The all-women crew of the Exxpedition vessel — scientists and students — will depart from Hawaii to investigate the damage caused by plastic contaminating the Pacific Ocean.
Los Angeles, United States – In the middle of the Pacific, more precisely in the northern part of the ocean, above the Hawaiian archipelago, there exists an enormous island made of plastic. This rubbish platform, whose official name is the Pacific trash vortex, contains millions of plastic waste items that have accumulated in that area since the 1980s. Over the decades, ocean currents have channelled enormous quantities of rubbish into that zone. Now, a group of female scientists — brought together in the Exxpedition project — has decided to study this plastic island to discover the damage it has caused so far and what it may bring in the future to the Earth and to human health.
The Exxpedition mission will depart on 23 June from Hawaii, in the United States, and will head to Vancouver, in Canada. In the first leg of the voyage, the 24 participants will sail directly towards the plastic island. There they will spend at least a week studying the currents in the area and analysing as much data as possible. This information will then be studied in the following months to find a solution to the problem and to begin a long-overdue clean-up of the ocean. In the second leg of the voyage, which will take the women from Vancouver to Seattle, in the state of Washington, the effects of pollution on the coastlines and on the health of local residents will be studied.
"The mission of this expedition is to combine science, adventure, research and, above all, awareness-raising," said Exxpedition founder Emily Penn. "We want to bring to light the problems that pollution causes to our seas and to human health. We hope that our voyage in the Pacific will help to increase research and to improve the protection of this area." Among the first victims of plastic in the water are sea turtles, which often become entangled in debris as they make their way from the sand to the sea. Residents of coastal cities also frequently encounter waste and rubbish carried in by the current: a problem that over time can damage and pollute the air people breathe, as Penn and her colleagues had already discovered during a previous mission.
In previous years the Exxpedition team has covered various stretches of ocean, tackling the Atlantic and even the icy waters of the Arctic. The first voyages, carried out in 2014 in the Atlantic and in South America the following year, served as tests to try out the crew and the cohesion of the team. In 2016 came the first excursion dedicated to pollution caused by plastic in the sea and on the coasts of the Caribbean: a theme that subsequently became the organisation's primary focus. The Pacific expedition will be the one with the largest number of participants, selected through a careful process given the many applications received from female scientists around the world.
The scientists' vessel will be a 22-metre boat called Sea Dragon. Every day, the women will collect samples of plastic and other polluting materials using trawl nets. "The Pacific trash vortex area is difficult to explore – researcher Emily Duncan of Exxpedition explained – because plastic and other chemical waste are scattered across a very large area. Water analysis will allow us to check for the presence of plastic particles even where the human eye cannot reach. There have already been oceanographic studies in the past, but we need field experience." The samples collected by the crew will then be studied in a laboratory to detect the presence of microplastics, nanoplastics and so-called persistent organic pollutants, materials that are highly resistant to decomposition. The data on water and plastic will be useful for assessing the true severity of the situation and for making institutions aware of the need for a project to save that part of the Pacific.
The Exxpedition mission will contribute to carrying out an initial clean-up operation that can only do good for the Pacific Ocean. Filmmakers and photographers have also been recruited for the mission to document the work done by the crew, with the hope that the fruits of their work reach as many people as possible. It is estimated that there are currently 165 million tonnes of plastic in the world's seas, discarded by humans or fallen from the cargo ships that travel by sea every day. Fragments of polystyrene and microplastics are two of the most harmful elements left behind by plastic, which even once decomposed causes damage to animals and humans by releasing toxic substances that enter the atmosphere.
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It is precisely for this reason that projects such as Exxpedition's — capable of attracting the attention of the public and the media thanks to the distinctive feature of an all-women crew — go far beyond mere curiosity and are extremely important: because they care about the wellbeing of the oceans, on which a large part of life on this planet depends. It is thanks to courageous expeditions like this one that ordinary citizens can become interested in the problem of water pollution, which, if not addressed in time, can only cause further damage to the environment. The explorers of Exxpedition hope that the next news story about them will focus on the research they have carried out, rather than on the composition of their crew.
