The Vortex Swim – Episode One: Floating Debris

Ben and his crew have found on average three floating debris per minute across the pacific ocean….

THE VORTEX SWIM

Ben and the crew collected samples for scientific institutes, to help researchers learn more about the effects of plastic pollution on marine life and human health. Combined with data collected on their previous voyage from Japan to Hawaii, it is the first Trans-Pacific data set of floating debris, microplastics and plastic microfibers. Through daily encounters with a wide range of marine life, Ben and the crew witnessed the various ways plastic impacts wildlife. This included seeing sperm whales swim through a smog of waterborne microplastics, a fish trapped inside a plastic bottle and a fragment of plastic inside the stomach of a fish.