One of my personal aims for this voyage, as a diver and advocate of marine conservation, is to see first hand the effect we are having on our oceans. The world's seas are beautiful things, glistening endlessly to the horizon and seemingly unchanging of the millenia. However, very few people make the effort to see what lies beneath the surface.
Covering 70% of the surface of our planet, the seas offer as diverse ecosystems as on land, and hold more orders of life than the surface. Our voyage will take us from our own temperate waters, across one of the largest and least explored areas of ocean and finally arriving in tropical coral-filled seas. I hope to be able to share some of the wonders of each of these in this blog and raise awareness of the pressures we are placing on these delicate ecosystems.
An obvious area of conservation concern is non-sustainable fishing. This impacts consumers ashore who find that their favourite supper decreases in size and increases in cost, but few take the trouble to research the impact the fishing has on other non-target species (by-catch) or on the sea floor - scallop dredging and bottom trawling has been compared to getting a helicopter on land the drag a chain river an entire forested park, destroying all the trees and life there, in the hope of netting a couple of cows.
Of equal or even greater concern is a far more insidious threat - plastics. As species, we have come to rely on these in our daily lives and our disposable consumer society means that more and more plastic is going into the garbage. On land, plastic bags are an eyesore, but when these hit the water they become a death trap. Turtles and marine mammals mistake these for their favourite food - jellyfish - and then die a slow death as the plastics clog up their insides. The same goes for balloons, and the Marine Conservation Society is attempting to educate people and reduce the number of balloon releases as well as organising regular beach cleaning events.
Plastics also enter the sea through sewerage outflows - if you flush a cotton bud down the loo have you thought about what happens to the plastic stem? Cigarette buts are also problematic - the filters are made of plastic foam and loiter for decades before being broken up. Boats and careless beach visitors also contribute to the litter in our oceans as they tip their waste in the waters. Out of sight, out of mind, eh? I dived recently off the Pembroke coast in a marine conservation area and even here the seabed was littered with plastic bottles and aluminium beer cans. What a dump!
Other nations are even less scrupulous when it comes to waste disposal. Many developing nations see the oceans as a bottomless dumping ground and general refuse is abandonned in the sea. In tropical areas, the extra nutrients encourage rapid plant and algal growth which then smothers the slow growing corals and irreversibly destroys the reefs. Floating plastics persist and travel vast distances on ocean currents - there are islands in the Pacific which are 10ft deep in plastic litter which causes entanglement in seals and birds. At home, RSPB volunteers regularly patrol seabird colonies to try to cut free choking and tangled birds.
What can we do? Use plastic responsibly and take care where you dispose of it. Try to avoid single use plastic bags from supermarkets and never put anything in a toilet that isn't tissue or something that's come out of you. Ensure plastic litter is put in a bin when you are out and about, even inland, as waste in rivers eventually reaches the sea. And support overseas conservation groups who are trying to make a difference in other nations.
On board, we will be using a large amount of pre-packaged foods on our crossing. I have tried to provision using foods stored in glass, tins or paper packaging. Any refuse will be crushed and stored on board until we reach recycling facilities ashore. We will also be eating sustainable fish, avoiding stocks of over-exploited or vulnerable species, such as the shark / ray family (elasmobranches) which are slow to reach maturity and slow to reproduce.
Stay tuned to the blog to see what issues we encounter!
An obvious area of conservation concern is non-sustainable fishing. This impacts consumers ashore who find that their favourite supper decreases in size and increases in cost, but few take the trouble to research the impact the fishing has on other non-target species (by-catch) or on the sea floor - scallop dredging and bottom trawling has been compared to getting a helicopter on land the drag a chain river an entire forested park, destroying all the trees and life there, in the hope of netting a couple of cows.
Of equal or even greater concern is a far more insidious threat - plastics. As species, we have come to rely on these in our daily lives and our disposable consumer society means that more and more plastic is going into the garbage. On land, plastic bags are an eyesore, but when these hit the water they become a death trap. Turtles and marine mammals mistake these for their favourite food - jellyfish - and then die a slow death as the plastics clog up their insides. The same goes for balloons, and the Marine Conservation Society is attempting to educate people and reduce the number of balloon releases as well as organising regular beach cleaning events.
Plastics also enter the sea through sewerage outflows - if you flush a cotton bud down the loo have you thought about what happens to the plastic stem? Cigarette buts are also problematic - the filters are made of plastic foam and loiter for decades before being broken up. Boats and careless beach visitors also contribute to the litter in our oceans as they tip their waste in the waters. Out of sight, out of mind, eh? I dived recently off the Pembroke coast in a marine conservation area and even here the seabed was littered with plastic bottles and aluminium beer cans. What a dump!
Other nations are even less scrupulous when it comes to waste disposal. Many developing nations see the oceans as a bottomless dumping ground and general refuse is abandonned in the sea. In tropical areas, the extra nutrients encourage rapid plant and algal growth which then smothers the slow growing corals and irreversibly destroys the reefs. Floating plastics persist and travel vast distances on ocean currents - there are islands in the Pacific which are 10ft deep in plastic litter which causes entanglement in seals and birds. At home, RSPB volunteers regularly patrol seabird colonies to try to cut free choking and tangled birds.
What can we do? Use plastic responsibly and take care where you dispose of it. Try to avoid single use plastic bags from supermarkets and never put anything in a toilet that isn't tissue or something that's come out of you. Ensure plastic litter is put in a bin when you are out and about, even inland, as waste in rivers eventually reaches the sea. And support overseas conservation groups who are trying to make a difference in other nations.
On board, we will be using a large amount of pre-packaged foods on our crossing. I have tried to provision using foods stored in glass, tins or paper packaging. Any refuse will be crushed and stored on board until we reach recycling facilities ashore. We will also be eating sustainable fish, avoiding stocks of over-exploited or vulnerable species, such as the shark / ray family (elasmobranches) which are slow to reach maturity and slow to reproduce.
Stay tuned to the blog to see what issues we encounter!
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