By Frederick Smith
I joined By the Ocean We Unite’s sailing expedition on the Fantastiko in August 2018 to test for micro-plastic concentrations in northern European seas. As I traveled around the world for the prior eight months to learn about coral reef conservation, plastic litter in the ocean was an indelible visual reminder of our human impact on planet Earth. If I saw plastic in the water column or hung up on reefs while diving, I would stuff it in my suit to throw out later. Sometimes there was just too much floating in the ocean and too widely dispersed, making me feel powerless. In contrast, my experience in Copenhagen, Denmark reinforced my perception that Europe was way ahead of the rest of the world in reducing plastic pollution. I was to learn over the next ten days that, even with visual improvements, micro-plastics – which are hard to see with the naked eye – are pervasive in all our seas, very difficult to clean up, and a bigger global problem than I realized.
“It is now being found in so many organisms living in and from the sea,” said Karl Beerenfenger, BTOWU’s expedition leader. “All those plastics out there fragmenting, being dispersed, are super hard to remove. There are so many lives on this planet that ingest plastic and we don’t [know] what that does to our bodies. A lot of research is needed still, but I have to say it’s not really healthy for us.”
Read more about the expedition and the epic cast of characters on board.
