The Oceanographic Research Vessel Alguita hails from the homeport of Alamitos Bay CA. Captain Charles Moore is the ship's owner operator and is a native of Long Beach. The Alguita plays an integral role as an oceanic research vessel for the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. Captain Moore has gathered an impressive reputation as a marine conservationist, while traveling the world's oceans. The Alguita was originally constructed in Tasmania and was designed specifically as a world cruising research vessel. She is a fifty-foot aluminum catamaran carrying an impressive array of technology.

More than five years ago Captain Moore traveled across an area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean called the North Pacific Gyre. This high pressure weather system, which is roughly the size of Africa, covers a majority of the off shore blue water in the Pacific Ocean. A series of rotating water currents have been accumulating man made debris in the region, for decades. This little explored area of the ocean soon became a fixation for Captain Moore, spawning many return voyages.

Throughout history trans Pacific sailors have avoided sailing deep inside high pressure systems, like the North Pacific Gyre. These weather systems range in size from ocean to ocean, but they all share a common characteristic of having very light winds, near their centers. In the year 2000, on a return voyage from Hawaii, Captain Moore utilized the fuel capacity of the Alguita and motored across the North Pacific high pressure system, in order to make up some lost time. What he discovered was the presence of an unnatural substance that had become a predominant characteristic throughout the Northern Pacific's water column.

The first plastics produced are still present today. Plastic does not biodegrade. It goes through a lengthy process of photo degradation. As plastic is exposed to solar rays it becomes brittle. Ocean waves slowly break down the brittle synthetics into smaller and smaller pieces. The tragic reality is that the North Pacific Gyre has become a "Garbage Patch" filled with tiny particles of plastic. These tiny particles appear as confetti in some regions and are believed to be present throughout the entire water column.

This summer I was contacted by Captain Moore and offered the chance to accompany him and his crew into the North Pacific Gyre. The prospective plan included filming a documentary, where I would fill the role as the underwater videographer. Collecting, documenting and quantifying the various organisms and synthetics we encountered would be our main objective.

The four crew members I would be sharing close quarters with for three weeks included some impressive individuals. Marcus Eriksen Ph.D. is an expert in science education. He commonly gives consultations to schools, museums and zoos to enhance their science programs. Dr. Eriksen filled the role aboard as a research assistant and planned on collecting plastic samples to use as a "hands on" teaching aid for California school children. Austin Brown the co-captain on board has experienced previous expeditions through the North Pacific Gyre. His knowledge of the ocean is an asset worthy of mention. Austin is the boat manager for the Orange County Coast Keepers environmental organization and rarely misses a voyage aboard the Alguita. The biologist aboard was Laurie Harvey. She focuses on the study of nesting seabirds. Laurie preserved many of the samples we collected in the gyre and identified a multitude of marine birds we encountered. The documentary producer aboard was Ian Connacher. He worked camera 1 and hails from Canada. Ian is a segment producer for Discovery Canada and runs his own film company, Cryptic Month Productions. His company focuses on environmental issues allowing Ian to travel to the far reaches of the globe.

Plastic as far as the eye can see. Traveling up to seven hundred miles off of the coast of the Oregon/California border revealed many incredible finds. Catching a North Westerly we sailed for nearly a week to finally cross the wind boundary line into the gyre. Traveling through the gyre was a strange phenomenon. The process of spotting for floating or partly submerged debris evolved many times over the weeks of collecting. We could be found at the top of the mast scanning the horizon for large drift nets or brightly colored rope boluses. Boluses are a strange phenomenon consisting of a multitude of monofilament fishing line and plastic rope, which is all tangled together into a nasty rats nest. Scoop nets were primarily used to catch the smaller pieces and fragments of plastic, that floated by regularly. Fishing buoys from the far away continent of Asia were a common find. Using a boat hook or common fishing gaff became the tool of choice for the larger chunks of floating plastic debris.

Once a crewmember would site and direct the helmsmen close to a floating apparition, my job came into play. I would dive over the side and shoot the diversity of life inhabiting the plastic object. Tiny schools of fish, crustaceans and mollusks were commonly found around or on the plastic object. These creatures have very few predators causing them to pay little heed to my camera or myself. Diving in the open ocean evokes a barrage of thoughts in ones mind. As I focused my camera on a variety of drifting plastics, ranging from hundreds of feet of netting to thumbnail sized fragments, the eerie feeling of the deep was a constant.

Night diving was a thrill on many levels. During the night deep sea creatures can be found near or on the surface feeding. The multitude of pelagic sea jellies we encountered was astounding. These filter feeding creatures indiscriminately swallow plastic particles along with their primary food source, zooplankton. In some areas the amount of plastic particles in the water column out weighed the zooplankton many times over. Pelagic Sea jellies are primarily seen at night, in the middle of the ocean. These incredible creatures are spectacular for any diver to witness. During the night many of the creatures displayed colors ranging across the rainbow. Blinking, moving lights were visible through the transparent tissue of the sea jellies, appearing psychedelic against the pitch-black backdrop of the abyss.

As the days turned into weeks the decks of the Alguita began to change form. Crates that were once filled with an abundance of organic produce were now being replaced with a multitude of synthetic debris. Boxes of sample jars filled with plastic confetti fragments and pelagic sea creatures lined the aft deck. My visions of a pristine ocean were being destroyed right before my eyes.

I have been surfing and diving off of the California coast, all of my life. Over the years I have, almost, become desensitized to all of the pollution at my local beaches. Before I traveled to the Gyre I would sometimes ponder what the deep open ocean was like. I always pictured crystal clear blue water with hundreds of feet of visibility. An area so remote and pristine that it would be unspoiled by man. Plastic, an invention that has permeated every aspect of our lives, has managed to achieve the unimaginable. Plastic has become the most prominent characteristic present in the open ocean.

Plastics share a bond with pollutants. Chemicals, which were commonly used for agriculture, have, also, made their way into the North Pacific Gyre. Synthetics have been found to effectively soak up these toxic chemicals like sponges. Plastic floating in the open ocean has been found to posses a much higher concentration of chemicals than that of the ambient sea water. Many of the sea jellies we encountered possessed visible plastic fragments, which were imbedded in their tissue. Sea jellies are commonly preyed upon by sea squids, which in turn are consumed by fish. The toxins coating the plastic can and do pass through the food chain multiplying and accumulating, eventually reaching game fish. The fatty flesh of many of the top predators of the ocean can carry high levels of toxins in their bodies. Humans, being at the top of the food chain, are the most susceptible to bioaccumulation.

When confronted with these facts it is easy to give into a feeling of hopelessness. We think back to all of the things we could have or should have done to at least minimize the amount of plastic being discarded over the years. Use once and throw away is an all too common practice that people across the world are guilty of committing. Is recycling the answer? Every piece of plastic made from recycled plastic has the same sponge like property as non-recycled plastic. A large percentage of raw plastic is still being used in the process of producing recycled plastic. The cycle continues and leads us to very uncomfortable questions.

Captain Moore and the Algalita Foundation focus their energy on the education of the public and the preservation of the marine environment. Public awareness of the problems occurring in the marine environment is only the beginning. Humans have an average life span that parallels a century. Quality of life and the preservation of our environment are issues that affect our own lives as well as the generations to come. The answer to this complex problem is not an easy one to reach. The massive expanse of the ocean is no longer impenetrable. The oceans are filling up with trash and soon we will have a synthetic sea choked with floating plastic debris.

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

For More Information Visit www.Algalita.org

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