Perfect Sailing Conditions for the Manta Trawl in the North Sea

We managed to do quite a bit of science en route from Edinburgh - having the best sailing weather of the trip, sunny with a good wind.

The photos show the manta trawl, and some of the contents, bits of plastic.  We also saw a lot of helium balloons - managed to rescue a few.  Remember we are only deploying the trawl for 30 minutes and it only skims a small area of water - multiply what we find as if we'd done a 24 hour trawl of the whole ocean.....And what we see is only the 'micro' plastic, visible pieces up to about 5mm - we do other samples for the 'nano' plastics, the minute fibres etc that we can't see.

The newspaper article describes some of our concerns about plastic pollution - these chemicals which are washed into the sea via sewage plants and manufacturing, are attracted to plastic particles, creating highly toxic particles which are ingested by fish and ultimately by us - good reason to go vegan!

What's in the trawl net???

Micro plastics attract these chemicals

Bits of visible plastic

Bridge opens for Us

Passing under the Bridge

Hi everyone
We've arrived in London - moored on the historic and beautiful Hermitage wharf by London Bridge till Saturday.

Took us all night to motor the 80 miles of Thames estuary.  I was on watch from 8pm to midnight, passing Harwich and Clacton etc waking to the outskirts of London - The London waste incineration plant, Woolwich Ferry and the Barrage.  One of our crew had grown up in the area and we were treated to a running commentary on the area, it's development in the past 50 years and the local riverside pubs.  Coming in past Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf was so exciting as we had an appointment with Tower Bridge - opening especially for us at 10am and then again at 11am for us to pass back.  It was so exciting.

We have two days of events; Exxpedition dinner at Hermitage, boat tours, Plastic free open event at St Kat's dock, creating an art installation using Thames litter with artist Maria Arceo, story telling evening at the Cutty Sark, an evening of talks at ZSL (Zoological Society of London), an evening of films about plastic pollution at the Dicken's Inn.

Meanwhile boat work is underway; Skipper and Holly deep in the bilges replacing an effluent pipe - bless them - we may have two loos again for the remainder of the trip.

Holly and Diane doing Essential Plumbing

Our Itinerary for London - beautifully written by crew member Liane alias Pirate Scarlet  Macaw

I passed my on line Micro Plastic course with the Open University of the Netherlands.  So pleased.  It involved a final dissertation of about 8000 words.  I did mine on Abandoned, Lost and Discarded Fishing Gear from the Orkneys.

Hi All
We're heading off for London now - 6 new crew on board for leg 3, plus 2 returners from leg 1.
We will arrive on Wednesday, AND we will be having London Bridge raised especially for us to pass through!!!!!!

I think I may have found my new creative venture - combining my science background in microscopy with my art using sea plastic.  These last two days working with microscopes to look at micro and nano plastics has totally inspired me - I have some beautiful images.

A shard of hard red translucent plastic about 7mm in length and 3mm wide with sand grains attached - from Musselburgh

Images collected at today at Ocean Terminal shopping centre using Leith Labs microscope and my phone camera

A hard fragment of blue plastic in amongst sand grains - from Musselburgh

Fragments of hard plastics 1/2-3mm in size, resulting from degradation of much larger items
from a manta trawl on a previous expedition

Exxpedition, Leith Labs (a community science project) and Kids Against Plastic set up in Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre today, with the Sky Ocean Rescue Whale outside 

Leith Labs use these fantastic desk microscopes, which magnify about 100x, and the image can be photographed on a mobile phone

I collected loads of samples of degraded plastic from Musselburgh beach to look at

Amongst the grains of sand I found many microscopic fibres, this one is the length of a grain of sand - possibly washed out to sea in waste water after washing an item of fleece clothing

These are synthetic fibers from a small tuft of fibrous material 

Another fibre amidst grains of sand - these were not hard to find

The presence of these tiny fibre in such abundance is a real issue - they act like sponges, attracting all sorts of persistent organic pollutants such as dioxins and flame retardants, which act like hormone disruptors - they are eaten by tiny creatures, feeding into the food web and eventually to us.

Exxpedition at ASCUS

ASCUS is an amazing facility available to the pubic for combining Art and Science

After 36 years I'm back on a Micro Scope, this time doing Art - Yay

After holyrood we had a lovely walk around Arthur's Seat to Summerhall and the ASCUS lab. Edinburgh Festival in full swing so loads of people and events going on.  ASCUS is my idea of heaven, being able to look at plastics under a  variety of microscopes.  Got some great images for new cards.

Presenting Exxpedition at Holyrood
Key Speakers - Emily Penn and Lucy Gilliam - co-founders of Exxpedition, Amy and Ella Meek, founders of Kids against Plastic and author and eco-philosopher, Alastair MacKintosh

We had various MP's and other interested parties attending.

