14 women - 2688.4 nautical miles - 3 weeks - Hawaii to Vancouver
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eXXpedition NORTH PACIFIC 2018 IS A PIONEERING ALL-FEMALE SAILING VOYAGE AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH MISSION THROUGH THE NORTH PACIFIC GYRE. THE AIM IS TO RAISE AWARENESS OF, AND SOLUTIONS FOR, THE DEVASTATING ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH IMPACTS OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC AND TOXICS IN THE WORLD’S OCEANS.
Read more about the expedition here
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“We are about as far away from civilization as one can get. Yet here, all around us,
is evidence of our daily lives on land. Our choices. Our purchases. This is your old toothbrush,
my empty shampoo bottle, the lid to his coffee cup.”
– Michelle Byle, packaging designer
"One of the things that people have asked a lot since I got back from the expedition is “Did you reach the island?” Or “What was the island like?”. That’s what many of us think the great Pacific garbage patch, the densest accumulation of oceans plastic in the world, is - a floating island three times the size of France - but it’s not. Rather than a solid mass, it’s a much more alarming accumulation of some larger pieces of plastic but also trillions of pieces of microplastics, broken down from our plastic waste. They are potentially a much bigger hazard and simply scooping them out of the water isn't an option"
- Eleanor Church, filmmaker and photographer
