JUNK Raft revisited

Remember the JUNK Raft journey from this past summer...a boat made of junk/plastic sailing from California to Hawaii to raise awareness of the plastic problem in the ocean? Not ringing a bell... No worries we have a link to their blog down there on the right hand side of your screen under 'Get Inspired'.

Well, today I was lucky enough to go to a presentation by Dr. Marcus Eriksen (JUNK Raft sailor, researcher, etc.) and Anna Cummins (JUNK Raft blog runner, educator, etc.) about the JUNK Raft journey, the plastic problem in the ocean, and their upcoming JUNK Ride which will go from Vancouver to Tijuana spreading the word about the problems of plastic in our oceans. These guys are inspiring!

Here are some of the points from the talk that really stuck with me that I thought I'd share:

• You can think of the North Pacific Gyre like a big toilet bowl..our plastic crap gets in there and just goes round and round and round...but this toilet never flushes
  
• Marcus and Anna talked about walking on a beach in Hawaii where they were knee (and even waist deep at times) in debris, mostly plastic, that had washed up on the beach
• 44% of all sea birds species in the world currently live with plastic in or around their bodies
• The fish we eat often are caught with plastic in their bellies...that means the chemicals in the plastics that the fish have ingested are in their bodies, in their flesh, the flesh that we then eat...doesn't make you want to go out and get sushi does it
  

Check out more about JUNK Raft at their blog (http://junkraft.blogspot.com), find out more about (and help fund) the work they do at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (www.algalita.org) and...they run a site called PlasticsAreForever (www.plasticsareforever.org) with information and facts...I like the name of that site ;)

P.S. Much like Kerry and I these guys highly promote 'bringing your own' and eliminating single use disposable plastics in your daily life as ways of making a difference!