9:08 AM  |
Do you think photographer Ramon Dominguez could have saved this turtle but he didn’t? |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
This is one of many scenarios that happen after fishermen lose their gear. Fishing nets will continue to catch marine life for many years after being lost. If you didn’t know sea turtles cannot breathe underwater. On photo #1, taken by phot... |
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10:38 PM  |
Written by: Ron Fouts (Contributor) |
This is out of control When are we going to get on this? 1. According to The Wall Street Journal, Americans go through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion.) 2. During a three-hour clean up on ... |
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6:27 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Today my friend and I went for a walk down to Mile Rock Beach at Land’s End in San Francisco and discovered that Styrofoam is pretty much part of the landscape now. Wherever I looked I saw Styrofoam tiny pieces stuck in between and under the rocks, ... |
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10:34 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Today we made a short unplanned visit to The Marin Mammal Center in Marin County. The Center’s focus is on rescue and treatment of ill, injured, or orphaned marine mammals, which they ultimately hope to release back in to the wild. Accordi... |
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12:32 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Montenegro during January 2010 will definitely be remembered by incredible floods that have washed away incredible amounts of garbage, mostly plastic, and covered thousands of acres of cost lines of Skadar Lake, River Bojana and the Adriatic. Th... |
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2:30 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
My last stop before heading down to the airport was St. Catherine's Beach, also known as Gates Beach. It was refreshing seeing it clean even though I knew that the reason behind it was due to the fact that it was just recently cleaned. There were still fe... |
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1:15 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Today on my last day in Paradise, while riding a scooter I rented and successfully crashed yesterday, I came across this tiny, incredibly beautiful beach on Saint George’s Island called Tobacco Bay. I just had to stop at the top of the hill to snap ... |
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10:23 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
These limestone caves were discovered in 1907 by two young men while playing cricket on field above. The "crystal" in the name refers to the incredibly clear underground pools found here – you can see 55 feet down to the bottom. Guides will lead you... |
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5:14 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Well, the day has come when we have to say goodbye to Bermuda and hello to the 2nd leg of the 5 Gyres Expedition! This part of the expedition from Bermuda to The Azores is going to be a bit longer then the 1st keg from the US Virgin Islands to Bermuda. We... |
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10:32 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
One of our new crew members is an artist from Netherlands, Maarten Vanden Eynde. He is using plastic found on beaches around the world to build a gigantic plastic reef sculpture to raise awareness about this problem. So today I took Marteen, his girlfrien... |
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12:31 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Since we have already run out of food supplies it was time to re-stock. Leslie Moyer volunteered to come up with the list which she then emailed to Butterfield & Vallis, a local wholesaler who in return decided to help us more... |
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10:30 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Our days are completely filled with work around the boat, beach clean ups, filming, presentations, planning, blogging, cooking and tonight is a little different. Amazing Judith Landsberg from Greenrock.org invited the entire Sea Dragon crew to her house f... |
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9:46 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Islands of Bermuda are located right on the edge of The North Atlantic Gyre which obviously is a major contributing factor to the amount of trash found on its beaches. What is interesting is that many Bermudians are not aware of this problem at all. Most ... |
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7:30 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Today we were going to visit Royal Naval Dockyard but on the way there, while passing through Warwick Parish, we noticed some incredibly nice beaches which we decided to explore. As you can see on the photos these beaches must be one of the most beautiful... |
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8:28 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
People of Bermuda are one of the nicest people I have ever encountered. They usually say hi to everyone on the street and they do it with a smile. They will help you no matter what the situation is. I will really miss this :) One of those amazing people i... |
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5:56 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Today we were all invited to the US Consulate. I am happy to report that the recently appointed consul general Grace W. Shelton, is very much liked and popular on Bermuda. |
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10:27 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Our host Judith Landsberg from Greenrock has organized a presentation in a local cafe called G135. As always Marcus and Anna did a great job and I have done my part by joing the local band on the stage … hey, everybody needs some entertai... |
