Question: How can such an intense, incredible, crazy endeavour be summarised in 5 minutes?
Answer: take a 30 minutes talk and hash through it aggressively to end up with https://youtu.be/fOi_iwmNIBE
And if you have another 5 minutes, read on....
A proud moment to put the tee-shirt on after 1 month exactly. ‘Done it, got the tee-shirt’ did spring to mind....
Kenilworth Centre 8th January 2020. Presentation to the Kenilworth All Together Green (KATG) group.
Q&A section has been cut out of this clip, find them here:
Q - Did science take place at night as well as during the day?
A - Science only happened during the day and it would not have been possible to conduct at night. It requires a lot of crew to help with the actual collection of samples (which would be difficult and potentially dangerous leaning over the side of the boat dropping heavy equipment in the dark in the middle of the ocean). The boat does not race around the globe so there is plenty of time to do all the sampling required during day time.
Q - What happens to the areas where samples were not taken because of rough seas?
A - Whilst this did not happen on Leg 4, it was the case on earlier legs crossing the Atlantic. The boat will not travel back to the missed spots and this will have to be considered when the science paper is put together.
Q - What do the letters ‘FTIR‘ for the FTIR machine (the machine on board used to analyse the type of polymer found in the samples) stand for?
A - Fournier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy of course!
(I have to admit not knowing this at the time of my presentation, nor finding it that important or a priority discussion point when on the ocean with 13 women I had never met before)
Q - How much did you use the engine on the boat?
A- The engine was only used in the harbours, otherwise we travelled by sail. The power on the boat (for light, electrics, navigation systems etc) was generated through wind turbines and solar panels.
Q2 - So you couldn’t have travelled very far?
A2 - We travelled for 653 nautical miles being pushed and pulled forward by the Trade Winds. We reached speeds of 10 knots at times, just using the power of the winds would you believe it? That’s called sailing! Christopher Columbus went ever further.....
Q - Did you have a bread maker on board?
A - Errr, no. Plenty of biscuits though.
Q - If micro-plastics are smaller than 5mm, they could be very very small. So how tight was the mesh of the net collecting samples (on the Manta Trawl) so that you can be sure smaller bits of plastics couldn’t get through?
A - Very good question. Mesh size is commonly 335 micro millimetre, meaning that any plastics smaller than that can escape. But you have to start somewhere, right?
(Again, I admit not having known this at the time of the question and having referred to the net as looking as a ‘big tea bag’ which probably was not the level of scientific lingo and technical acumen that this audience were expecting)
Q - Will results of the research be shared as you go or will we have to wait till the end of the whole around-the-world?
A - This research is setting out to do something quite unique in the sense that samples will be collected across and around the globe using strict protocols. This will be giving us some insight and comparable points of data, as opposed to localised data which is not consistently collected and analysed, making relevant comparisons difficult. So, yes, we will need to wait till the end but, hey, how strong will this be!
Q - Did you find plastics in the fish dissected by Liv?
A - The poor few flying fish who ended up on deck rather than in the sea during what was effectively their final jump did not contain any plastics, to Liv’s great disappointment.
Q - What would you change?
A - Waow - great question! I had such a fantastic time ; it took me long to reflect upon and for it all to sink in (probably still doing this today to some extent) but I did not come up with any negatives. The only thing I would have liked is for the trip to have been longer, that sums it up really.
Q - Did the crew have blood analysis done, as Emily Penn did all these years ago to find 29 out of 35 toxins tested for in her body?
A - No, this was not done, probably for ethical reasons. I would assume that this is a personal decision that any one of us can decide to perform for themselves.
Let’s grab a tea and a biscuit and have a quick break. Perhaps we can talk about the size of the mesh when we are back in the room.
Oh, wait.... where is he? Has he gone?!?!?!