The Plastiki--a 60-foot catamaran made entirely out of plastic bottles--has completed its 8,000 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, docking at Sydney Harbor early Monday morning.The boat, which was constructed entirely out of recycled and/or environmentally friendly materials, left San Francisco on March 20 and visited several sites that had been impacted by waste, global warming, or other key ecological issues. Among the locations visited by the Plastiki's crew were the Line Islands, Western Samoa and the French territory of New Caledonia, according Julian Swallow of AFP.David de Roths
child, the head of Adventure Ecology and the author of The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook: 77 Essential Skills to Stop Climate Change—Or Live Through It, was the expedition leader. He is also a member of the de Rothschild banking family of
England."The idea was hatched after de Rothschild was left 'dumbfounded' by a United Nations report into marine ecosystems and biodiversity, and the realization 'there are just these amazing human fingerprints all over our oceans,'" Swallow said. "And while he said the impact of the voyage had exceeded his expectations, the amount of degrading plastic floating in the ocean had confirmed the scale of the problem."According to the official Plastiki website, a 10-person crew served aboard the vessel during its 130-day nautical journey. They include de Rothschild, Skipper Jo Royle, Co-Skipper David Thomson, Olav Heyerdahl, Graham Hill, Luca Babini, Matthew Grey, Max Jourdan, Singeli Agnew and Vern Moen--"All of whom have witnessed the polluted waters of the Pacific, affirming their mission to share their experience with the watching world and most importantly highlight solutions to protect our oceans and beat waste," says a blog entry dated July 26, 2010.The Plastiki was built using 12,500 plastic bottles, which were "lashed to pontoons and held together with recyclable plastic and glue made fro ...
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