Research - Pelagic Plastic - Gyre Voyage 2005
Crew Accounts: 2005 Central Pacific Research Voyage
JODY ROLLA LEMMON
Underwater Videographer
As we set sail into the vast ocean of the pacific, chasing a high-pressure system hundreds of miles off of California, in search of a "garbage patch" wild images kept popping into my head. An image of an island of floating debris, in the middle of the ocean soon became a fixation. The reality of the situation was quite different. Although what we witnessed, over the course of our journey, never came close to an island of garbage the overall quantity of plastic was equally as appalling.
As a typical consumer of everyday products I never stopped to think of where all of the plastic waste from packaging and other products I was using was ultimately ending up. As we glided along passing a time zone and countless sea miles a trend began to take place, every few minutes a yell from one of the crew members would alter our course and we would be bearing down on some sort of floating piece of plastic debris. Whether it be a floating plastic fishing buoy or a plastic bottle of some sort, or if we were lucky a floating net to tag with the first wave of "Ghost Net" satellite tracking buoys for NOAA, they all shared something in common. They were plastic and they were going to be floating around the ocean for a long time, cluttering up and polluting our beautiful ocean.
Once we reached the gyre and the calm seas we dove over the side to take a closer look. During our countless night dives we encountered a multitude of ocean life. These creatures were countless species of jellyfish. These beautiful and cosmic creatures drift with the currents indiscriminately filtering ocean water through their delicate bodies. As my dive light shown through the water revealing an ocean thick with minute particles I began to realize that a vast majority of the particles were plastic fragments. The jellyfish were ingesting plastic along with their primary food, zooplankton. I then theorized that as the jelly fish were in turn consumed by animals higher up on the food chain we would ultimately be consuming a fish some day that would very likely have particles of plastic imbedded in their tissue. An alarming thought!
Once we had reached the end of our time in the gyre and we were heading home with all of our collected debris, it occurred to me that I had found my island of trash. Over the two weeks of collecting floating debris and buoys, we had accumulated enough trash to form a small island!
Read more on Jody's experience and view his video on the North Pacific Gyre Voyage at www.amphibiousproductions.com.
Updated:1/2/06