& Bonnie Monteleone

When Bonnie first discovered the writings of Charlie Moore, she knew she could help! Charlie Moore is a scientific writer who was the first to discover the garbage patch in the North Pacific.

Read his story here.

Years later, Bonnie was given the incredible opportunity to work with Charlie in the Pacific. Clearly, an exciting opportunity she was and is still grateful for. However, her time spent with Charlie uncovering the depths of plastic littering the ocean is also one of the worst days of her career. You see, Bonnie and Charlie were on a boat where the waters looked clear, clean, and beautiful.

The net they kept throwing beneath the surface to capture debris told another story…

After the 20th sampling, Bonnie asked, “Are we ever gonna throw this thing overboard and not have plastic in it?”

Charlie, who had been doing this a lot longer, replied, “I haven’t yet.”

The sad truth is that even beneath the serene waters—seemingly in the middle of nowhere—the impact of humanity’s obsession with convenience can be overwhelming.

It can be easy to ignore problems that aren’t knocking on our door, in fact, we do it all the time. But as the amount of plastic in the ocean continues to grow, the fish we eat can’t help but eat plastic. Potentially disrupting our food supply chains, fisherman’s livelihoods, and infecting other animals who depend on fish to survive, such as bears.

Bonnie and her amazing crew over at the Plastic Ocean Project are testing our waters, picking up trash, and are currently working on a documentary to raise awareness.

If the Ocean Could Talk is an in-depth look at what scientists, conservationists, and marine biologists are working on to clean up our oceans!

“It promises to inspire hope, not doom, but only if we listen.”

So, what can you do?

SWELL asked Bonnie what are the best ways to reduce plastic consumption at an individual level, and the answer was easy, support local! When you buy food from a local market grown right in your town’s backyard, not only are you buying fresher, healthier fruits and veggies, but it didn’t require any packaging or immense travel costs to get to your tummy!

Did you know that when food enters the U.S. from other countries, it must be X-ray’d first?

In order to make food safe to enter the country, it must undergo radiation before reaching the grocery stores, often weeks after it was harvested. Not to mention the amount of fossil fuels it took to get to a grocery store near you…

Bonnie and The Plastic Ocean Project are hard at work, but there’s a lot of work still to be done. Visit their website to discover all the ways you can help today!