Filed under: Uncategorized
From Doug Woodring, Co-Founder, Project Kaisei – August 27, 2009
After being at sea for three weeks, and thinking about what is going on in the oceans, it is a daunting thought. The size and the expanse is enormous, and we only looked mainly on the surface. One can only imagine what might be happening below where year’s of sunken debris lays unnoticed.
The Kaisei is still at sea, on her way back now to San Francisco, where she will come home, under the Golden Gate, on August 31st. Project Kaisei had two vessels in the North Pacific Gyre this summer, both studying aspects of the marine debris issue, and what possible solutions might come of it. Much of the data will need to be analyzed once we are on land and the samples are put through lab work, but we do know that the problem is pervasive, and that we witnessed plastic in all of our surface sample trawls over 1,200 miles of sampling (on the New Horizon – the Kaisei had the same results in about 2,400 miles of sampling).
From here, we will begin working with a wide variety of groups in industry, innovation, policy and education in order to help spread the word about ways we can slow the degredation of our seas. This will require assistance from motivated individuals around the world to help spread the word, and to help create change. We will use our images and video footage to make educational material, hopefully multilingual, that will allow teachers and motivators around the world to capture the imagination of those who might not realize what the impacts their daily lives are having on our environment. To do this, we also need financial support, so that we can grow our reach, and expand our global relationships to bring all types of solutions to the
table, be they land-based or ocean-based.
Project Kaisei will be planning future expeditions and research to expand upon the knowledge that we have already gained from our expedition this summer. Hopefully our followers can spread the word to their friends and contacts, and we all can work together to make one of the largest changes ever undertaken for the benefit of our ocean.
