A recent ocean clean up from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between California and Hawaii has removed 103 tons worth of fishing nets and plastic trash in a 48-day operation.
The environmental expedition was led by the Ocean Voyages Institute, who claim that this is the largest clean up in history, doubling their previous record from a 25-day stretch last year.
The biggest ocean clean up to date has recovered over 100 tons worth of plastic and fishing nets from the Great Pacific garbage patch.
While the team did recover a large amount of consumer waste and plastic trash, the group noted that many of the objects pulled up were commercial fishing equipment and empty nets that were carelessly discarded by fishermen in the area.
Unfortunately, some of the plastic objects had claimed the lives of sea turtles in the area whose skeletons were wrapped up amongst the waste.
Locky Mclean, a spokesperson for Sea Shepherd, in a statement about the expedition, said that “There is no cure-all solution to ocean clean-up: It is the long days at sea, with dedicated crew scanning the horizon, grappling nets, and retrieving huge amounts of trash, that makes it happen.”
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is thought to contain around 80,000 tonnes of plastic trash, a result of commercial fishing and maritime operations in the area.
The clean-up can be seen as a step in the right direction, though there is still a lot of work left to do considering that up to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic waste enter the oceans every year.
