You might be wondering what The Ocean Cleanup finds most often in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. During each plastic extraction, we capture thousands of plastic items. The crew then has the huge task of categorizing and individually inspecting every object to learn more about what’s really accumulating in the massive gyre.

The Ocean Cleanup has found that a surprising 75% to 86% of plastics in the garbage patch actually come from fishing activities at sea. Nets, ropes, buoys, floats, and other fishing gear are incredibly common items we pulled out of the ocean. It’s important to remove these bigger pieces of plastic before they find their way to shore and break down into microplastics.

I was amazed to see how many eel traps there were (actually, first I had to learn what eel traps even were!). We decided to make a point and put aside as many traps as possible so we could photograph the scale. The black traps seen here were only collected from a couple extractions. If we put them aside every extraction, it would be an unimaginable amount! This was definitely one of my favorite shots I put together, as one of my goals while out there was to help create impactful visuals to shine light on the issue of plastic pollution.

Stay tuned for my next posts, showcasing some of the weird and interesting items we collected!

Here you can see where I did my "Eel Trap Angel"

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Exciting News: 🙌 I’m working offshore again to document The Ocean Cleanup’s newest and biggest cleanup system, System 002/C. I’m in the middle of a three-month stint documenting the testing phases of this growing system before they officially transition to System 03. Scaling up is critical to The Ocean Cleanup’s objective to put the Great Pacific Garbage Patch where it belongs: in history books.

The system is getting so big I am literally having to fly my drone above the clouds to get it all in the frame. ☁️ So far, it’s been an incredible and successful trip and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Copyright

The Ocean Cleanup / Shot by Toby Harriman

see how it was done: www.450years.com

You might be wondering what The Ocean Cleanup finds most often in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. During each plastic extraction, we capture thousands of plastic items. The crew then has the huge task of categorizing and individually inspecting every object to learn more about what’s really accumulating in the massive gyre.

The Ocean Cleanup has found that a surprising 75% to 86% of plastics in the garbage patch actually come from fishing activities at sea. Nets, ropes, buoys, floats, and other fishing gear are incredibly common items we pulled out of the ocean. It’s important to remove these bigger pieces of plastic before they find their way to shore and break down into microplastics.

I was amazed to see how many eel traps there were (actually, first I had to learn what eel traps even were!). We decided to make a point and put aside as many traps as possible so we could photograph the scale. The black traps seen here were only collected from a couple extractions. If we put them aside every extraction, it would be an unimaginable amount! This was definitely one of my favorite shots I put together, as one of my goals while out there was to help create impactful visuals to shine light on the issue of plastic pollution.

Stay tuned for my next posts, showcasing some of the weird and interesting items we collected!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Every other month or so, support vessels have to test their firefighting (aka FiFi) equipment. The ship I was on for The Ocean Cleanup, called the Maersk Tender, had the capacity of pumping an impressive amount of water—for those who like stats, that’s two pumps, each spraying 1,200 cubic meters of water each hour with a throw length of 120 meters and a height of 60 meters!

Near the end of our trip, the Chief Engineer warned me he was going to do the test and of course, I made sure I had the drone up and ready to capture this moment. I didn’t expect to get such amazing rainbows at the same time, but I am definitely not complaining. What a beautiful test!

A week after the FiFi test, when we arrived back onshore in Victoria, BC to do a crew change so we could head right back out and keep our operation going, the world had different plans for us. There was an emergency with a nearby container ship that had sailed through rough weather entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca, losing 109 containers before anchoring several kilometers off the southern coast of Vancouver Island. After anchoring, a fire started in the containers.

Maersk offered support to the Canadian Coast Guard, and it turned out that the Maersk Tender and Maersk Trader (both contracted by The Ocean Cleanup) were the only vessels with firefighting capabilities for hundreds of miles. With all parties agreeing, The Ocean Cleanup crew ended up departing the vessel to a nearby hotel while the amazing Maersk crew went to assist and help cool the hull of the ship until the fire was put off. After a few days and a much-needed break on land for me personally, we headed back out to continue removing floating plastics from the ocean.

Maersk Supply Service

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch #PlasticFreeOceans #CleanOceans

During my first trip on assignment for @theoceancleanup, I was fortunate to be joined by Dan van der Kooy. Dan has worked with The Ocean Cleanup for 6+ years, first as Senior Video Producer and now as Executive Producer. Dan brings a ton of experience but most importantly is a great human to be around.

We were based on separate vessels, and Dan often joined us on the Maersk Tender during plastic extractions so we could work together to capture all the angles. I focused on aerial shots while he focused on deck footage. For the most part, though, we worked apart, which added to the already challenging workflow of combining our footage to create mission report videos shared on YouTube. As you can imagine, internet is slow at sea, and getting footage to the editing team onshore added another obstacle.

We felt like we lived in two different worlds when we were only a mile away. Sometimes the swells were too high and we couldn’t make transfers with our FRC, which is a Fast Response Craft. The most memorable moment was when we really needed to get his video on an SD card over to me, but we were in that wrong weather window. Knowing we had a drone with a broken gimbal already, we decided to turn that baby into a mail carrier and Dan flew it over. If you’ve ever tried hand-catching a drone, it’s not too difficult, but now imagine being on a moving vessel and the pilot being a mile away on a different vessel. We chose the hard landing option and it worked out. I received his footage and sent it off to shore, so the world got to see the final piece the next day!

Pictured here are a few of my favorites of Dan in action.

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Exciting News: 🙌 I’m working offshore again to document The Ocean Cleanup’s newest and biggest cleanup system, System 002/C. I’m in the middle of a three-month stint documenting the testing phases of this growing system before they officially transition to System 03. Scaling up is critical to The Ocean Cleanup’s objective to put the Great Pacific Garbage Patch where it belongs: in history books.

