To support us, Make a Donation - we rely on private donations for our operating costs, things like paying salaries and stipends, office space, and even post-its.
In an effort to raise public support for legislation limiting the use of disposable plastics, “eco-mariners” Marcus Erikson and Joel Paschal (working with ground support from Anna Cummins) fashioned a thirty-foot raft from 15,000 plastic bottles and an old Cessna fuselage. Paschal and Erikson piloted the craft–christened Junk–from California to Hawaii. Over the course of their thirteen-week journey, the pair traversed a region of the Pacific Ocean that holds, by weight, more plastic garbage than plankton–in some areas by a factor of 48 to 1.
Cummins, Erikson, and Paschal chronicled the surreal, Kon-Tiki-like, voyage, providing information about the logistics of the trip, the Sargasso Sea of trash the raft encountered, and the disturbing durability of the vessel. As Junk made its way to Hawaii, the project received extensive media coverage. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation, a major sponsor of the junk raft, hopes to maintain this public profile for the topic by supporting a Junk Ride in 2009, in which staff members will bicycle from Vancouver to Tijuana, sharing samples of the “mid-Pacific Plastic soup” with schools, nonprofit groups, and legislators.
. Historian Shae Davidson's research interests include public policy and the relationship between culture and civil society. His publications range from articles on industrial history to absurdist poetry.
