A Cornwall scientist says we are facing a “global crisis” because too much plastic is in the sea

Mention the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and it conjures up images of a continent-sized soup of plastic debris floating around the ocean. Emily Duncan is an environmental scientist from Cornwall who was part of an all-female crew that sailed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as part of an expedition to study it and its impact on our oceans.

For three weeks, the scientist from the University of Exeter’s Penryn campus was part of 14 crews on board the ‘eXXpedition North Pacific’. Emily said sailing to and through the notorious global pollution hotspot was an opportunity to see the scale of the problem for herself and study marine plastic pollution on a large scale.

She said: “A lot of people think of the garbage patch as a huge island of plastic, but it looks like an open ocean until you start trawling and seeing the amount of small plastic particles present in the surface waters. I felt grateful to have the opportunity to be part of the expedition and to be able to visit this rarely visited area, but it was also shocking to see the level of pollution there.

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“I think the worst thing I saw was the phantom rig that the satellite tracker was attached to in the film, which was a mass of nets, ropes and other plastics. In my PhD I had done some research on threats to the navy. ghost gear turtles, but I never witness seeing one this big in the ocean.”

Among her discoveries during the three-week trip, Emily discovered sea creatures living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that should never be there but have been walking around with plastic.

She said: “It was great to see the little Columbus crabs that exist in such a remote part of the ocean. Unfortunately, we found them in association with the plastic in our samples.”

The small crabs, known as Planes minutus, tend to live in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean and have even been recorded on the Cornish coast. The first published record was at Falmouth in 1845 by William Pennington Cocks, the most recent record was in 2015.

Emily, who was the head of science on the expedition, added: “I loved being on the boat, especially the sense of remoteness that came from being so far from land. Of course, those were difficult times. It was worse weather than normal and so the boat was heeling a lot so we were living at a constant angle and offshore from Canada it was very cold.

“Plastic pollution is now much more in the public consciousness and innovations are being produced to try to reduce it, however I still think there is a lot more work to be done which relates to a wider issue of consumerism and valuing materials like plastic. For example, single-use plastics are still a big problem, where we use a material that is designed to last only once and then throw it away.

“I felt very inspired by the other women on the expedition, who were all from different sectors. However, it was quite overwhelming to think about the scale of the problem when I witnessed it in one of the most remote parts of the world. it was extremely inspiring to be an early-career researcher to be able to see the problem and stay motivated both to understand the problem of plastic pollution and to create solutions.”

The EXXpedition North Pacific took place in 2018 and covered approximately 3,000 miles with the goal of “making the unseen seen.” It has since been the subject of a film, called X Trillion, which premiered in May of this year.

The documentary’s director, Eleanor Church, said: “We were a team of women with different skills, goals and motivations brought together to witness and record the true scale of the plastic pollution crisis – with a focus on micro-plastics and their toxic impact on women. We all came away transformed by the experience and are determined to tell the story of what we witnessed and work to find solutions.

“The film is about this global crisis, but more than that, it highlights the crucial role women play in helping to change systems and find solutions to the big problems facing humanity.”

EXXpedition North Pacific was the tenth eXXpedition mission. It proposed answers to questions such as: Where does plastic come from? What does it mean for our natural world and human health? And what can be done to solve it?

British captain and ocean advocate Emily Penn said: “We know there is no silver bullet to solving the plastic problem. Our expeditions help people understand the real challenge of ocean plastic pollution so they can use their skills to tackle it from sea to source.

“This journey has transformed these incredible women into ambassadors for change with the power to help transform our future. It’s amazing to see the impact they’ve made since then.”

Emily Duncan, who is a microplastics researcher, said the expedition made her realize the scale of the problem of plastic pollution, not just for the sea turtles she specifically studied, but for all marine life.

She said: “I had just finished my PhD when I started and nobody was really researching it. We didn’t even realize it was a problem in the sea turtle community. And now it’s kind of exponential. Plastic was introduced so quickly . that we call it an ecological trap”.

Since taking part in the project, Emily has joined other expeditions around the world to further study the impact of plastic on ecosystems. She said: “In 2019 I was a researcher on the National Geographic Sea to Source expedition where I traveled the length of the Ganges River through Bangladesh and India, studying the abundance, impact and potential solutions to plastic pollution.

“I am currently working on a capacity building project with a local NGO on the island of Príncipe in West Africa. In this project I provide training on monitoring plastic pollution and its potential impact on sea turtles, as well as developing a plastic recovery. -use a mall for women’s products.”