Wāhine-only crew tackle plastic pollution on Aotea

As April turned to May, the wāhine from our team had the privilege of being invited to join eXXpedition on the first leg of their South Pacific voyage — sailing from downtown Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland to Aotea Great Barrier Island.

eXXpedition is an international non-profit running all-women sailing expeditions to investigate plastic pollution in our ocean. Their crews bring together scientists, changemakers, and advocates from a range of disciplines and countries to collect data at sea and turn it into action on land.

We departed at 5am, crossing the Hauraki Gulf as the sun came up, accompanied at times by a kororā little blue penguin. Along the way, the crew deployed a manta trawl — a surface net named after the manta ray, designed to collect water samples for microplastic analysis. What we pulled up would later be examined under the microscope, offering a snapshot of what’s drifting through our precious waters.

Sunrise across the Hauraki Gulf, and surveying microplastics along the way. Photo credit: Britta Baecher, Kate McNaught, Sibel Bulay. Top photo: Jinger Zeng.

After a late-afternoon arrival into Port Fitzroy, the following morning we made our way to Katherine Bay to carry out a Litter Intelligence survey. Within a 1,000 square-metre area, we removed 57 kilograms of rubbish — 749 items in total, 716 of which were plastic. That’s more than 95% plastic by item count.

Emily Penn, founder of eXXpedition explains the rationale for the research, saying, “Plastic is polluting our entire ocean — and even our bodies — but the sources of that pollution differ. It’s a global problem, but there’s no single fix, and it needs local, industry-specific, diverse solutions.”

“We believe that the power of collaboration with local experts such as Sustainable Coastlines allows us to pair eXXpedition’s global scientific research with community action to drive positive change.”

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The clean-up at Katherine Bay, Aotea Great Barrier. Photo credit: Sam Judd.

After the clean-up, Saturday was spent auditing everything we’d collected to build a clearer picture of what’s washing up on the shores of Aotea. That data is now available on the Litter Intelligence website — New Zealand’s national litter database. Our friends at Spirit of Adventure have indicated that their voyagers will repeat the survey at Katherine Bay, gradually building a long-term picture of how the litter problem at this location changes over time.

This voyage was a perfect example of what’s possible when organisations bring their strengths together. eXXpedition’s crew are doing incredible work — sailing to the furthest corners of the ocean to understand the scale of the problem. Alongside that, we’re on the ground educating and inspiring communities, and collecting the data that helps turn awareness into action. The ocean needs all of us working together, approaching the problem from every angle we can.