The system is getting so big I am literally having to fly my drone above the clouds to get it all in the frame. ☁️ So far, it’s been an incredible and successful trip and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Copyright

The Ocean Cleanup / Shot by Toby Harriman

Every other month or so, support vessels have to test their firefighting (aka FiFi) equipment. The ship I was on for The Ocean Cleanup, called the Maersk Tender, had the capacity of pumping an impressive amount of water—for those who like stats, that’s two pumps, each spraying 1,200 cubic meters of water each hour with a throw length of 120 meters and a height of 60 meters!

Near the end of our trip, the Chief Engineer warned me he was going to do the test and of course, I made sure I had the drone up and ready to capture this moment. I didn’t expect to get such amazing rainbows at the same time, but I am definitely not complaining. What a beautiful test!

A week after the FiFi test, when we arrived back onshore in Victoria, BC to do a crew change so we could head right back out and keep our operation going, the world had different plans for us. There was an emergency with a nearby container ship that had sailed through rough weather entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca, losing 109 containers before anchoring several kilometers off the southern coast of Vancouver Island. After anchoring, a fire started in the containers.

Maersk offered support to the Canadian Coast Guard, and it turned out that the Maersk Tender and Maersk Trader (both contracted by The Ocean Cleanup) were the only vessels with firefighting capabilities for hundreds of miles. With all parties agreeing, The Ocean Cleanup crew ended up departing the vessel to a nearby hotel while the amazing Maersk crew went to assist and help cool the hull of the ship until the fire was put off. After a few days and a much-needed break on land for me personally, we headed back out to continue removing floating plastics from the ocean.

Maersk Supply Service

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch #PlasticFreeOceans #CleanOceans

Each shift at sea with The Ocean Cleanup is 6 weeks long. The commute to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch from Victoria, BC, takes 5-7 days, and then it’s another 5-7 days back. How fast we go depends on the weather. The bulk of the trip is spent in the garbage patch collecting plastic. While out there, my main assignment is to make photos and videos of everything going on. But being the camera guy, I also help with various inspections.

This allows me to multitask because the content I capture can not only be used in project updates, documentaries, and social media, but also for scientific research, daily inspections to see how the system is working or where it needs improvement, and many other uses. The imagery also helps the team gauge how full of plastic the system is getting, which gives us a better idea of how long until we need to extract it, and can even let us know if we need to find an area of water more densely polluted with plastic.

Each day consists of multiple aerial inspections with drones as well as underwater inspections with a GoPro mounted to a long pole. We usually like doing this at first light, throughout the day and in the evening before the sun goes down. The system itself has multiple cameras and sensors in the retention zone—the area plastic is held before extraction—but getting eyes from above and below allows us to really see everything that is going on. And for me, the ability to capture some really cool imagery!

These underwater shots show the retention zone starting to fill up, with fish swimming freely around it.

Maersk Supply Service

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch #PlasticFreeOceans #CleanOceans

Each shift at sea with The Ocean Cleanup is 6 weeks long. The commute to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch from Victoria, BC, takes 5-7 days, and then it’s another 5-7 days back. How fast we go depends on the weather. The bulk of the trip is spent in the garbage patch collecting plastic. While out there, my main assignment is to make photos and videos of everything going on. But being the camera guy, I also help with various inspections.

This allows me to multitask because the content I capture can not only be used in project updates, documentaries, and social media, but also for scientific research, daily inspections to see how the system is working or where it needs improvement, and many other uses. The imagery also helps the team gauge how full of plastic the system is getting, which gives us a better idea of how long until we need to extract it, and can even let us know if we need to find an area of water more densely polluted with plastic.

Each day consists of multiple aerial inspections with drones as well as underwater inspections with a GoPro mounted to a long pole. We usually like doing this at first light, throughout the day and in the evening before the sun goes down. The system itself has multiple cameras and sensors in the retention zone—the area plastic is held before extraction—but getting eyes from above and below allows us to really see everything that is going on. And for me, the ability to capture some really cool imagery!

This picture shows ocean plastic gathering in the retention zone. This is one of my favorites because you can see the system working as intended.

Maersk Supply Service

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch #PlasticFreeOceans #CleanOceans

You might be wondering what The Ocean Cleanup finds most often in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. During each plastic extraction, we capture thousands of plastic items. The crew then has the huge task of categorizing and individually inspecting every object to learn more about what’s really accumulating in the massive gyre.

The Ocean Cleanup has found that a surprising 75% to 86% of plastics in the garbage patch actually come from fishing activities at sea. Nets, ropes, buoys, floats, and other fishing gear are incredibly common items we pulled out of the ocean. It’s important to remove these bigger pieces of plastic before they find their way to shore and break down into microplastics.

I was amazed to see how many eel traps there were (actually, first I had to learn what eel traps even were!). We decided to make a point and put aside as many traps as possible so we could photograph the scale. The black traps seen here were only collected from a couple extractions. If we put them aside every extraction, it would be an unimaginable amount! This was definitely one of my favorite shots I put together, as one of my goals while out there was to help create impactful visuals to shine light on the issue of plastic pollution.

Stay tuned for my next posts, showcasing some of the weird and interesting items we collected!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Each shift at sea with The Ocean Cleanup is 6 weeks long. The commute to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch from Victoria, BC, takes 5-7 days, and then it’s another 5-7 days back. How fast we go depends on the weather. The bulk of the trip is spent in the garbage patch collecting plastic. While out there, my main assignment is to make photos and videos of everything going on. But being the camera guy, I also help with various inspections.

This allows me to multitask because the content I capture can not only be used in project updates, documentaries, and social media, but also for scientific research, daily inspections to see how the system is working or where it needs improvement, and many other uses. The imagery also helps the team gauge how full of plastic the system is getting, which gives us a better idea of how long until we need to extract it, and can even let us know if we need to find an area of water more densely polluted with plastic.

Each day consists of multiple aerial inspections with drones as well as underwater inspections with a GoPro mounted to a long pole. We usually like doing this at first light, throughout the day and in the evening before the sun goes down. The system itself has multiple cameras and sensors in the retention zone—the area plastic is held before extraction—but getting eyes from above and below allows us to really see everything that is going on. And for me, the ability to capture some really cool imagery!

