Men Sail Raft Of Trash Across Pacific In 3 Months

A CBS station reportsthat two men sailed a Raft Of Trash Across Pacific In 3 Months to "raise awareness of ocean debris," and once ashore asked, "Where's the food?" The two are researchers with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. They had previously completed a mission "to survey quantities of plastic junk in the North Pacific." and observed that, "housands of miles from land, our ocean is slowly, steadily turning into a massive bowl of plastic soup." According to the Worldchanging blog, Algalita's Director of Research and Education Dr. Marcus Eriksen is a veteran junk raft builder, a Gulf War veteran, and has witnessed firsthand the true cost of our petroleum addiction. He asserts that "We’re destroying our marine ecosystems with throwaway plastic products. This is both morally and ecologically wrong. The age of disposable plastics must end now.” Then came the idea to build Junk–"a raft made from 15,000 plastic bottles and a Cessna 310 fuselage—and sail it from Long Beach to Hawaii." You can read details of the journey here.

Thanks to my mother for alerting me to the story by sending a newspaper clipping.