0:04 [Music]
0:10 Road scenes like this are a daily
0:12 reality for the crew of seeker on their
0:14 Pacific tract some estimates hold that
0:17 by 2050 there could be as much plastic
0:24 as there are fish in the ocean when
0:27 shown what seven [Music]
0:37 [Music]
0:40 please good luck with this net and so
0:43 it's not only one is it many nets that
0:46 are tangled together also some other
0:49 interesting items like this toothbrush
0:53 was trapped in the net but what is all
0:55 this junk exactly where does it come
0:58 from and is it really concentrated and a
1:00 giant Garbage Patch somewhere out there
1:02 Marcus Ericsson is an environmental
1:03 scientist who has made it his life's
1:06 mission to solve the problem of marine
1:08 plastic it's a global issue because
1:11 plastic accumulates in gyres large
1:12 circular currents that thread through
1:14 the world's oceans
1:16 what's leaving land heading out to sea
1:19 is all the single-use packaging it's two
1:20 straws the bags of bottles that cup
1:23 lenses stir sticks all this junk that we
1:25 used once in throw away a plastic bottle
1:28 in California we'll get to Japan in
1:30 about three to five years and come back
1:32 across the northern half of the North
1:35 Pacific that's spinning mass of water as
1:38 a gyre class of trash will migrate to
1:40 those zones and get stuck we actually
1:42 take boats out of nowhere we drag our
1:44 net behind the boat and account for
1:45 plastic particles that are floating
1:47 working with ocean modelers we can get
1:49 these regional maps of how much trash is
1:57 but answering even these basic questions
2:00 about marine debris has proven to be
2:03 surprisingly challenging in fact
2:05 everything we know about the proverbial
2:07 Great Pacific Garbage Patch started in
2:10 1990 when a container ship spilled
2:14 61,000 sneakers into the ocean realizing
2:16 that a lot of these sneakers would never
2:17 come to shore that they would just be
2:20 stuck in this vortex Curtis M Aspire
2:22 working with James Ingram jr. at NOAA
2:24 they're the ones that came up with the
2:27 term Great Pacific Garbage Patch
2:29 captain Charles Moore is often credited
2:31 with the first observations of the patch
2:33 the constellation of micro plastic
2:35 particles that captured the public's imagination
2:37 imagination
2:40 captain Charles Moore that described the
2:42 area he said look I'm in an area roughly
2:44 twice the size of Texas where I'm doing
2:46 my transects and that hit the media by
2:49 storm but aren't these islands of trash
2:51 they don't exist it's more like a smog
2:53 of micro plastic particles billions of
2:58 them very toxic over a wide area even
2:59 when they become brittle and break apart
3:03 plastic pieces persist unable to oxidize
3:05 or become waterlogged like metals wood
3:07 or paper all types of plastic are
3:10 designed to defeat natural decay in
3:14 general high density polyethylene number
3:16 two plastic is the most common plastic
3:20 and consumer use and it makes your soap
3:22 bottles that makes your toothbrushes
3:26 that makes many of the consumer goods
3:29 that float out in the garbage that's if
3:32 we think in terms of all the plastic
3:35 that's been produced since 1950 since
3:37 it's a scientific material hydrocarbons
3:39 it's probably still here today on the
3:43 planet dr. Sarah gene Roy a works with
3:45 dr. Nicolai maximenko and his team at
3:48 the University of Hawaii to tackle the
3:51 problem of tracking trash most of the
3:53 time we will find only bottle caps and
3:55 not the bottle itself because the batter
3:57 is made out of PEP
3:59 and it's sinking because the density of
4:03 PT is higher than seawater despite the
4:05 dramatic amount of plastic the crew of
4:07 seeker has encountered some estimates
4:10 hold that 99% of ocean bound plastic
4:12 waste is still unaccounted for
4:14 that's why Sara's team is working with
4:16 the swim expedition and the ocean
4:18 voyages Institute to tag and track the
4:22 waste B find the swing are using two
4:24 different protocols the first protocol
4:26 is a visual survey of all marine debris
4:30 this sea from the vessel itself and
4:33 whenever defined an object that is large
4:35 enough they will get closer to the
4:37 debris they will take pictures of it and
4:39 if there are numbers or lettering they
4:41 will share this information with us so
4:44 we can track back the origin of that
4:48 debris the second protocol is basically
4:51 to attach gps buoy on to marine debris
4:56 to track their movement in the ocean we
4:59 go to the net and target and then we
5:01 take out this and it's activate the
5:04 tracker once the tracker is activated
5:07 and enable scientists to both improve
5:09 models of how trash travels in the ocean
5:11 and learn where to focus cleanup efforts
5:14 most of the time Sara and her team can't
5:16 immediately tell where a piece of
5:18 plastic comes from but they can look for
5:23 other clues we need to use an FTIR micro
5:25 Raman spectroscopy this spectrum is
5:27 matching a spectrum that is found in the
5:29 library telling us what is the type of
5:31 plastics it's probably the dream of our
5:34 scientists to have a satellite and a new
5:36 instrumentation to be able to quantify
5:40 the amount of plastic floating at sea
5:43 the entire lifecycle of plastic is
5:45 poisonous its manufacturing process
5:47 depends on harmful chemicals and when
5:49 released into the environment it soaks
5:51 up even more toxins and transports them
5:54 far and wide including into our bodies
5:57 plastic can choke the oceans ability to
5:59 absorb co2 from the atmosphere
6:02 exacerbating climate change only 10% of
6:04 the habitat is on the land the rest of
6:06 90% of the habitats in the ocean it's
6:08 totally unexplored for the most part
6:11 imagining all the jungles all the
6:14 deserts all the savannas all the Rocky
6:17 Mountains the ocean would be 9 times
6:20 more than the idea that somehow it could
6:24 be 50% plastic 50% fish in a mere 30
6:30 years is horrifying the ocean is in
6:33 peril right now if we don't do something
6:36 that is going to reverse that and then
6:38 next few years it's going to be much
6:41 more difficult but the situation is far
6:43 from hopeless organizations are
6:45 developing innovative solutions to clean
6:48 up ocean plastic material scientists are
6:50 turning their attention to new packaging
6:52 solutions and consumers are making more
6:55 informed choices every day how can we
6:57 use our science to influence laws and
7:01 policy makers when you refuse the
7:03 singer's plastics it has an effect on
7:05 your neighborhood on your local
7:08 watershed and the ocean now seeing the
7:10 UN talking about it seeing companies
7:12 rise up and say we're going to zero
7:14 waste to see countries make commitment
7:16 to stop the flow of trash from land to sea
7:16 sea
7:18 I thought optimistic that we can solve
7:30 be sure to visit secret calm / the swim
7:31 to read daily updates from Ben LeCompte
7:33 track as progress in real-time and watch
7:35 more videos about the science happening
7:37 on board secret click here for this next
7:39 episode and don't forget to subscribe
