The weather is so good that we can make a short trip with the dinghy, the small motorboat we are carrying with us on board. Even on this expedition we see little or no plastic, which makes us wonder if the Atlantic Ocean is as polluted as the Pacific Ocean. More data needs to be collected over the next years first to come up with any conclusive answer. The currents and weather conditions are so influential on both location, movement and depth of the plastic particles that it is hard to say at the moment. On one hand I’m relieved that we don’t see as much as I expected, but at the other hand I’m also a bit dissapointed. I will have to rely much more on the trash washed ashore on the beaches of the islands at the borders of the gyre.

To comfort us, we are visited by a dozen dolphins, who swim and jump alongside the boat for about 10 minutes, and an hour later some humpback whales just pass us without paying much attention. On top of that we catch our first fish; a small bluefin tuna (not so many left according to different studies…), but it is to damaged to throw back. We cut it up and eat the freshest Sashimi ever, with a little regret in stead of wasabi. It has no plastic particles in its stomach. Another reassuring and/or dissapointing discovery.