Kan Dail
Ocean Voyages Institute is a nonprofit organization which is continuously working towards Ocean cleanup drive, preserving the oceans and teaching marine education. During its recent assignment, the crew of the marine plastic recovery boat has successfully removed 103 tons (206,000 pounds) of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is Huge, Kudos to the Team!
Till now, It is the area’s largest open ocean plastic cleanup on record as per the Ocean Voyages Institute, who operated the mission. The ocean cleanup mission started on 4th May, the intiture sent the crew on the sailing cargo ship, S/V KWAI, after three weeks of quarantine to ensure no one had COVID-19. The whole crew sailed to the world largest area of ocen plastic known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch where it is estimated around 79 thousand tons of ocean plastic floats between Hawaii and California.
The crew was led by Captain Brad Ives, said in an statement, “We are utilizing proven nautical equipment to effectively clean-up the oceans while innovating with new technologies,” said Mary Crowley, founder and executive director of Ocean Voyages Institute, in a statement. The crew used GPS satellite trackers to locate spots that were dense with discarded fishing nets.
“We exceeded our goal of capturing 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,” Crowley added. “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.”
After seven weeks of contonous operations, , the boat docked at the port of Honolulu on June 13 with an enormous amount of ocean plastic shared by Matson, a Honolulu-based company, is helping Ocean Voyages Institute by sorting the 206,000 pounds of trash for upcycling and safe disposal.
The primary ocean plastic trash that was found by the crew was fishing nets and according to a March 2018 study published in Scientific Reports, 46% of the total ocean plastic is in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The other waste that can be seen are single-use straws, bottles, and Q-tips; and tiny pieces of plastic debris called microplastics, which are often the result of larger plastic items that have broken down into near-microscopic pieces.
Single use of plastic should be banned by the ruling authority of all countries, if we want to make contribution in reducing ocean plastic. The plastic free lifestyle can certainly make a difference because most ocean plastic comes from the commercial fishing industry. Further, we all need to replace fish on your plate with vegan or fish free seafood.The Ocean Voyages Institute will run many such drives and if we wan to support the the intitute you can make donations on the nonprofit’s website.
Source: Green Matters