The sailboats engaged in the Vendée Globe, a solo, non-stop round-the-world race, cruise far to the south of our island. Among boats, as in 2020, a sailboat is equipped with sensors. It transmits data to Ifremer and the University of Bordeaux on the quantity of plastic microbeads contained in ocean water. The first results are alarming!
The final victory of this tenth Vendée Globe edition concerns a few skippers. The majority set off on this race around the world, non-stop, with the sole plan of completing the loop. In the crowd of anonymous people, who took the start, is Fabrice Amadeo. This journalist, passionate about sailing, science and the oceans, is taking part in his third world tour, writes Sud-Ouest.
However, as in 2020, Angevin with the specific objective of taking advantage of this long journey across three oceans to study the extent of plastic pollution. The tools installed on his sailboat by Ifremer and researchers from the University of Bordeaux make it possible to search for microbeads and cellulose fibers which are released into rivers and end up in all the seas and oceans on the planet.
The first results, concerning the Indian Ocean, published by researchers are worrying. By pushing the analyzes from 300 microns (barely observable to the naked eye) to 30 microns, completely invisible, they discovered that there are 70 times more microbeads and 25 times more cellulose fibers in open water than in the upper layers, writes Ouest-France.fr.
The sensors were placed under the keel of the sailboat. The data is constantly transmitted to laboratories where scientists can analyze live quantities of particles of 300, 100 or 30 micrometers.
This second trip across the three oceans will allow specialists from Bordeaux and their colleagues from Ifremer to clarify the map of the areas most polluted by plastic. Like the wind, currents have no boundaries, this data is eagerly awaited.
France
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