BlueTurtle Blog

Styrofoam glazed Mile Rock Beach in San Francisco

Ivan Martinetti — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:27:53 +0000

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, in the sand and under various bushes and branches that are found on the beach. I have visually examined couple of areas and found that there were at list 2-3 visible pieces for every square inch. I only found few larger pieces and that is because Styrofoam is very easily broken down by the elements. I wonder how much of it is around that we can’t even see with our naked eye and where are we heading with all this?

The Marine Mammal Center: “seals ingesting plastic”

Ivan Martinetti — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:34:42 +0000

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. According to their research data plastic is commonly found in the stomachs of the treated mammals and in many cases around their necks and fins. If you have never been there before, you should check it out.

Ecological State of Plastic Montenegro

Ivan Martinetti — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:32:40 +0000

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. This single event has caused more damage to the environment than any other event in the history of that country. The photos you are looking at are from the Bay of Kotor, one of main tourist destinations.

Energizer AA Alkaline Battery Sunbathing on Bermuda

Ivan Martinetti — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:30:37 +0000

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 few remnants of the reality, a ghost net that came from who knows where and a lone AA Energizer Alkaline Battery who was unfortunately not informed about the side effects caused by direct sunlight exposure. Well, in a few hours I will be on a plane to New York. Sad to leave so early but I will be back for sure

Bermuda’s beautiful trash of Tobacco Bay

Ivan Martinetti — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:15:38 +0000

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 few photos before heading down for a close up experience. You may say that based on my previous beach trash discoveries I should have totally expected to find trash on this beach as well, but I didn’t! For some reason I was not thinking about trash at all, maybe I am sick and tired of it? So once I came down to the beach I was in for a shock! Such a beautiful bay but almost entirely covered with trash. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. I am glad this beach was not cleaned up and I was able to document it the way it is. Beach clean ups are great and absolutely necessary but in a way they are not much different from swiping it under the rug. So thanks to the beach cleanups most people never get to see the extent of the plastic pollution problem. By the way, I am not suggesting that we shouldn’t do beach cleanups, of course

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Bermuda’s Fantasy and Crystal Caves

Ivan Martinetti — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:23:25 +0000

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 along paths and across pontoon bridges that run throughout the formations. Pretty amazing! No trash here …

Sea Dragon on its way to Horta, Azores

Ivan Martinetti — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:14:17 +0000

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 also expect to have some rough weather and can only hope to not be too bad. Today is a beautiful day and everybody appears to be ready! I have decided to not go on the 2nd leg of the journey but instead gave my spot to my friend Michael Atallah so he can capture this great expedition on film.

Maarten to build a giant plastic reef

Ivan Martinetti — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:32:23 +0000

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 girlfriend Marjolijn Dijkman and my friend Michael Atallah to that trash beach we found few days ago in Warwick Parish to collect as much plastic as possible for his sculpture.

Butterfield & Vallis to supply food for the expedition

Ivan Martinetti — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:31:31 +0000

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 then we could even imagine. They decided to provide us with all of our food needs plus much more and not charge us a dime for it. To be honest, I was not surprised as much because ever since we came on the islands Bermudians have showed us nothing but generosity and support.

A dinner with Greenrock.org crew

Ivan Martinetti — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:30:32 +0000

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 for a dinner. I can’t even describe how thankful we were for this gesture. The food was one of the best I have ever had and I am not saying this just to be polite, the food was absolutely delicious we will not forget it that easily!

I only feel bad for my friend and filmmaker Michael Atallah (Boris Collage) for not being here tonight. His flight from New York to Bermuda was delayed due to a storm, but he just called in to let me know that he is already on the islands in a taxi operated by who else but Major of Saint George.