Day 10
04/02/08 10:33 pm by Ocean Debris - Posted In : Daily Log
The Big Eyes team continued their survey
up on the flight deck. 
Dressed in layers of their warmest clothes,
with gloves and hats, they still are chilled after their 2 hour
shift. This is not a Hawaiian cruise, despite the fact that we
departed from Honolulu. Despite the limited visibility with the high
seas, they continued to spot pieces of debris which usually showed up
in clumps. No sightings would occur for a while and then suddenly,
there would be a number of items coming by the ship. They are seeing
everything from fishing debris to 55 gallon drums
to a toilet seat.
There are a lot of plastic pieces, bottles and misc. The big event
of the day (so far) was when they spotted a hawser (barge towing)
line. It was tangled up in a mass that was about 3-4 meters across.
The yellow line undulated in the swell and waves and would go in and
out of view. While they kept track of it, we decided that we would
try and tag the line with a GhostNet buoy. Small boat operations were not advisable so it was decided to bring the ship along side and pull part of it on board to attach the buoy and then let it go. A hawser line, while a large mass of debris, is not a huge threat to marine mammals or coral reefs. Tracking the movement of debris is very valuable information to help researchers determine how debris moves about the ocean. The buoys are attached to the debris and then transmit their position twice a day via satellite. In this manner, the debris can be tracked a it moves around in the ocean. The tagging was successful and we continued on our way.
Late afternoon, we turned our course westward and will continue this direction throughout the night. The turn put the swell and wind on our starboard side so the ship is rolling much steeper than it has been. Sleeping tonight might be interesting, good thing they have "roll bars" on the top bunks.
04/03/08 9:30 pm
Even though nothing was "accomplished" it sounds like an amazing day full of proof that there is major convergent zones full of junk. Sleep well! Haha.