These underwater shots show the retention zone starting to fill up, with fish swimming freely around it.

Maersk Supply Service

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch #PlasticFreeOceans #CleanOceans

Every other month or so, support vessels have to test their firefighting (aka FiFi) equipment. The ship I was on for The Ocean Cleanup, called the Maersk Tender, had the capacity of pumping an impressive amount of water—for those who like stats, that’s two pumps, each spraying 1,200 cubic meters of water each hour with a throw length of 120 meters and a height of 60 meters!

Near the end of our trip, the Chief Engineer warned me he was going to do the test and of course, I made sure I had the drone up and ready to capture this moment. I didn’t expect to get such amazing rainbows at the same time, but I am definitely not complaining. What a beautiful test!

A week after the FiFi test, when we arrived back onshore in Victoria, BC to do a crew change so we could head right back out and keep our operation going, the world had different plans for us. There was an emergency with a nearby container ship that had sailed through rough weather entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca, losing 109 containers before anchoring several kilometers off the southern coast of Vancouver Island. After anchoring, a fire started in the containers.

Maersk offered support to the Canadian Coast Guard, and it turned out that the Maersk Tender and Maersk Trader (both contracted by The Ocean Cleanup) were the only vessels with firefighting capabilities for hundreds of miles. With all parties agreeing, The Ocean Cleanup crew ended up departing the vessel to a nearby hotel while the amazing Maersk crew went to assist and help cool the hull of the ship until the fire was put off. After a few days and a much-needed break on land for me personally, we headed back out to continue removing floating plastics from the ocean.

Maersk Supply Service

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch #PlasticFreeOceans #CleanOceans

Long overdue, but it’s time to post more of the work I documented while out in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on assignment with @theoceancleanup in Fall 2021. I spent 3 months at sea during two back-to-back shifts. It was long but a highlight of my career and a project I can’t stop thinking about. I dream of getting back out there, which may happen this summer when they launch System 03—slated to be 10x as efficient as the previous system at removing floating plastics from the ocean.

To kick off these posts, I’m highlighting some of my favorite shots of evening work. These are 24/7 operations for 6 weeks at a time, so there’s always a crew working. Fortunately, I didn’t have to work the overnight shifts, but I enjoyed the quiet and peaceful evenings on the bridge once the busy day calmed down. It was always my favorite time to wind down with way too much espresso or Yorkshire tea and focus on backing up footage, editing, and hanging out with the night shift crew.

Pictured here:

Marcus, our Chief Officer; Maria, our Second Officer and Flemming “Sloth” Andersen: Client Representative

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Long overdue, but it’s time to post more of the work I documented while out in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on assignment with @theoceancleanup in Fall 2021. I spent 3 months at sea during two back-to-back shifts. It was long but a highlight of my career and a project I can’t stop thinking about. I dream of getting back out there, which may happen this summer when they launch System 03—slated to be 10x as efficient as the previous system at removing floating plastics from the ocean.

To kick off these posts, I’m highlighting some of my favorite shots of evening work. These are 24/7 operations for 6 weeks at a time, so there’s always a crew working. Fortunately, I didn’t have to work the overnight shifts, but I enjoyed the quiet and peaceful evenings on the bridge once the busy day calmed down. It was always my favorite time to wind down with way too much espresso or Yorkshire tea and focus on backing up footage, editing, and hanging out with the night shift crew.

Pictured here:

Marcus, our Chief Officer; Maria, our Second Officer and Flemming “Sloth” Andersen: Client Representative

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Every other month or so, support vessels have to test their firefighting (aka FiFi) equipment. The ship I was on for The Ocean Cleanup, called the Maersk Tender, had the capacity of pumping an impressive amount of water—for those who like stats, that’s two pumps, each spraying 1,200 cubic meters of water each hour with a throw length of 120 meters and a height of 60 meters!

Near the end of our trip, the Chief Engineer warned me he was going to do the test and of course, I made sure I had the drone up and ready to capture this moment. I didn’t expect to get such amazing rainbows at the same time, but I am definitely not complaining. What a beautiful test!

A week after the FiFi test, when we arrived back onshore in Victoria, BC to do a crew change so we could head right back out and keep our operation going, the world had different plans for us. There was an emergency with a nearby container ship that had sailed through rough weather entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca, losing 109 containers before anchoring several kilometers off the southern coast of Vancouver Island. After anchoring, a fire started in the containers.

Maersk offered support to the Canadian Coast Guard, and it turned out that the Maersk Tender and Maersk Trader (both contracted by The Ocean Cleanup) were the only vessels with firefighting capabilities for hundreds of miles. With all parties agreeing, The Ocean Cleanup crew ended up departing the vessel to a nearby hotel while the amazing Maersk crew went to assist and help cool the hull of the ship until the fire was put off. After a few days and a much-needed break on land for me personally, we headed back out to continue removing floating plastics from the ocean.

Maersk Supply Service

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch #PlasticFreeOceans #CleanOceans

During my first trip on assignment for @theoceancleanup, I was fortunate to be joined by Dan van der Kooy. Dan has worked with The Ocean Cleanup for 6+ years, first as Senior Video Producer and now as Executive Producer. Dan brings a ton of experience but most importantly is a great human to be around.

We were based on separate vessels, and Dan often joined us on the Maersk Tender during plastic extractions so we could work together to capture all the angles. I focused on aerial shots while he focused on deck footage. For the most part, though, we worked apart, which added to the already challenging workflow of combining our footage to create mission report videos shared on YouTube. As you can imagine, internet is slow at sea, and getting footage to the editing team onshore added another obstacle.

We felt like we lived in two different worlds when we were only a mile away. Sometimes the swells were too high and we couldn’t make transfers with our FRC, which is a Fast Response Craft. The most memorable moment was when we really needed to get his video on an SD card over to me, but we were in that wrong weather window. Knowing we had a drone with a broken gimbal already, we decided to turn that baby into a mail carrier and Dan flew it over. If you’ve ever tried hand-catching a drone, it’s not too difficult, but now imagine being on a moving vessel and the pilot being a mile away on a different vessel. We chose the hard landing option and it worked out. I received his footage and sent it off to shore, so the world got to see the final piece the next day!

