Is Your Bottle Floating

Today I was surfing the net reading articles on pollution when I ran across the

5 Gyres Institute.  Their mission is to “conduct research and communicate about the global impact of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans and employ strategies to eliminate the accumulation of plastic pollution in the 5 subtropical gyres”.

To understand and study the impact of plastic pollution this organization has actually sailed through the 5 subtropical gyres.  They take examples of the ocean’s surface to quantity the mass, size, color and type of plastic floating inside the gyres.  Marine life is also collected for analysis.

Through their expeditions they have determined that: plastic pollution accumulates in oceanic gyres, plastic pollution dominates marine debris; plastic degrades at sea; plastic absorbs and releases chemicals, animals eat or get tangled in plastic pollution.

In May 2012 they will be doing a research voyage through the North Pacific

ocean to an area called the “Western Garbage Patch” and they have open crew

space still available.  The cost is $25,000 per person and all requirements must

be met in order to be accepted.  To learn more about the 5 Gyres Institute and

this expedition visit their website at: http://5gyres.org/get_involved/expeditions.

Below is a picture of  JUNKraft.  This raft traveled over 2,600 miles across the North Pacific

Gyre from California to Hawaii floating on 15,000 plastic bottles.