Sky Ocean met us at Musselburgh Beach Edinburgh

The Nurdle Kit by Alice
The Firth of Forth has a Particular Problem with lost Nurdles 

Exxpedition Meets Marine Conservation Society, Wild About Scotland, Kids Against Plastic and a Bunch of Local School Children at Musselburgh to Litter Pick

Sky's Tour

My Litter Documenting team - The Meek family #kidsvplastic

Litter Documenting Kit

Hi everyone
Yesterday started with a beach clean at Musselburgh. For the first hour we did a 100m transect, documenting every thing we picked up, this data is used by Marine Conservation Society to lobby manufacturers and governments about the types of plastic litter that are an issue - hence plastic bag tax. They are now lobbying against 'flushable' wet wipes (of which we found dozens - yeuch) and for a plastic bottle deposit scheme.  Then we were joined by dozens of school children and we did a general blitz on the beach litter.  The children were really surprised to find lighters and wet wipes!

Sky Ocean - who are filming us for one of the series they are creating - coincided their round Britain with ours showing off their giant plastic whale, which represents all the plastic that lands in the sea per day.

Then it was a dash by taxi to Holyrood. See next post

Sunrise over North Sea coming into Firth of Forth this Morning 

Sieving Samples from Manta Trawl in Firth of Forth

Examining Manta Trawl Haul from Firth of Forth

Micro Plastics From Manta Trawl Haul in Firth of Forth
Several Nurdles and other Tiny Fragments of Plastic

We're Moored in front of The Britannia in Leith Docks Edinburgh

Hi Everyone
We've arrived in Edinburgh after a two day sail from Inverness. It was a bit blowy until last night, many of us resorted to taking the pills, including me - I couldn't face a third bout of seasickness.  Only problem is they make me very sleepy so I've arrived in Edinburgh - having been up since 4am as I was on the dawn watch - very tired.  We have an evening of meetings, so I'll finish this and get back for a nap.  I'm using the Holiday Inn WiFi having had a lovely shower in the Sky film crews room.

We had a very successful trawl this morning - found more visible plastic than in every other trawl we've done - of course that's not a good thing, however, it was ironically exciting too.  Interesting that we found several nurdles - the white plastic 'beads' that are used to manufacture most plastic products.  Were these washed down a river or lost at sea from a container?  To find 3 in a 30 minute trawl of a tiny section of the Firth of Forth suggests there are a lot more around.  We also found several tiny coloured fragments of degraded plastic - larger items that have broken down.  These were approximately 2mm by 1/2 mm, really tiny and definitely the sort of thing that would be consumed by sea creatures along with plankton etc.

Our daily routine when sailing - we have 3 watches, led by our 3 professional crew, with 3-4 exxpedition crew in each.  Watch shifts are very traditional as used by the navy etc, 00.00-04.00hours, 04.00-08.00, 08.00-12.00, 12.00-16.00, 16.00-18.00, 18.00-20.00, 20.00-24.00.  Breakfast is between 7.30 and 8.30, lunch from 12.00 till 13.00 and dinner from 17.30 to 18.30, with loads of drinks and snacks in between.

I'll do my best to get back on line before we leave Edinburgh and let you know what we've been up to.  Beach clean tomorrow morning, followed by a reception at Holyrood, and then off to ASCUS an Art/Science centre.

Leg 2 team in Arran

Sea Dragon In a Lock on Caledonian Canal

Deploying the Manta Trawl in Loch Ness

Hi everyone
I've had to escape to a pub to update you - in Inverness.  We've just spent two days traveling the Caledonian canal from Fort William to Inverness, lovely and still, beautiful views, we did lots of science sampling for micro and nano plastics - found some big plastic and micro plastic - nano plastic is too small to see so those samples will be sent away to be investigated.

It was pretty rough again from Arran to Fort William, so many casualties as round Lands End, but enough, including me.  Again I was better up on deck at the helm riding the swells.  We saw some porpoises and stunning views of the western islands, Mull, Islay etc, names I have heard of but never been.

I've been doing loads of talking and handing out my business cards along the canal - just opened my emails and found a photo of Sea Dragon on Loch Ness sent by another boater who passed us - but my laptop is failing to download it.

I was on cook duty today so was below deck cooking up a storm - red rice salad and kale salad with tahini dressing for lunch, and Dutch mash with carrots, onion and kale + beans in an Italian sauce + stir fried lettuce + quinoa with pesto for dinner.  Yes lots of kale, cos it doesn't keep long, and cooked lettuce because the fridge froze the lettuce.  My cook partners on both legs haven't enjoyed cooking, so we've had a great partnership, I cook, and they wash up - not my favourite task.  We have a 5 day rota, cooking, toilets (called the Heads), engineer (checking mechanical stuff), navigation (hourly log), deck check (for safety) and science.

I'm learning a lot about sailing, names of ropes and what they do etc - and there are a lot on this boat. I love it.

Arran Co-op delivering our fresh groceries for leg 2 - with their own Exxpedition Banner!! 

Me litter picking in Lamlash Bay with Sea Dragon and Holy Island behind

Plastic Tideline in Arran Lifeboat Station in preparation for High School Students doing some Sea Plastic Art

Amy and Ella Meek beach cleaning in Lamlash Bay with Sea Dragon on Water