Pictured here are a few of my favorites of Dan in action.

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Every other month or so, support vessels have to test their firefighting (aka FiFi) equipment. The ship I was on for The Ocean Cleanup, called the Maersk Tender, had the capacity of pumping an impressive amount of water—for those who like stats, that’s two pumps, each spraying 1,200 cubic meters of water each hour with a throw length of 120 meters and a height of 60 meters!

Near the end of our trip, the Chief Engineer warned me he was going to do the test and of course, I made sure I had the drone up and ready to capture this moment. I didn’t expect to get such amazing rainbows at the same time, but I am definitely not complaining. What a beautiful test!

A week after the FiFi test, when we arrived back onshore in Victoria, BC to do a crew change so we could head right back out and keep our operation going, the world had different plans for us. There was an emergency with a nearby container ship that had sailed through rough weather entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca, losing 109 containers before anchoring several kilometers off the southern coast of Vancouver Island. After anchoring, a fire started in the containers.

Maersk offered support to the Canadian Coast Guard, and it turned out that the Maersk Tender and Maersk Trader (both contracted by The Ocean Cleanup) were the only vessels with firefighting capabilities for hundreds of miles. With all parties agreeing, The Ocean Cleanup crew ended up departing the vessel to a nearby hotel while the amazing Maersk crew went to assist and help cool the hull of the ship until the fire was put off. After a few days and a much-needed break on land for me personally, we headed back out to continue removing floating plastics from the ocean.

Maersk Supply Service

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch #PlasticFreeOceans #CleanOceans

It’s something that I don’t spend much time thinking about…when I put plastic bottles in the recycle bin or drop them off at the recycling center in the past I haven’t considered what happens next. Without a lot of thought, I simply followed the prevailing wisdom that r...

www.shanesakata.com/after-the-recycling-bin-what-happens-...

Last post I talked about what we found most commonly in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Now you can see some of the more random and interesting items!

We had fun sorting through all the objects because you never know what you’ll find. During the two trips I was with The Ocean Cleanup, we collected baby bathtubs, toothbrushes, toy guns, toy soldiers, a Keen boot, flip flops, and even refrigerators. We also found a ton of floating golf balls that we speculated came from aquatic driving ranges or from people hitting balls off boats. While most of this plastic will be recycled into high-quality products, we saved some of the more fun items for a plastic museum someday!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

You might be wondering what The Ocean Cleanup finds most often in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. During each plastic extraction, we capture thousands of plastic items. The crew then has the huge task of categorizing and individually inspecting every object to learn more about what’s really accumulating in the massive gyre.

The Ocean Cleanup has found that a surprising 75% to 86% of plastics in the garbage patch actually come from fishing activities at sea. Nets, ropes, buoys, floats, and other fishing gear are incredibly common items we pulled out of the ocean. It’s important to remove these bigger pieces of plastic before they find their way to shore and break down into microplastics.

I was amazed to see how many eel traps there were (actually, first I had to learn what eel traps even were!). We decided to make a point and put aside as many traps as possible so we could photograph the scale. The black traps seen here were only collected from a couple extractions. If we put them aside every extraction, it would be an unimaginable amount! This was definitely one of my favorite shots I put together, as one of my goals while out there was to help create impactful visuals to shine light on the issue of plastic pollution.

Stay tuned for my next posts, showcasing some of the weird and interesting items we collected!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Un evento all'Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia.

Last post I talked about what we found most commonly in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Now you can see some of the more random and interesting items!

We had fun sorting through all the objects because you never know what you’ll find. During the two trips I was with The Ocean Cleanup, we collected baby bathtubs, toothbrushes, toy guns, toy soldiers, a Keen boot, flip flops, and even refrigerators. We also found a ton of floating golf balls that we speculated came from aquatic driving ranges or from people hitting balls off boats. While most of this plastic will be recycled into high-quality products, we saved some of the more fun items for a plastic museum someday!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Last post I talked about what we found most commonly in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Now you can see some of the more random and interesting items!

We had fun sorting through all the objects because you never know what you’ll find. During the two trips I was with The Ocean Cleanup, we collected baby bathtubs, toothbrushes, toy guns, toy soldiers, a Keen boot, flip flops, and even refrigerators. We also found a ton of floating golf balls that we speculated came from aquatic driving ranges or from people hitting balls off boats. While most of this plastic will be recycled into high-quality products, we saved some of the more fun items for a plastic museum someday!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Long overdue, but it’s time to post more of the work I documented while out in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on assignment with @theoceancleanup in Fall 2021. I spent 3 months at sea during two back-to-back shifts. It was long but a highlight of my career and a project I can’t stop thinking about. I dream of getting back out there, which may happen this summer when they launch System 03—slated to be 10x as efficient as the previous system at removing floating plastics from the ocean.

To kick off these posts, I’m highlighting some of my favorite shots of evening work. These are 24/7 operations for 6 weeks at a time, so there’s always a crew working. Fortunately, I didn’t have to work the overnight shifts, but I enjoyed the quiet and peaceful evenings on the bridge once the busy day calmed down. It was always my favorite time to wind down with way too much espresso or Yorkshire tea and focus on backing up footage, editing, and hanging out with the night shift crew.

Pictured here:

Marcus, our Chief Officer; Maria, our Second Officer and Flemming “Sloth” Andersen: Client Representative

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

You might be wondering what The Ocean Cleanup finds most often in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. During each plastic extraction, we capture thousands of plastic items. The crew then has the huge task of categorizing and individually inspecting every object to learn more about what’s really accumulating in the massive gyre.

The Ocean Cleanup has found that a surprising 75% to 86% of plastics in the garbage patch actually come from fishing activities at sea. Nets, ropes, buoys, floats, and other fishing gear are incredibly common items we pulled out of the ocean. It’s important to remove these bigger pieces of plastic before they find their way to shore and break down into microplastics.

