Crew Accounts: 2002 Central Pacific Research Voyage
Aug
11, 2002
Drew Wheeler
Underwater Videographer
ORV Alguita Crewmember 2002
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To be 1000 miles from any land, drag a net across the surface of what appears to the naked eye to be our beautiful Pacific Ocean for 15 minutes and wind up with a net full of various animals and…….PLASTIC…was to say the least, appalling. Hundreds of multi- colored bits of floating plastic out numbering ten-fold, the variety of animal specimens also captured.
Comparatively speaking, we are sampling the equivalent size of a teaspoon scraped across the Bonneville Salt Flats for 1 foot. Imagine what we would get if we had a net 3 times the size and trawled for 3 times as long.
I don SCUBA gear and a camera to join the world beneath only to see first hand the particles of plastic both floating at the surface and hovering within the current several feet below me. Amidst the gelatinous invertebrates that inhabit this aquatic desert, the plastic drifts. It matters not which way you look, it’s all around.
Another element to the realization of what we, as a race, are doing to our ecosystem has been seen. I have seen the effect of rain runoff in the harbors abroad but within days the water is clear. Now I know where it goes.
The biggest feeling of satisfaction that I have experienced thus far on this journey is knowing that I am in a position that enables me to film the direct impact of what most people will probably never see, therefore, help raise awareness and educate people to one of the most serious yet unknown issues facing our oceans today.
Posted: 8/30/02