19 days to arrive at Tahiti on th 3rd, which makes for low pressure sailing; many of our expedition legs have required us to make upwards of 160 nautical miles a day, which made for less time to spend documenting the macro plastic marine pollution, turning our attention to ensuring that we get our transect microplastic samples. Though we don't study the large debris, what's essential about the 5 Gyres expeditions is to educate our crew, and then the larger stakeholder public on how plastic pollution in the ocean truly manifests. The number of people who have looked at plastic pollution in the ocean in an actual gyre remains painfully low, and thus, misinformation of how it proliferates is massive. Our crew is 14 of a total 27 (including the leggers from Valdevia to Easter) who have ever been to The South Pacific Gyre to look at plastic pollution firsthand. That's not much when we're talking about a global problem that affects 7.5 billion people. Always fighting the conception that plastic in the ocean appears like an island, we try very hard with both still photography, written word and film to portray what it really looks like out here, and then try to explain how big the ocean really is in the greater context. Finding even one bucket lid, toothbrush, laundry basket etc. in the size of a football field along with the mostly ever present microplastic plastic pollution may at first blush sound scarce. But when you start working through the mental pemutations of area of ocean surface (70% of the earth's surface) times widescale use of consumer plastic over the past five decades, where more plastic has been produced in the first ten years of this century then all of the last century, it starts to give the conscious human the cosmic heebie jeebies. And hopefully great pause.
I'm excited. The crew is top notch both on a personable and professional level and each represents a constituency and network crucial for fomenting global behavior with regard to this wondrous material that comprises nearly every thing we touch. As the bio post indicated, we have quite an extraordinary mix of talents on this voyage, scientifc, journalistic, medical, activist, and educational. One of the scientists, Garen Baghdasarian, is looking at a possible corelation between global phytoplankton drops starting about the same time widescale plastic production began. It's interesting work, and I'd like to stress that it's in its very incipient stages, and no claims are yet being made. But it's an important research question he is asking about complex relationships in our shared ocean ecosystem, and the possible ramifications of global consumer culture.
More on the crew's interest in joining the expedition in subsequent posts, now I have to start cooking chicken and dumplings. Ahoy, over and out.
After a bit of a challenging embarking, where a strong southwesterly swell hammered the exposed volcanic coastline made for dangerous navigation in the runabouts, we're heading 276 degrees west by north, transecting the more disperse area of the South Pacific Gyre. Once the crew was settled aboard, several of the divers from our compliment explored a sunken Moai, which we learned was a fugazi. Apparently, the underwater Moai which serves as an attraction for many divers was a concrete facsimile placed by islanders to create a spectacle. While the divers dove, the surfers aboard, Jess, Kitt, Toby and myself, stood at the bow looking at macking, near perfect bomber waves from out the back as locals ripped it, hooting and hollering. We wished collectively we had one more day on land to ride.
After supper, we left under cover of darkness, with a waxing moon illuminating our path. Anna, the Swedish chemist who 5 Gyres works with on The United Nations Safe Planet Campaign took the helm, steering with astonishing accuracy for a first time helms(wo)man. Stoic and steely, she looked like a pro from the first breath of air filling our sails. Again, as in each leg of the South Atlantic, we had a tear in the mainsail that required immediate attention but thanks to Jeff and Jason and a couple of headlamps, the repair was swiftly made.
It's a nice schedule. We have a mere 2,300 miles to cover in roughly 19 days to arrive at Tahiti on th 3rd, which makes for low pressure sailing; many of our expedition legs have required us to make upwards of 160 nautical miles a day, which made for less time to spend documenting the macro plastic marine pollution, turning our attention to ensuring that we get our transect microplastic samples. Though we don't study the large debris, what's essential about the 5 Gyres expeditions is to educate our crew, and then the larger stakeholder public on how plastic pollution in the ocean truly manifests. The number of people who have looked at plastic pollution in the ocean in an actual gyre remains painfully low, and thus, misinformation of how it proliferates is massive. Our crew is 14 of a total 27 (including the leggers from Valdevia to Easter) who have ever been to The South Pacific Gyre to look at plastic pollution firsthand. That's not much when we're talking about a global problem that affects 7.5 billion people. Always fighting the conception that plastic in the ocean appears like an island, we try very hard with both still photography, written word and film to portray what it really looks like out here, and then try to explain how big the ocean really is in the greater context. Finding even one bucket lid, toothbrush, laundry basket etc. in the size of a football field along with the mostly ever present microplastic plastic pollution may at first blush sound scarce. But when you start working through the mental pemutations of area of ocean surface (70% of the earth's surface) times widescale use of consumer plastic over the past five decades, where more plastic has been produced in the first ten years of this century then all of the last century, it starts to give the conscious human the cosmic heebie jeebies. And hopefully great pause.
I'm excited. The crew is top notch both on a personable and professional level and each represents a constituency and network crucial for fomenting global behavior with regard to this wondrous material that comprises nearly every thing we touch. As the bio post indicated, we have quite an extraordinary mix of talents on this voyage, scientifc, journalistic, medical, activist, and educational. One of the scientists, Garen Baghdasarian, is looking at a possible corelation between global phytoplankton drops starting about the same time widescale plastic production began. It's interesting work, and I'd like to stress that it's in its very incipient stages, and no claims are yet being made. But it's an important research question he is asking about complex relationships in our shared ocean ecosystem, and the possible ramifications of global consumer culture.
More on the crew's interest in joining the expedition in subsequent posts, now I have to start cooking chicken and dumplings. Ahoy, over and out.
The Plastic Promise
By taking this pledge, you can make a difference.
Take and Share the Plastic Promise