I was amazed to see how many eel traps there were (actually, first I had to learn what eel traps even were!). We decided to make a point and put aside as many traps as possible so we could photograph the scale. The black traps seen in earlier pictures were only collected from a couple extractions. If we put them aside every extraction, it would be an unimaginable amount! This was definitely one of my favorite shots I put together, as one of my goals while out there was to help create impactful visuals to shine light on the issue of plastic pollution.

Stay tuned for my next posts, showcasing some of the weird and interesting items we collected!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

During my first trip on assignment for @theoceancleanup, I was fortunate to be joined by Dan van der Kooy. Dan has worked with The Ocean Cleanup for 6+ years, first as Senior Video Producer and now as Executive Producer. Dan brings a ton of experience but most importantly is a great human to be around.

We were based on separate vessels, and Dan often joined us on the Maersk Tender during plastic extractions so we could work together to capture all the angles. I focused on aerial shots while he focused on deck footage. For the most part, though, we worked apart, which added to the already challenging workflow of combining our footage to create mission report videos shared on YouTube. As you can imagine, internet is slow at sea, and getting footage to the editing team onshore added another obstacle.

We felt like we lived in two different worlds when we were only a mile away. Sometimes the swells were too high and we couldn’t make transfers with our FRC, which is a Fast Response Craft. The most memorable moment was when we really needed to get his video on an SD card over to me, but we were in that wrong weather window. Knowing we had a drone with a broken gimbal already, we decided to turn that baby into a mail carrier and Dan flew it over. If you’ve ever tried hand-catching a drone, it’s not too difficult, but now imagine being on a moving vessel and the pilot being a mile away on a different vessel. We chose the hard landing option and it worked out. I received his footage and sent it off to shore, so the world got to see the final piece the next day!

Pictured here are a few of my favorites of Dan in action.

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

There is no water in this photo.

If you haven't read about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, you ought to. There is an area of ocean twice as large as Texas in the northern Pacific ocean, filled with plastic. Despite the sound of the name, it is not an island of garbage. Most of the plastic floats suspended a few inches beneath the waves, slowly breaking into smaller and small pieces, which are finding their way into our food chain.

The garbage patch is no one's fault—and it's everyone's. The garbage has largely found its way there by blowing into the water from land, and then following currents. It comes from many different countries. No one is likely to clean it up successfully.

My wife and I battle daily against the accumulation of plastic. I carry a cloth shopping bag with me and refuse bags whenever I can. But despite all this you can't avoid it entirely. Still, I'd hazard a guess that you could fill a sizeable room with the bags that I have refused over the years.

Strangely enough, plastic bags have a lower environmental impact to manufacture than paper. But the fact remains that any paper blown into the ocean biodegrades, and becomes harmless. Plastic does not, and is not.

The plastic bags I used for this photo are from our dry-cleaner. They seem to be a necessary evil. I've been saving them up for some time, and figure that at least they can serve as an eye-opener before going into the trash.

/soapbox

[Edit: You know... I think I may have subconsciously been influenced by this picture. I was planning my plastic shot long before I ever actually saw Jera's wonderful image, and I didn't actually think about hers as I was working on mine. But then it popped up in my recent activity again, and... well, I was surprised at the similarities. Anyway, sorry Jera! But yours is a whole lot prettier than mine!]

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During my first trip on assignment for @theoceancleanup, I was fortunate to be joined by Dan van der Kooy. Dan has worked with The Ocean Cleanup for 6+ years, first as Senior Video Producer and now as Executive Producer. Dan brings a ton of experience but most importantly is a great human to be around.

We were based on separate vessels, and Dan often joined us on the Maersk Tender during plastic extractions so we could work together to capture all the angles. I focused on aerial shots while he focused on deck footage. For the most part, though, we worked apart, which added to the already challenging workflow of combining our footage to create mission report videos shared on YouTube. As you can imagine, internet is slow at sea, and getting footage to the editing team onshore added another obstacle.

We felt like we lived in two different worlds when we were only a mile away. Sometimes the swells were too high and we couldn’t make transfers with our FRC, which is a Fast Response Craft. The most memorable moment was when we really needed to get his video on an SD card over to me, but we were in that wrong weather window. Knowing we had a drone with a broken gimbal already, we decided to turn that baby into a mail carrier and Dan flew it over. If you’ve ever tried hand-catching a drone, it’s not too difficult, but now imagine being on a moving vessel and the pilot being a mile away on a different vessel. We chose the hard landing option and it worked out. I received his footage and sent it off to shore, so the world got to see the final piece the next day!

Pictured here are a few of my favorites of Dan in action.

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Long overdue, but it’s time to post more of the work I documented while out in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on assignment with @theoceancleanup in Fall 2021. I spent 3 months at sea during two back-to-back shifts. It was long but a highlight of my career and a project I can’t stop thinking about. I dream of getting back out there, which may happen this summer when they launch System 03—slated to be 10x as efficient as the previous system at removing floating plastics from the ocean.

To kick off these posts, I’m highlighting some of my favorite shots of evening work. These are 24/7 operations for 6 weeks at a time, so there’s always a crew working. Fortunately, I didn’t have to work the overnight shifts, but I enjoyed the quiet and peaceful evenings on the bridge once the busy day calmed down. It was always my favorite time to wind down with way too much espresso or Yorkshire tea and focus on backing up footage, editing, and hanging out with the night shift crew.

Pictured here:

Marcus, our Chief Officer; Maria, our Second Officer and Flemming “Sloth” Andersen: Client Representative

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

During my first trip on assignment for @theoceancleanup, I was fortunate to be joined by Dan van der Kooy. Dan has worked with The Ocean Cleanup for 6+ years, first as Senior Video Producer and now as Executive Producer. Dan brings a ton of experience but most importantly is a great human to be around.

We were based on separate vessels, and Dan often joined us on the Maersk Tender during plastic extractions so we could work together to capture all the angles. I focused on aerial shots while he focused on deck footage. For the most part, though, we worked apart, which added to the already challenging workflow of combining our footage to create mission report videos shared on YouTube. As you can imagine, internet is slow at sea, and getting footage to the editing team onshore added another obstacle.

