The room was quiet as the overhead projector beamed in on simple household plastic debris found floating off the Pacific Ocean.
More than two dozen journalists crowded into the Britannia Heritage Shipyard Chinese Bunkhouse to watch and listen to what is being done by the Kaisei to document and rid the ocean of harmful debris.
Mary Crowley, founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization Ocean Voyages Institute and Project Kaisei, spoke passionately about the urgent need to clean up our oceans of global marine debris, which is threatened sea life as well as human life.
I hope that from the video you get a sense of how big the extent of the problem is, said Crowley, a former captain who started sailing when she was four.
The Kaisei, a tall ship coming to this weekends Maritime Festival, recently came across debris from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami roughly 500 kilometres off the coast of Oregon and Washington State.
Although she wasnt part of the most recent clean up voyage along the Oregon Coast, Crowley said the crew aboard the Kaisei found a big chunk of a large pier and other smaller debris that experts believed were swept into the ocean by the tsunami.
The avid sailor and educator went on to say that although the tsunami debris poses a significant threat to the Pacific Ocean and the marine life, its nothing compared to the considerable amount of plastic pollution choking our worlds oceans.
We have found plastic bleach, shampoo and milk bottles, spread out over hundreds of miles of ocean, she added. It looks like shimmering curtain of plastic particles floating in the ocean.
This is like a cancer that is spreading all over our worlds oceans and everyone and every community around the world must support the clean up initiative.
Even though the task seems daunting and insurmountable, Crowley said we cannot give up.
The other important goal of Project Kaisei is to draw attention to the plight of the ocean, and the amount of waste in the North Pacific Gyre.
I hope to inspire everyone around the world to care about whats happening to our oceans and the price we will pay if we continue to use the ocean as our dumping ground for garbage, added Crowley.
The Kaisei will join other tall ships in port during the 9th Annual Maritime Festival returns to the Britannia Heritage Shipyard from August 10 to 12.
- For more information about the festival, check under the tabs under Whats On at http://www.richmondmaritimefestival.ca/whats-on/activities-and-attractions.
