Published 17:41 IST, October 8th 2019
Women-only crew on two-year sea voyage to tackle plastic pollution
A women-only sea voyage will begin from Oct 8 and stop at 30 destinations around the globe with 300 women overall participating in different legs of the trip
Ten members of the public which include a police constable and yoga teacher are setting sail on a two-year scientific voyage to analyze ocean plastics. The all-women expedition will begin from October 8 and stop at 30 destinations around the globe with 300 women overall participating in different legs of the trip. The Exxpedition mission will be led by Sky Ocean Rescue ambassador Emily Penn. She told a news agency that congregating people from different walks of life on-board will give experience and will hopefully increase the scope for finding solutions to tackle ocean plastics. Ms. Penn said that she has realized working on plastic problems is no rocket science and there should be a solution to the problem. She said to bring those solutions to life they need people from all different skill sets, backgrounds, and expertise. She added that we need scientists, artists, teachers, designers and policymakers to work on the solutions.
The trip is named as Exxpedition
The trip is named as Exxpedition and will be represented by the all-women crowd. The trip is entirely formed up of female guests and crew members to highlight the under-representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics industries. The ship will visit the Arctic and four of the five oceanic gyres where ocean plastic is known to accumulate. The ship will cover a distance of 38,000 nautical miles with a first stop at the Azores in the Atlantic ocean where 10 new women are scheduled to join the ship.
Scientific tests led by University of Plymouth
The first leg of participants come from the UK, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Croatia, Canada, the USA, and Germany. The scientific tests conducted on-board and on samples sent back to land are being led by the University of Plymouth. Among the first 10 who have paid to take part is Kirsty Young from London who works as a firearms officer for the Ministry of Defence.
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(With inputs from agencies)
Updated 19:24 IST, October 8th 2019