We felt like we lived in two different worlds when we were only a mile away. Sometimes the swells were too high and we couldn’t make transfers with our FRC, which is a Fast Response Craft. The most memorable moment was when we really needed to get his video on an SD card over to me, but we were in that wrong weather window. Knowing we had a drone with a broken gimbal already, we decided to turn that baby into a mail carrier and Dan flew it over. If you’ve ever tried hand-catching a drone, it’s not too difficult, but now imagine being on a moving vessel and the pilot being a mile away on a different vessel. We chose the hard landing option and it worked out. I received his footage and sent it off to shore, so the world got to see the final piece the next day!

Pictured here are a few of my favorites of Dan in action.

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Last post I talked about what we found most commonly in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Now you can see some of the more random and interesting items!

We had fun sorting through all the objects because you never know what you’ll find. During the two trips I was with The Ocean Cleanup, we collected baby bathtubs, toothbrushes, toy guns, toy soldiers, a Keen boot, flip flops, and even refrigerators. We also found a ton of floating golf balls that we speculated came from aquatic driving ranges or from people hitting balls off boats. While most of this plastic will be recycled into high-quality products, we saved some of the more fun items for a plastic museum someday!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Long overdue, but it’s time to post more of the work I documented while out in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on assignment with @theoceancleanup in Fall 2021. I spent 3 months at sea during two back-to-back shifts. It was long but a highlight of my career and a project I can’t stop thinking about. I dream of getting back out there, which may happen this summer when they launch System 03—slated to be 10x as efficient as the previous system at removing floating plastics from the ocean.

To kick off these posts, I’m highlighting some of my favorite shots of evening work. These are 24/7 operations for 6 weeks at a time, so there’s always a crew working. Fortunately, I didn’t have to work the overnight shifts, but I enjoyed the quiet and peaceful evenings on the bridge once the busy day calmed down. It was always my favorite time to wind down with way too much espresso or Yorkshire tea and focus on backing up footage, editing, and hanging out with the night shift crew.

Pictured here:

Marcus, our Chief Officer; Maria, our Second Officer and Flemming “Sloth” Andersen: Client Representative

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

You might be wondering what The Ocean Cleanup finds most often in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. During each plastic extraction, we capture thousands of plastic items. The crew then has the huge task of categorizing and individually inspecting every object to learn more about what’s really accumulating in the massive gyre.

The Ocean Cleanup has found that a surprising 75% to 86% of plastics in the garbage patch actually come from fishing activities at sea. Nets, ropes, buoys, floats, and other fishing gear are incredibly common items we pulled out of the ocean. It’s important to remove these bigger pieces of plastic before they find their way to shore and break down into microplastics.

I was amazed to see how many eel traps there were (actually, first I had to learn what eel traps even were!). We decided to make a point and put aside as many traps as possible so we could photograph the scale. The black traps seen in earlier pictures were only collected from a couple extractions. If we put them aside every extraction, it would be an unimaginable amount! This was definitely one of my favorite shots I put together, as one of my goals while out there was to help create impactful visuals to shine light on the issue of plastic pollution.

Stay tuned for my next posts, showcasing some of the weird and interesting items we collected!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

You might be wondering what The Ocean Cleanup finds most often in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. During each plastic extraction, we capture thousands of plastic items. The crew then has the huge task of categorizing and individually inspecting every object to learn more about what’s really accumulating in the massive gyre.

The Ocean Cleanup has found that a surprising 75% to 86% of plastics in the garbage patch actually come from fishing activities at sea. Nets, ropes, buoys, floats, and other fishing gear are incredibly common items we pulled out of the ocean. It’s important to remove these bigger pieces of plastic before they find their way to shore and break down into microplastics.

I was amazed to see how many eel traps there were (actually, first I had to learn what eel traps even were!). We decided to make a point and put aside as many traps as possible so we could photograph the scale. The black traps seen in earlier pictures were only collected from a couple extractions. If we put them aside every extraction, it would be an unimaginable amount! This was definitely one of my favorite shots I put together, as one of my goals while out there was to help create impactful visuals to shine light on the issue of plastic pollution.

Stay tuned for my next posts, showcasing some of the weird and interesting items we collected!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

listening to the debate on vancouver banning grocery store plastic bags city wide, i heard about the great pacific garbage patch which is twice the size of texas floating in the pacific ocean between hawaii and california. what a mess we made.

www.buffaloreadings.com/article.php?story=20071030224054797

www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Trashing-Oceans-Plastic4n...

(PLEASE NOTE: I do not own this image. It came from the following link which has now been disabled. Thx for asking but I do not own any rights to this image, merely just linking it to give it some more visibility for these issues. )

Original link (now defunct):

www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/travel-leisure/Our_oce...

I think this might be the new link without the photo:

www.menshealth.com/best-life/water-pollution

You might be wondering what The Ocean Cleanup finds most often in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. During each plastic extraction, we capture thousands of plastic items. The crew then has the huge task of categorizing and individually inspecting every object to learn more about what’s really accumulating in the massive gyre.

The Ocean Cleanup has found that a surprising 75% to 86% of plastics in the garbage patch actually come from fishing activities at sea. Nets, ropes, buoys, floats, and other fishing gear are incredibly common items we pulled out of the ocean. It’s important to remove these bigger pieces of plastic before they find their way to shore and break down into microplastics.

I was amazed to see how many eel traps there were (actually, first I had to learn what eel traps even were!). We decided to make a point and put aside as many traps as possible so we could photograph the scale. The black traps seen in earlier pictures were only collected from a couple extractions. If we put them aside every extraction, it would be an unimaginable amount! This was definitely one of my favorite shots I put together, as one of my goals while out there was to help create impactful visuals to shine light on the issue of plastic pollution.

Stay tuned for my next posts, showcasing some of the weird and interesting items we collected!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Cardiff Bay's Mount Stuart Graving Dock vying to compete with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch... education.nationalgeographic.co.uk/education/encyclopedia...

