Left bottom: Pro surfer James Pribram with plastic debris in South Atlantic Gyre
Photo: Stiv Wilson
Left: Plastic
fragments with Man of War Jelly Fish
Our objective from Brazil to South Africa is to collect samples and analyse the South Atlantic gyre (accumulations zone) where marine debris is known to be gathering in increasing quantities; we are doing this in order to be able to understand the scale of the issue. Scientifi cally it is a straight line, A to B trawling at regular sixty nautical miles intervals across the ocean, a regular analysis of the ocean neatly fi tted onto a map with associated data; science getting nature to conform. After fi ve days of strong head winds under the infl uence of the
South Atlantic high pushing further south than we would like we have found ourselves with winds reaching over forty knots on occasions and our progress hampered, scientifi c work suspended and having to heave to for twenty-four hours, a slight kink in the straight line. Nature does not conform, does not recognise schedules, investment or time frames. There was a time when we worked in harmony now increasingly we wish to control and infl uence her outcomes.
Onboard once we are visibly into the accumulation zone, we are regularly passing fl oating plastic, pieces of manmade junk out here in the centre of the South Atlantic. Over 1,500 miles from land, London is closer to the Arctic then we are to land and yet we see bottles, packaging materials, plastic sheet, spray bottles even a laundry basket passing by. We continue to try and control nature, sophistication, technology and development push things forward but in the process we are polluting the essentials to life, air, water and food. Never is that more apparent than here. We look out for marine debris ahead whilst trawling for particulate samples behind. There is never a long wait to fi nd evidence of man- made, land-sourced trash out here in the middle of the ocean; plastic sheet, plastic fi lm, plastic wire, plastic boxes, plastic packaging, a plastic basket, construction hat, bottles, containers, and rope all fl oating around the gyre, we scoop them up. The idea of a clean-up is futile against the scale of the ocean, for us it is about documenting and raising awareness on the issue the staggering scale of which is unfolding.
All of the above was collected in one day, altering course slightly to retrieve what we saw from the deck, a tiny swath through the infi nite ocean. Quite visibly there is human synthetic waste out here released into the environment, blown off the land, washed down watercourses leading downstream to the ocean. Invisibly over time
plastics photo-degrade into smaller and smaller pieces breaking down, fragmenting but still in the ocean. Our sixty-centimeter wide Manta trawl reveals the scale of the issue there, sieving the ocean surface at sixty-mile intervals for two miles we collect without fail every single time plastic particulate, a confetti of plastic waste released into this great ocean wilderness. If that were not shocking enough there is growing evidence of marine wildlife consuming plastic; marine birds, starving themselves and their dependant young in the process, fi lter feeders sieving through the ocean, turtles who mistake plastic bags for jellyfi sh and fi sh feeding on plastic. Surface feeders such as triggerfi sh are known to eat plastic, this plastic bio-magnifi es through the food chain of which we are at the top. Not only that but plastics in the environment absorb toxins, the same toxic plastics soup is threatening our food chain.
Knowledge By day, despite this knowledge, we fi sh. It has been a while since we caught our supper out here. By night as the mind visualizes the thousands of stars refl ected in the ocean as plastic particles on the water we know that the ocean will never be the same again. Cape Town; for centuries a welcome and unmistakable landmark welcomes us; the unmistakable Table Mountain looms South East some thirty miles distant. It is dusk on our thirtieth day at sea we all need this landfall. I have often told crew how offshore with a good crew, well-founded boat and good weather things are pretty straightforward, it is the bits around the edges that pose the greatest challenge. A fog bank rolls in, a dense cloud from the land in a line; we close on it, still seeing Table Mountain above until the visibility is reduced completely and we are completely reliant upon the radar AIS and sound signals. It makes for a long night. In the small hours we dock under an invisible Table Mountain. All the bars are shut; only the Sea Lions are awake, raising an eyebrow as we disturb their sleep on the pontoon. At dawn the fog clears to reveal Table Mountain towering above us, forever guarding the passage around South Africa; for millennia watching out over the ocean travelers from the earliest global pioneers to today’s merchant traders, fi shermen and seafarers. The view has remained unchanged – the only difference lies almost invisibly on the surface. CY
cywinter 2011 69
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