WE MADE IT FOLKS!!! We have successfully installed Wilson in the U-shape in the GPGP! To be entirely honest, it doesn't quite feel real yet - after almost a month and a half of towing and testing to get to this point is pretty crazy! It's been a long time coming - and yesterday we even got to install my buoys on the System! I can't believe that after a year of pondering this project and its possible implications I have the opportunity to help monitor the biological impact of the system ACTUALLY sitting in the Patch!! It's a great start into the second year of my Master's for sure! An even better ending to the day yesterday was a GIGANTIC rainbow that spread from one side of the Launcher and stretched to the sea on the other side! Nothing like a lucky omen for the beginning of a project (or you know, master's research thesis but hey)! With respect to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, well, there's definitely more plastic here than elsewhere we've been. It's really more disheartening and sad to see than I was expecting - I've seen marine debris before. Somehow knowing that even though we're almost as far from land as you can be, there's still the overwhelming sense that humans are having an incredibly negative impact on our oceans. This effect was magnified when we went out on the Megamaid today and could see firsthand just how much plastic is out here - the sizes range from big to around the size of a fingernail - and that's just what we can see moving at around 3 knots! Who knows how much more we'd see if we had gotten to go out for more than just a few hours? At any rate, there's a LOT of plastic, and I'm excited to see how the System performs under these circumstances! Aside from the elation of finally being where we've been trying to get, boat life has really changed after 6 weeks! I can proudly say that I can sleep comfortably with most any swell (within reason), however I still apparently cannot put pants on in 3 meter swell without falling into the wall of my room so I guess we haven't come as far as I might like, but you can't win them all! Though things have been pretty good - last week I hosted a screening of Disney's Moana for those onboard that would be interested in THE COOLEST DISNEY MOVIE TO DATE! This has the benefit of sharing a happy animated with the crew and (my favorite part) is there is a subset of grown men singing "SHINYYYY" at any and all opportunities, which is honestly a fantastic part of ANY day!
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AuthorBree Gibbs, here. I'm a recent Master's Grad just trying to share what it's like to be a trash scientist (for those who aren't in the know, I'm a marine biologist). Categories
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March 2021
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