...plastic bottles floating in a sea of filth come as little surprise, but as for the ten or more trainers and two rucksacks! Plus the vandalised lifebelts!!!

Plastic Pollution has become a man-made global catastrophe:

www.plasticoceans.net/

Last post I talked about what we found most commonly in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Now you can see some of the more random and interesting items!

We had fun sorting through all the objects because you never know what you’ll find. During the two trips I was with The Ocean Cleanup, we collected baby bathtubs, toothbrushes, toy guns, toy soldiers, a Keen boot, flip flops, and even refrigerators. We also found a ton of floating golf balls that we speculated came from aquatic driving ranges or from people hitting balls off boats. While most of this plastic will be recycled into high-quality products, we saved some of the more fun items for a plastic museum someday!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

listening to the debate on vancouver banning grocery store plastic bags city wide, i heard about the great pacific garbage patch which is twice the size of texas floating in the pacific ocean between hawaii and california. what a mess we made.

i hate to overstate the obvious but many people have asked permission to use this image and its not mine. please see this link for the original publishing. I merely reposted to give it more coverage. thx.www.buffaloreadings.com/article.php?story=20071030224054797

www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Trashing-Oceans-Plastic4n...

www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/travel-leisure/Our_oce...

During my first trip on assignment for @theoceancleanup, I was fortunate to be joined by Dan van der Kooy. Dan has worked with The Ocean Cleanup for 6+ years, first as Senior Video Producer and now as Executive Producer. Dan brings a ton of experience but most importantly is a great human to be around.

We were based on separate vessels, and Dan often joined us on the Maersk Tender during plastic extractions so we could work together to capture all the angles. I focused on aerial shots while he focused on deck footage. For the most part, though, we worked apart, which added to the already challenging workflow of combining our footage to create mission report videos shared on YouTube. As you can imagine, internet is slow at sea, and getting footage to the editing team onshore added another obstacle.

We felt like we lived in two different worlds when we were only a mile away. Sometimes the swells were too high and we couldn’t make transfers with our FRC, which is a Fast Response Craft. The most memorable moment was when we really needed to get his video on an SD card over to me, but we were in that wrong weather window. Knowing we had a drone with a broken gimbal already, we decided to turn that baby into a mail carrier and Dan flew it over. If you’ve ever tried hand-catching a drone, it’s not too difficult, but now imagine being on a moving vessel and the pilot being a mile away on a different vessel. We chose the hard landing option and it worked out. I received his footage and sent it off to shore, so the world got to see the final piece the next day!

Pictured here are a few of my favorites of Dan in action.

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Last post I talked about what we found most commonly in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Now you can see some of the more random and interesting items!

We had fun sorting through all the objects because you never know what you’ll find. During the two trips I was with The Ocean Cleanup, we collected baby bathtubs, toothbrushes, toy guns, toy soldiers, a Keen boot, flip flops, and even refrigerators. We also found a ton of floating golf balls that we speculated came from aquatic driving ranges or from people hitting balls off boats. While most of this plastic will be recycled into high-quality products, we saved some of the more fun items for a plastic museum someday!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

During my first trip on assignment for @theoceancleanup, I was fortunate to be joined by Dan van der Kooy. Dan has worked with The Ocean Cleanup for 6+ years, first as Senior Video Producer and now as Executive Producer. Dan brings a ton of experience but most importantly is a great human to be around.

We were based on separate vessels, and Dan often joined us on the Maersk Tender during plastic extractions so we could work together to capture all the angles. I focused on aerial shots while he focused on deck footage. For the most part, though, we worked apart, which added to the already challenging workflow of combining our footage to create mission report videos shared on YouTube. As you can imagine, internet is slow at sea, and getting footage to the editing team onshore added another obstacle.

We felt like we lived in two different worlds when we were only a mile away. Sometimes the swells were too high and we couldn’t make transfers with our FRC, which is a Fast Response Craft. The most memorable moment was when we really needed to get his video on an SD card over to me, but we were in that wrong weather window. Knowing we had a drone with a broken gimbal already, we decided to turn that baby into a mail carrier and Dan flew it over. If you’ve ever tried hand-catching a drone, it’s not too difficult, but now imagine being on a moving vessel and the pilot being a mile away on a different vessel. We chose the hard landing option and it worked out. I received his footage and sent it off to shore, so the world got to see the final piece the next day!

Pictured here are a few of my favorites of Dan in action.

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Long overdue, but it’s time to post more of the work I documented while out in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on assignment with @theoceancleanup in Fall 2021. I spent 3 months at sea during two back-to-back shifts. It was long but a highlight of my career and a project I can’t stop thinking about. I dream of getting back out there, which may happen this summer when they launch System 03—slated to be 10x as efficient as the previous system at removing floating plastics from the ocean.

To kick off these posts, I’m highlighting some of my favorite shots of evening work. These are 24/7 operations for 6 weeks at a time, so there’s always a crew working. Fortunately, I didn’t have to work the overnight shifts, but I enjoyed the quiet and peaceful evenings on the bridge once the busy day calmed down. It was always my favorite time to wind down with way too much espresso or Yorkshire tea and focus on backing up footage, editing, and hanging out with the night shift crew.

Pictured here:

Marcus, our Chief Officer; Maria, our Second Officer and Flemming “Sloth” Andersen: Client Representative

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

During my first trip on assignment for @theoceancleanup, I was fortunate to be joined by Dan van der Kooy. Dan has worked with The Ocean Cleanup for 6+ years, first as Senior Video Producer and now as Executive Producer. Dan brings a ton of experience but most importantly is a great human to be around.

We were based on separate vessels, and Dan often joined us on the Maersk Tender during plastic extractions so we could work together to capture all the angles. I focused on aerial shots while he focused on deck footage. For the most part, though, we worked apart, which added to the already challenging workflow of combining our footage to create mission report videos shared on YouTube. As you can imagine, internet is slow at sea, and getting footage to the editing team onshore added another obstacle.

