The Great Pacific Garbage Patch w/ Capt. Charles Moore

Captain Charles (Charlie) Moore is author of Plastic Ocean: How a Sea Captain's Chance Discovery Launched a Determined Quest to Save the Oceans, Founder of the Algalita Marine Reseach Foundation and Captain of the Oceanographic Research Vessel Alguita.

On his return voyage, Captain Moore veered from the usual sea route and saw an ocean he had never known. "Every time I came on deck to survey the horizon, I saw a soap bottle, bottle cap or a shard of plastic waste bobbing by. Here I was in the middle of the ocean and there was nowhere I could go to avoid the plastic."

Captain Moore has dedicated his time and resources to understanding and remediating the ocean's plastic load. Along with collaborators from the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project he developed protocols for monitoring marine and beach micro-plastics which are used worldwide.

Captain Moore has conducted ocean and coastal sampling for plastic fragments through more than 40,000 miles of the North Pacific Ocean, across 22 degrees of latitude and 70 degrees of longitude. His latest 10,000 mile voyage took him and his crew two-thirds of the way to Japan across the International Dateline. Captain Moore's work has been highlighted in major media outlets, including ABC’s Nightline, Good Morning America, National Public Radio, and The Wall Street Journal.

His work has been published in multiple scientific journals and magazines. His book, Plastic Ocean, was published in October 2011.

For more information visit: www.algalita.org