Tuesday, June 23rd, Ocean Voyages Institute’s marine plastic recovery ship, S/V KWAI, docked at the port of Honolulu. The ship returned after a 48-day mission at sea. They had on board 103 tons (103,000 Kg/206,000 lbs) of fishing nets and plastic waste that they had extracted from the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone. Often called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Gyre).
They had removed 48 tons (48,000 kg/96,000 lbs) of plastic in their 2019 voyages, staying 25-days at sea. This included cleaning up nets and plastics that clogged the Hawaiian Islands. This time, they more than doubled the record they held in the past.
What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
The North Pacific gyre is a large system of circulating ocean currents. A colossal amount of waste such as plastic, chemical slug, wood pulp, and other debris resides here. The ever growing amounts of waste plastic circulates to this ocean region from countries in Asia, North and South America.
An estimated 10 million tons of plastic each year ends up in the ocean. Ocean currents carry this plastic into massive garbage patches across the world. The largest of them all is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an area that covers twice the size of Texas, USA. Human trash is scatter all across this region – some of which is floating on the surface. Over 80,000 metric tons of plastic floats around here. Half of the plastic consists of fishing nets, lines and ropes due to intense fishing activity. The rest comes from plastic bottles, films and such. Most of this plastic eventually breaks into smaller pieces without degrading; becoming microplastics. The microplastics are then eaten by fishes and other marine life. The fish with plastics then end up in our dinner tables. 60% of the population of sea birds and whales, and almost all species of sea turtles have microplastics in their bodies.
Where is the Great Pacific Patch located?
When carefully observed, the patch is two masses of garbage. The “Eastern Garbage Patch” lies between Hawaii and California. The other, the “Western Garbage Patch” is located towards the east from Japan to the Hawaii Islands. An ocean current called the Subtropical Convergence Zone connects the two patches over a distance of 6000 miles.
Mary Crowley
The founder and executive director of the Ocean Voyages Institute, Mary Crowley, says that they will head back in two days to collect even more debris. “I am so proud of our hard working crew,” says Crowley. “We exceeded our goal of capturing more than 100 tons of toxic consumer plastics and derelict ‘ghost’ nets—and in these challenging times, we are continuing to help restore the health of our ocean, which influences our own health and the health of the planet.”
Mary Crowley is sometimes called the ‘Ghost Net Buster’. This is so because she develops effective methods to remove significant amounts of plastic debris from the ocean.
Crowley adds: “The oceans can’t wait for these nets and debris to break down into microplastics which impair the ocean’s ability to store carbon and toxify the fragile ocean food web.”
Since 2018, the team has been using GPS satellite trackers designed with the help of an engineer, Andy Sybrandy, of Pacific Gyre, Inc. Mary Crowley’s theorised that one tracker will lead to many nets because the ocean ‘sorts’ floating debris. This theory proved successful. Tagged fishing nets led to other nets and debris within a 15 mile radius. The team traces debris with precision by using GPS trackers along with satellite imagery. Additionally, they also use drones and the lookouts so that the crew close in on the nets.
Crowley said, “We are utilizing proven nautical equipment to effectively clean-up the oceans while innovating with new technologies. Ocean Voyages Institute has been a leader in researching and accomplishing ocean clean-up for over a decade, granted with less fanfare and attention than others, but with passion and commitment and making meaningful impacts.”
Related: Germany bans single-use plastics like straws
Zero Percent In Landfill
The team has made a commitment of letting 0% of the debris ending up in any landfill. They have been sorting and sending the debris to recycling companies.
Honolulu-based company, Matson has been supporting Ocean Voyages Institute .
Matt Cox, chairman and CEO, said, “In keeping with our commitment to environmental stewardship, Matson has been searching for a way to get involved in cleaning up the Pacific. We’ve been impressed with the groundbreaking efforts of Ocean Voyages Institute and the progress they’ve made with such a small organization, and we hope our support will help them continue this important work.”
Before setting sail, KWAI’s multinational crew took a three week self-imposed quarantine period. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic everyone wanted to be sure that everyone was healthy before leaving.
“Our solutions are scalable, and next year, we could have three vessels operating in the North Pacific Gyre for three months all bringing in large cargos of debris,” says Crowley.
The team hopes to expand to other parts of the world in desperate need of ocean cleaning. They want to stop fishing nets from entangling and harming whales, dolphins, turtles or reef.
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