We felt like we lived in two different worlds when we were only a mile away. Sometimes the swells were too high and we couldn’t make transfers with our FRC, which is a Fast Response Craft. The most memorable moment was when we really needed to get his video on an SD card over to me, but we were in that wrong weather window. Knowing we had a drone with a broken gimbal already, we decided to turn that baby into a mail carrier and Dan flew it over. If you’ve ever tried hand-catching a drone, it’s not too difficult, but now imagine being on a moving vessel and the pilot being a mile away on a different vessel. We chose the hard landing option and it worked out. I received his footage and sent it off to shore, so the world got to see the final piece the next day!

Pictured here are a few of my favorites of Dan in action.

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Every other month or so, support vessels have to test their firefighting (aka FiFi) equipment. The ship I was on for The Ocean Cleanup, called the Maersk Tender, had the capacity of pumping an impressive amount of water—for those who like stats, that’s two pumps, each spraying 1,200 cubic meters of water each hour with a throw length of 120 meters and a height of 60 meters!

Near the end of our trip, the Chief Engineer warned me he was going to do the test and of course, I made sure I had the drone up and ready to capture this moment. I didn’t expect to get such amazing rainbows at the same time, but I am definitely not complaining. What a beautiful test!

A week after the FiFi test, when we arrived back onshore in Victoria, BC to do a crew change so we could head right back out and keep our operation going, the world had different plans for us. There was an emergency with a nearby container ship that had sailed through rough weather entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca, losing 109 containers before anchoring several kilometers off the southern coast of Vancouver Island. After anchoring, a fire started in the containers.

Maersk offered support to the Canadian Coast Guard, and it turned out that the Maersk Tender and Maersk Trader (both contracted by The Ocean Cleanup) were the only vessels with firefighting capabilities for hundreds of miles. With all parties agreeing, The Ocean Cleanup crew ended up departing the vessel to a nearby hotel while the amazing Maersk crew went to assist and help cool the hull of the ship until the fire was put off. After a few days and a much-needed break on land for me personally, we headed back out to continue removing floating plastics from the ocean.

Maersk Supply Service

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch #PlasticFreeOceans #CleanOceans

You might be wondering what The Ocean Cleanup finds most often in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. During each plastic extraction, we capture thousands of plastic items. The crew then has the huge task of categorizing and individually inspecting every object to learn more about what’s really accumulating in the massive gyre.

The Ocean Cleanup has found that a surprising 75% to 86% of plastics in the garbage patch actually come from fishing activities at sea. Nets, ropes, buoys, floats, and other fishing gear are incredibly common items we pulled out of the ocean. It’s important to remove these bigger pieces of plastic before they find their way to shore and break down into microplastics.

I was amazed to see how many eel traps there were (actually, first I had to learn what eel traps even were!). We decided to make a point and put aside as many traps as possible so we could photograph the scale. The black traps seen in earlier pictures were only collected from a couple extractions. If we put them aside every extraction, it would be an unimaginable amount! This was definitely one of my favorite shots I put together, as one of my goals while out there was to help create impactful visuals to shine light on the issue of plastic pollution.

Stay tuned for my next posts, showcasing some of the weird and interesting items we collected!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Long overdue, but it’s time to post more of the work I documented while out in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on assignment with @theoceancleanup in Fall 2021. I spent 3 months at sea during two back-to-back shifts. It was long but a highlight of my career and a project I can’t stop thinking about. I dream of getting back out there, which may happen this summer when they launch System 03—slated to be 10x as efficient as the previous system at removing floating plastics from the ocean.

To kick off these posts, I’m highlighting some of my favorite shots of evening work. These are 24/7 operations for 6 weeks at a time, so there’s always a crew working. Fortunately, I didn’t have to work the overnight shifts, but I enjoyed the quiet and peaceful evenings on the bridge once the busy day calmed down. It was always my favorite time to wind down with way too much espresso or Yorkshire tea and focus on backing up footage, editing, and hanging out with the night shift crew.

Pictured here:

Marcus, our Chief Officer; Maria, our Second Officer and Flemming “Sloth” Andersen: Client Representative

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

Last post I talked about what we found most commonly in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Now you can see some of the more random and interesting items!

We had fun sorting through all the objects because you never know what you’ll find. During the two trips I was with The Ocean Cleanup, we collected baby bathtubs, toothbrushes, toy guns, toy soldiers, a Keen boot, flip flops, and even refrigerators. We also found a ton of floating golf balls that we speculated came from aquatic driving ranges or from people hitting balls off boats. While most of this plastic will be recycled into high-quality products, we saved some of the more fun items for a plastic museum someday!

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply

During my first trip on assignment for @theoceancleanup, I was fortunate to be joined by Dan van der Kooy. Dan has worked with The Ocean Cleanup for 6+ years, first as Senior Video Producer and now as Executive Producer. Dan brings a ton of experience but most importantly is a great human to be around.

We were based on separate vessels, and Dan often joined us on the Maersk Tender during plastic extractions so we could work together to capture all the angles. I focused on aerial shots while he focused on deck footage. For the most part, though, we worked apart, which added to the already challenging workflow of combining our footage to create mission report videos shared on YouTube. As you can imagine, internet is slow at sea, and getting footage to the editing team onshore added another obstacle.

We felt like we lived in two different worlds when we were only a mile away. Sometimes the swells were too high and we couldn’t make transfers with our FRC, which is a Fast Response Craft. The most memorable moment was when we really needed to get his video on an SD card over to me, but we were in that wrong weather window. Knowing we had a drone with a broken gimbal already, we decided to turn that baby into a mail carrier and Dan flew it over. If you’ve ever tried hand-catching a drone, it’s not too difficult, but now imagine being on a moving vessel and the pilot being a mile away on a different vessel. We chose the hard landing option and it worked out. I received his footage and sent it off to shore, so the world got to see the final piece the next day!

Pictured here are a few of my favorites of Dan in action.

#TheOceanCleanup #GreatPacificGarbagePatch

@MaerskSupply