Environment: A journey on plastic seas

Abstract

A voyage through plastic oceans. Richard Thompson applauds a chronicle alerting the world to marine polymer pollution.

The story of a voyage bearing witness to plastic pollution in the oceans, Junk Raft is a stimulating, thought-provoking and factually grounded read. Science educator and researcher Marcus Eriksen’s navigational feat is gripping — 88 days crossing some 4,000 kilometres of open ocean between Los Angeles and Hawaii, on a raft crafted from 15,000 plastic bottles lashed into fishing nets. But it is more. Woven through the chronicle are two equally fascinating storylines: of Eriksen’s evolution from soldier to head of the environmental non-profit 5 Gyres Institute, and of a journey that we all need to take toward a more sustainable use of plastics.