(June 2-6, 2008) In order to draw attention to the other masses of recyclables now floating in the pacific, Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal departed Sunday, June 1, 2008 from Long Beach, California on a raft made mostly of plastic bottles - 15,000 plastic bottles - topped by the fuselage of an old private airplane. Marcus and Joel hope to sail their raft all the way to Hawaii in order to help call attention to the problem of plastic pollution in the oceans.
The raft is 30 feet by 20 feet, consisting of thousands of plastic bottles bound together with fishing net into "pontoons," and then set in a deck/framework of old aluminum spars. The "cockpit" of the raft, which will provide shelter for the two man crew, is an old airplane fuselage, which the team overhauled and "made waterproof." They expect to make landfall in six weeks, but are carrying provisions for three months. -- Website
