Gary Stokes
Gary Stokes is the founder of Ocean Asia, formerly part of the organisation Sea Shepherd. He was my first expert on ocean pollution that I interviewed. He explained to me of the metaphor that we have to 'stop the tap'; if we just mop it up, the issue will continue to overflow with no long-term solution. We must stop the causes or ocean pollution will get even worse.
Gary Stokes also explained to me that there were 3 key stakeholders of causing and preventing ocean pollution. The most important were governments who have to create rules and regulations about plastic and oils; second are producers who create products such as single-use plastic. Thirdly was what we could do individually, our everyday actions that make a difference.
Gary Stokes said one the best projects he ever was part of was the plastic pellet spill clean up, this was because the government, the company who caused it and the local population were collaborating to clean it up. Over the course of three months they were able to clean 110 tons of plastic pellets, tiny pieces of plastic know as nerdles, out of the 150 tons that first spilled into the sea.
Gary Stokes said he also collaborated in a project to stop whaling in Antarctica. He said it was very important to him as he was stopping the issue at the source - he was 'stopping the tap'.
Nicole Senn
Nicole Senn works for the Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef program. In this program they try to empower everyday people to help the Great Barrier Reef. People can go snorkelling and take pictures of the reef, which others can then analyse what marine life is in the picture.
The Organisation also replants coral, tags sharks, turtles and other creatures. They also collect information on how the reef has changed from the indigenous populations.
Lauren Quiros
Lauren Quiros, is a member of the Ocean Cleanup, who also mentioned that we have to stop the tap, but she also mentioned how important beach cleans are. She said that when the plastics (the macro plastics) are in the sun for a while, they start to break down into micro plastics which are much harder to clean up.
But when the plastic is in the sand, they do not break down and can stay there for 50 years. Lauren Quiros found plastic bottles that were up to 70 years old! When you buy a plastic bottle that you use once, did you think that they would last that long?
Lauren Quiros researched about different clothing materials and how to make alternatives that were more environmentally friendly.
Karolina Strittmatter
Karolina Strittmatter works for the Sea Shepherd organisation, who aim to stop illegal fishing that causes bycatch. They also stop plastic pollution by cleaning the ocean and beaches. Her role in Sea Shepherd is organising the marine debris campaign to help protect marine animals and running beach clean-ups in Australia. She does the advertisement and gets permission to perform the different activities such as cleaning beaches. Karolina Strittmatter believes we can still do better by not using single-use plastics, which will help the sea to recover.