It is widely known that extensive floating plastic islands have formed in the Pacific Ocean: a growing continent of bottles, packaging materials and other waste. It is less well known that all seas now have an upper layer full of micro and nanoplastic particles. It has been observed that a three meter top layer of seawater all over the world has been polluted in this way. However there is still a lot that we don't know, for instance:
- ... how much deeper does it go?
- What are the consequences for aquatic ecosystems?
- ... and directly, for life in the sea?
- ... for oxygen production on earth?
- What are the consequences in the food chain?
- And how acute or how insidious is the danger?
- Will a herring soon be partly fish, partly plastic?
There are still a lot of unknowns, but it is very important that we learn about it. Hard facts are also badly needed to gain political momentum in the area of environmental responsibility. We work together with various oceanographic research institute. A researcher of One Planet One Ocean (a Unesco project) aboard the ship guides the participants in the proper implementation of the research.
Learn more at an informaton meeting. Leave us a message and we'll send you an invitation.
The girl in the photograph determines the ship's position by optical means (watching the sun, the horizon and using tables). This course in classical navigation is given on board, but for the registration of the sea water samples we use GPS data, which is faster and more accurate.
