by Beth Terry
By now, most readers of this blog have read about the swirling plastic soup in the North Pacific Gyre and learned about the harm to marine life as well as the bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals that are attracted to these tiny plastic pieces. This coming Sunday, June 1, a couple of intrepid adventurers will sail their own Junk out into the Pacific carrying a large plastic bottle filled with messages from students and individuals across the nation. The bottle of messages will eventually be delivered to state and federal legislators.
The Junk is actually a raft made with 15,000 plastic bottles. The journey is part of an educational effort called Message in a Bottle, and the adventurers are some of the same members of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) who made the trip out to the North Pacific Gyre this past winter and brought back samples of the plastic foating out there.
If you enjoyed following the blog of the Alguita on its voyage this winter, you might want to subscribe to the Junk’s blog this time around. And also consider making a donation to support the work of the AMRF and including your own message in the bottle.
I feel very privileged this week to be able to support the campaigns of No Impact Man yesterday and AMRF today because it was through information from these two sources that my own awareness of the problems of plastic came into being and Fake Plastic Fish was born nearly a year ago. We’ve come so far, and yet there is still so far to go.
