The Sailors Who Hunt Garbage for Science
Extreme Field WorkA series about how science gets done in Earth’s weirdest, wildest environments, from the bottom of the ocean to erupting volcanoes. Emily Penn had a mission: To find a piece of trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch large enough to stick a satellite transmitter on so that researchers back on shore could track it until a vessel came to pick it up. Partway through the three-week, all-women’s sailing trip Penn was leading from Hawaii to Vancouver, she found her garbage. A tangle of fishing nets and rope had gathered a collection of bottles, buoys, and even a chair, a...
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