Upon entering the Pink Coconut, a swanky, ocean front, restaurant at
the end of the dock in Marina Taina, Tahiti, several hundred yards
from where Sea Dragon is anchored, one might think they stepped into
an Apple Mac Computer commercial being filmed. But this is not a
commercial, this real life for most these folks. That's right. The Sea
Dragon crew is made up of people that I think is safe to say, most
others are jealous of. Sitting among palm trees, piña coladas and a
million dollar view of Moorea Island in the middle of the South
Pacific 9 individuals, including Professional surfers, photographers,
divers, journalists, videographers and travel writers, type away at
their shiny silver laptops reporting back to their respective sponsors
before we set sail for the Cook Islands.
thing in common: an affinity for the preservation and conservation of
the worlds ocean. Our job on this journey in addition to actually
working on the boat as crew is also to help promote the work of
5Gyres, raise awareness and educate others on the exponentially
increasing amount of plastics accumulating in the world oceans and the
ramifications of marine species consuming plastics accidentally and as
food.
Tomorrow we plan to leave Tahiti aboard Sea Dragon, a 72 foot sailboat
with a crew of 14 people total. Like most islands however, time moves
slowly here and the only two motors for the boat have not yet returned
from the mechanic, which was suppossed to happen several days ago.
Fingers crossed, they'll show up midday tomorrow and we'll set sail!
Along the five day journey we plan to sail, snorkel, and swim in some
of the deepest waters in the world. In addition to having a kick ass
time, we also be trawling for plastic marine debris, taking fish
samples and cutting the open to see if plastic ingestion is taking
place, and removing the livers and tissue samples to send to a lab in
Sweden called MTM Reasearch Institute to measure the levels of
persistent organic pollutants accumulating in the species.
We will be taking many photos and notes along the way, so stay tuned
for more updates when we arrive in the Lower Cook Islands!
