Science: the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.
When I think of science, I think of medicine, space, beakers, and the biology class in school I hardly passed. But it’s so much more than that – science is such a profound instrument we need today. Obviously, there are so many varies types of science, that it’s hard to keep track of what new breakthrough has recently come to pass. What we need to remember with science breakthroughs is that it doesn’t happen overnight. It could take years to experiment and perfect something, but even then, there could be kinks that need to be banged out.
My favorite discovery happened last year, and I think it’s something that will really make a difference in our oceans in 2019. A company called Ocean Cleanup created a device that is supposed to remove fifty tons of plastic from the Great Pacific Ocean. How do we have that much plastic?
All the marine life we love so much is dying every day because of it, and if we keep going the way we are going, you are not going to see the beautiful sight of dolphins swimming close to shore when you’re on vacation, sipping your coffee on the balcony. That’s my favorite part of going to the beach!
This device is revolutionary. It could really change the health of our massive oceans. As human beings, it’s important that we go to the doctor and remain healthy, but our oceans don’t have that option. We are their doctors; the people that it counts on to make it better. The device, like the volleyball in Cast Away, is nicknamed Wilson. Pretty ironic, considering the Wilson drifted off to sea too. Uh, spoiler alert.
Wilson is around 2,000 feet long with a 10-foot skirt hanging below it. In September, 2018, it was sent off to sea in the Pacific, since that part of the ocean has the biggest waste patch, to help clean up garbage for the next five years. How did it come to be? A brilliant teenager named Boyan Slat devoted his mind and life to figure out how to help the ocean and came up with this system! He received millions of dollars in non-profit funding, and scientists helped him create Wilson. It works with the natural currents and waves of the ocean, gathering the plastic, but it also pushes the water against the net, allowing fish or any other marine life to be pushed under the ten-foot net, allowing them to just keep swimming.
Sounds great, right? But like all science experiments, sometimes it fails. They found that Wilson wasn’t holding as much plastic as it was supposed to. Apparently, the U-shape device is designed to be pushed with the wind and waves, so it can move faster than the plastic floating; therefore, trapping the plastic effectively so trash boats can come and remove the waste. But the system is moving too slowly, allowing plastic to escape and drift back out in the beautiful abyss. Scientists are working hard to figure out why it isn’t working and have towed it back.
They knew that the first go around that there would be some hiccups. This is something that has never been done before, so the only way to know if it works is to test it.
It is still in the beginning stages while the scientists work out the kinks. A big part of 2019 will be concentrated on making the ocean healthy again. Either with Wilson, or another company called 4Ocean. They do something a little different. With every bracelet that’s purchased (which is made from the plastic they collect from the sea), a pound of trash is removed by hand.
Here’s to Wilson, 40cean, and any other amazing company making the ocean healthy again for 2019! Cheers! Let’s keep swimming.
