For 48 days, the world’s largest marine cleanup expedition successfully removed tons of plastic from the ocean in what is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Ocean Voyages Institute, a non-profit organization to help preserve the world’s oceans, was in charge of this titanic mission.
Ocean Voyages Institute’s cleanup is so far the largest ever to be conducted in the Pacific Ocean patch. This remote area of the ocean between California and Hawaii is a vortex where trash swirls in piles in the ocean waters. An overwhelming amount of fishery-derived plastics, as well as single-use plastics, pile up in the area, forming entire islands of trash. For this reason, it has been variously referred to as Garbage Island, Toxic Island, Plastic Continent, or Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Nets, the ultimate danger
The institute’s cleanup expedition managed to remove a staggering amount of 103 tons of trash from the ocean. The items that turned up the most in the collection were commercial fishing gear and ‘ghost nets.’ The latter are fishing nets thrown overboard instead of being disposed of properly. Unfortunately, and as expected, the expedition team found numerous turtle skeletons entangled in the debris. A sign that the tons of garbage discarded into the ocean is causing abysmal damage to marine ecosystems.
The team celebrated the world’s largest marine cleanup and the tons of plastic they managed to remove from the ocean. Mary Crowley, founder and executive director of Ocean Voyages Institute, commented:
“We surpassed our goal of capturing 100 tons of toxic consumer plastics and abandoned ‘ghost’ nets. In these challenging times, we continue to help restore the health of our ocean, which impacts our health and the health of the planet. The oceans cannot wait for these nets and debris to decompose into microplastics that harm the ocean’s ability to store carbon and poison the fragile ocean food web.”
A long road ahead
The amount of plastic waste is significant, but the amount of human waste still lying in the ocean is of significant proportions. The team celebrated this small victory but is aware that there is a lot of work ahead. An estimated 80,000 metric tons of plastic remain in the garbage patch. The team hopes to escalate the cleanup expedition with three more ships working for months to collect more trash that will eventually be brought ashore for recycling.
“I have no doubt that our job is to make the oceans healthier for the planet and safer for marine wildlife, as these nets will never again entangle or harm a whale, dolphin, turtle, or reef,” Crowley finishes.
Text courtesy of Ecoosfera
Images courtesy of Ocean Voyages Institute
