And so it began........(Loads of Photos Inside)

Boy life started moving fast after that trip! For six whole years my career had been centered around marine biology and fisheries work, but all of a sudden I was getting sucked into this waste portal. Plastic this! plastic that! Lord knows I tried to fight it! I was scared that my love for being in the water and studying fish and coral reefs would be taken away, but the more I learned about this issue the more I wanted to create change. It was a blessing in disguise, I'd finally found the direction for my career in marine pollution of all things.

A few months after I returned from the trip I got a call from the Bahamas National Trust (BNT), a well established NGO that focuses on protecting the marine and terrestrial environment of The Bahamas. They wanted me to be the keystone speaker at one of their public meetings.  For years I had been going to the trust meetings
to listen to scientists present their research. I used to sit eagerly in the front row, waiting for my mind to be blown by doctor's and masters of marine science as they relayed their scientific work and findings to the audience. It never crossed my mind that one day I would be up on the exact same podium delivering my message to a local audience. And so it began... I was given a platform to educate the general public about plastic pollution and my goals for creating a plastic free Bahamas. The crowd was receptive and had loads of questions regarding my topic. This was the first of many talks for me and it would not have been possible if it weren't for those amazing folks over at the BNT who believed in me and set the whole thing up. Check out some photos from my talk circa September 2012 below: (photo cred: BNT)

So What Happened After The Trip??

Within the first week of the expedition I was ready to go home!! I was seasick for the first five days, I was hot, I was irritable and I just couldn't comprehend why people wanted to study garbage (of course it was the sea sickness that caused this perceptual narrowing). We were 3000 miles from land, hadn't seen any other vessels or signs of human life except for trails of waste! It was everywhere. Trash! Plastic bottles, caps, nets, buoys, toys, toothbrushes, food wrappers, you name it, it was all there- things that were a apart of my life. "oh these ships should stop throwing their dump overboard", "humans are so nasty", "who does all of this waste belong too?" These are all statements that I made until I realized that all of that waste belonged to me. I was a consumer, I was unaware of the consequences of my plastic dependent lifestyle, I was PLASTIC POSITIVE.

After countless hours of travelling, my plane landed back in The Bahamas. My feet touched that sweet island soil and I felt like a Plastic Warrior! I was gonna change the mindset of Bahamians, everyone was going to be plastic free by the end of the year, of course this is what I'm screaming on the inside. It was gonna be me, the one that was going to set the country straight until I realized that the blind would be leading the blind. Once I got back to my apartment it hit me like a ton of bricks, I was such a hypocrite!! How could I point the finger at persons who used plastic when I used more plastic than anyone I knew. There were stacks and stacks of plastic bags under my sink, styrofoam plates and plastic untensils in the cupboard, take away containers in the refrigerator and a handful of straws that I ummmm "borrowed" from the local grocer. I was addicted to plastic and I didn't even know it. It had been a silent part of my culture for such a long time that I failed to realize it.

Since June 2012 my life has changed for the better as I grew more conscious of my plastic use and the negative effects it had on my body and the natural environment. No longer do I depend on single use items like straws, plastic bags, trash bags, styrofoam containers, floss pickers, bottled soda/water or plastic cups. I've learned to say NO THANK YOU! and you can too. So this is where the change began, but trust me it's not ending here. Buckle up and re-fasten those seat belts because we are about to catapult into The Bahamas Plastic Movement!

More of Japan- Photo Journal (Loads of Photos Inside)

Photos from the TRASHION Show by artist Marina Debris (http://www.washedup.us/) and Plastics Conference at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT). Who knew there were so many scientists studying plastic pollution. It was such a great conference, I learned so much and was inspired to do some great things.

2012 North Pacific Western Garbage Patch Expedition Video

Here's a video made by Belinda a.k.a Bebe from our trip that talks about the importance of our research and some of our findings. Check it out by clicking the link below:

2012 Asia Pacific Exploration

Japan Ahoy! (LOADS AND LOADS of Photos Inside)

Sea fever didn't hesitate to kick in towards the end of the trip as every one was about ready to get back to land. The closer and closer we got to Japan the more antsy the crew got to touch land, so much so that we started making bets on how far away we were from the island. I had the pleasure of being the spotter and got hoisted up the mast to try and find land. IT WAS AWESOME!! Japan is an amazing place and I'm excited to return there. We ate sushi, bowled, had an earthquake, a plastic TRASHION SHOW courtesy of  designer Marina Debris, went to the Tsukiji Fish Market (quite the experience) and most importantly attended a Plastics Conference at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and met Captain Charles Moore, author of the book Plastic Ocean and the first person to discover the North Pacific Garbage Patch. Kumpai (cheers in Japanese) to all the great moments we had in Japan.

Last Week at Sea-Photo Journal (Loads of Photos Inside)

The last post I made regarding my trip was about the epic meals we had on board, but let me tell you- the meals weren't the only epic thing about the expedition. We performed cutting edge research, collected tons of plastic, shared countless laughs and created new friendships and made it safely to Japan after three whole weeks at sea. I won't say much more but I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Enjoy.

Where the Hell Have You Been??

Hello 2014!! Greetings to everyone in cyberland, I'm Back! After a year and half hiatus the blog is up and running again with a brand new look. After the expedition my computer crashed and it took quite some time to recover all of my files and photos. So in true Kristal Ocean fashion I'm going to take you guys all the way back to May 2012 to the end of my expedition across the Pacific Ocean which completely changed my life. So let's wrap up the remainder of the trip, jump into everything 2013 had to offer and begin exploring 2014!! It's all about the BAHAMAS PLASTIC MOVEMENT!! Wooohooo!!