Jon T. Howard North Atlantic Gyre Blog #26

I've been spending the last the few days getting caught up in Bermuda and staying active with the Sea Dragon crew working on various projects. I got in a good long run along the coast which was absolutely picturesque. I also checked out some old forts and even collected 16 bottles for my Running For Mother Nature Campaign. It doesn't matter where I run there are always bottles and cans along the way. Yesterday I had finally had access to a computer long enough to add some photos to the past blogs so please check them out when you get a chance. I will be adding video once I get back stateside in the next few days. Last night we invited some of our gracious hosts from Bermuda to a big crew BBQ with some local Speckled Hind fish, polenta and cold beer from Portugal. We all finally had a moment to really relax and just hang out for a while. This morning we were picked up early by a local dive expert named JP Skinner who is from the Bermuda Institute of Oceanograhpy. We all loaded unto his fishing boat with our wetsuits (http://www.bodyglove.com/) and snorkling gear and headed out to a ship called the Spirit of Bermuda to speak with some school children about our North Atlantic Gyre voyage and mission. Every 13 year old in Bermuda attends the program where they live on the boat for a week, learn about sailing, and go snorkeling to explore their local world class reefs and sunken ships. I told them how lucky they were to live in such a beautiful place and how important it was to help preserve it. I showed them my EcoUsable bottle and encouraged them all to use stainless steel bottles. It was great to see a few kids already using their own stainless steel bottles. Marcus spoke to them about the harmful affects plastic have on the marine life and how it all eventually leads back to us when the fish eat the plastics. After that we joined them for some snorkeling at a reef off Non Such Island and then checked out a huge sunken ship from World War Two that was full of colorful fish and quite a sight to see. The sad part about it all was there was so much plastic washed up on Non Such Island which has come from all over the world via the North Atlantic Ocean Gyre. We also picked up some plastic in the bay on our way back to the Sea Dragon. What can I say, there is plastic everywhere it shouldn't be these days and unfortunately plastic is made to last forever. We must do something about it... now!