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5:25 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
On Saturday we are planning to have an “open boat” in Hamilton so we had to move it from Saint George Harbor to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. Right as we were exiting the harbor we came across our friends on The Spirit of Bermuda. |
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6:23 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Our friends from BIOS invited us on board of Spirit of Bermuda, a purpose-built sail training vessel based on civilian Bermudian-type schooners built in Bermuda by blacks and whites between 1810 and 1840. In 2009 Spirit participated in ... |
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5:55 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Ever since we arrived on the islands we have been spending a lot of time in the "Tavern by the sea", a restaurant in Saint George that has something very valuable to us, an Internet connection! I was surprised to learn that the manager and one of the ... |
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7:20 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Today we participated in two beach cleanups organized by Keep Bermuda Beautiful (KBB) with the help of volunteers from Marsh, IAS and Guy Carpenter. These beaches must be some of the most beautiful in the world, and at first look everything appears OK. U... |
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2:17 AM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
We were able to see the lights of Bermuda at around 20:00 on Saturday, but came in at around 8:00 on Sunday, because each trawl takes 3 hours at only 1.5 knots per hour. The entrance to Saint George’s Harbor is absolutely magnificent, especially aft... |
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2:16 AM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
We have received an email from Ron Ritter of Pangaea Explorations, that we should expect gale-force winds of up to 40 knots starting Sunday. So we have decided to speed up and sail in to Bermuda day earlier, instead of Monday as originally planned. Marcus... |
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11:29 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
I just had to share these photos with you :) |
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6:20 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Today at around 15:00 hours, just an hour after we went for a swim, we came across another windrow and this one was even worst then the first one. Plastic was everywhere and in everything. We could only pick up few larger pieces and take photos and v... |
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3:54 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
This was one of the nicest days during the expedition by now, so we decided to take some time off and go for a swim in the open ocean. The water was incredibly calm and to my surprise, warm. The depth of the ocean at that location was approximately 5,000 ... |
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1:41 AM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
The winds picked up yesterday in the afternoon and lasted throughout the night so we were not able to trawl. We drifted too far off the course and it took hours to get back where we left off. Today we came across our first windrow – basic... |
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1:44 AM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
So far, we found plastic in every trawl, however it appears that the situation is not as bad as it is in North Pacific. Of course, this is too early to argue since we are still far away from the center of the gyre, which is some 730 miles North East from ... |
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5:28 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
There are so many things happening here every day on the boat, I wish I could clone myself so I could update this blog every hour or at least once every day. Unfortunately it’s not that easy from a sailboat in the middle of Atlantic. Beside the fact... |
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3:18 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Today we did two trawls and another one is on its way right now. Personally, I hoped that we would not find what we were looking for but we did. Both trawls produced number of small plastic particles. We are using a device called Manta Trawl that is... |
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7:42 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
5 Gyres Project crew aboard the Sea Dragon off St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Far left to right: Stiv Wilson, Leslie Moyer, Jon Howard, Ivan Martinetti, Marcus Eriksen, Anna Cummins, Steve Amato-Salvatierra, Clive Cosby–boat’s Skipper. Not p... |
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8:48 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
The day was perfect, we dropped our dingy in to the water and headed out to a secluded beach on the south side of Hassel Island. I was really looking forward to it because I have never visited this place before and I wanted to see what kind of pollution w... |
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12:33 AM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
Today is a special day. I am on my way to US Virgin Islands to join 5 Gyres Expedition that was organized by Algalita, Pangaea Explorations and Livable Legacy. The expedition is going to be lead by two incredible individuals Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummin... |
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3:49 PM  |
Written by: Ivan Martinetti (Contributor) |
BlueTurtle is proud to be the Title Sponsor of 5 Gyres’ maiden expedition to the Atlantic Ocean to research marine pollution. We will follow the journey here. BlueTurtle’s own Ivan Martinetti will be onboard reporting from the ... |
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