Vanaf 14 maart gaan Arend Bolt en Haico Wevers aan boord van de Beagle opzoek naar de plastic soep. Namens de Van Gansewinkel Groep en Koninklijke Boskalis Westminster gaan Arend en Haico het probleem van de plastic soep in kaart brengen. Volg de avonturen op hun weblog Met de Beagle door de plastic soep.

Door Denktank

With the Beagle currently 'offline' from the internet, a support team has been in touch through a satellite phone. The Beagle is making good progress traveling through the Indian Ocean in search of possible solutions to the plastic soup predicament. Where is the plastic soup exactly, what is the plastic floating in the ocean and where is it coming from? The sense of urgency for action is clear. Whilst sailing, Haico and Arend had the manta trawl trailing alongside the vessel for roughly 3 hours, and they collected a jam jar worth of plastic with particles ranging in size from 1 mm to a few millimeters.

Approximately 20 people from Boskalis and Van Gansewinkel in the Netherlands are in regular contact with the team onboard of the Beagle to provide hands-on back-office support for any questions that arise from the Beagle. In addition, the support team also provides suggestions and new ideas for Haico and Arend.

A couple of specific questions raised:

1. Instead of focusing on removing plastic from the open ocean, could we set up a post-consumer program in the on- and near shore area. Could we set up a global program, including fundraising to establish beach cleaning, recycling systems, incentive schemes for fishermen to collect plastic and clean harbors and river estuaries?

2. To make such a system effective, we would also need to ascertain the source of the seaborne plastic to be able to target the source effectively. How can we determine the source of plastic which is only a couple of millimeters in size?

[Bron: beagleplasticsoep-weblog van Arend & Haico]

Meer over de plastic soep:
> Meer blogs van Arend Bolt en Haico Wevers over de plastic soep
> Lees de blogs van Marcus Eriksen & Anna Cummins over de plastic soep
> Zie ook Dossier: De plastic soep