This is the first time in history that any organization has done a continuous marine plastics survey from one continent to another.  During our 7,000 mile voyage we will cut through both the east and west sides of the North Pacific Gyre (AKA the Pacific Garbage Patch) along with...

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By: Matt Rutherford On: April 28, 2014 In: Trans Pacific Plastic Pollution Survey Comments: 0

Delays and Headwinds (Day 2) Sometimes it feels like you’ll never leave the dock.  Every day you think the day after tomorrow we will leave.  Than something happens, and the next day and you realize you arent going anywhere.  Then again building a boat takes time and building a...

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By: Matt Rutherford On: April 14, 2014 In: Trans Pacific Plastic Pollution Survey Comments: 0

I’m certainly not the first person in history to be scrambling around like a mad man on the eve of a major expedition.   It seem that every expedition I’ve been on starts this way.  All expeditions start with an idea, but making that idea into a reality is a...

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By: Matt Rutherford On: August 17, 2013 In: North Atlantic Sargasso Sea Gyre Comments: 0
By: Matt Rutherford On: July 29, 2013 In: North Atlantic Sargasso Sea Gyre Comments: 0

This last week has both frustrating and rejuvenating. 16 hours after we cut the tow line connecting us to the 48 foot swan our main halyard broke making it impossible to raise our mainsail. The winds were building out of the west which would have normally made sailing west...

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By: Matt Rutherford On: July 22, 2013 In: North Atlantic Sargasso Sea Gyre Comments: 0

The day after we finished our research we were sitting on the back of the boat enjoying an early dinner. Nikki suddenly stopped eating and said ‘look there is a sail boat over there’. It looked strange to me as the sails were not up and it seemed to...

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By: Matt Rutherford On: July 17, 2013 In: North Atlantic Sargasso Sea Gyre Comments: 0

After 26 days of deploying and redeploying our Manta net day and night we have finally finished collecting the micro plastic samples and can head for home. It’s a good thing as those man-o-war Jellyfish have really done a number to Nikki’s hands and her eyes are still red...

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By: Matt Rutherford On: June 28, 2013 In: North Atlantic Sargasso Sea Gyre Comments: 0

We changed our route a bit and decided to go further north and south and a bit less east to west. When we are done with our plastics survey we will have drawn a big W in the mid-Atlantic. At this point we have surveyed 15 out of 50...

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By: Matt Rutherford On: June 17, 2013 In: North Atlantic Sargasso Sea Gyre Comments: 0

It’s pretty funny to think we had to sail 2,200 miles just to get to the place where we can start doing or primary research. Talk about a long commute to work! Then again the eastern side of the North Atlantic Gyre is nowhere near the Chesapeake Bay. At...

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By: Matt Rutherford On: June 9, 2013 In: North Atlantic Sargasso Sea Gyre Comments: 0

The hurricane season has officially started with tropical storm Andrea. We’ll be feeling her effects on the 11th. Looking at the tracking device on the web site you can see the moment I found out about Andrea as I turned south to get some separation from the eye of...

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