The Ocean Cleanup - What We Found Part 1/2
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
The Ocean Cleanup - What We Found Part 1/2
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