How WA sailing legend John Sanders is leading global fight against scourge of micro-plastics in our seas

Jon Sanders will tell you he’s just an ordinary bloke but in actual fact he is anything but ordinary. He’s a solo sailor who has circumnavigated the globe eleven times, he’s a world-renowned yachtsman with a healthy 12 world records, the Queen has awarded him Officer of the British Empire, he has an Order of Australia and a significant Perth road bears his name. And recently he’s been at the forefront of micro-plastics research. At the end of January, the 81-year-old arrived back at Fremantle Harbour after sailing more than 40,000km over 455 days, amidst the coronavirus pandemic, completing his most recent circumnavigation of the globe. The expedition was focused on raising awareness and prompting action on the global micro-plastic pollution problem plaguing our oceans. “No one knew how much micro-plastics were out there, that’s when we began to think ‘how could we find out?’” Sanders’ project manager Stephen Davis said. Mr Sanders collected water samples — at approximately the same time each day, no matter the weather or ocean conditions — which he then gave to Curtin University researchers for analysis. This work has been critical in establishing a global baseline of micro-plastic, with the sampling creating a worldwide data base of the micro-plastics in the oceans, which can then be monitored to understand patterns and levels of plastic pollution. Curtin University analytical chemist and environmental toxicologist Dr Alan Scarlett said it was Mr Sanders’ idea to embark on the “citizen science” project. Dr Scarlett said in working closely with his team he created a seawater filtering system inside the safety of his yacht, Perie Banou II, where he would sample around 115 litres of seawater every day by filtering the water through stainless steel cloth filters. Although it is not yet possible to determine where the micro-plastics found on these filters originate, researchers have found several types of common plastic — such as polyethylene — which would typically be found in our homes. “Jon’s sampling effort has been remarkable. This is the first time an entire transect of the global oceans has been sampled for micro-plastics,” Dr Scarlett said. Lead researcher and John Curtin Distinguished Professor Kliti Grice said the results showed micro-plastics — which are defined as plastics measuring between 0.05mm and 5mm — were present in virtually all water samples filtered across both the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, with many being extremely small particles around the 0.05mm size. “The highest levels were found in two filters obtained from just south of the equator about 600km off the Brazilian coast where numbers approached 300 particles per cubic meter of seawater,” Professor Grice said. He said that the numbers of micro-plastics found from Jon Sanders’ circumnavigation are consistent with the amount expected in the shallow subsurface open ocean for the amount of seawater filtered. “These results help to build a more detailed picture of plastic pollution across the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere and ultimately, Jon’s voyage will provide a unique record of micro-plastics throughout a significant area of the globe.” Dr Davis said we had become a plastic-dependent society and we had riddled ourselves with a little problem — micro-plastic pollution. He said Jon’s water sampling process must be replicated so we could measure and analyse the levels of micro-plastic pollution in the oceans, and understand if the problem is worsening or improving with time and at what rate. “If you can measure the amount of plastic at the surface, you can extrapolate everything else in the rest of the profile, and work out how much plastic is below the surface,” Dr Davis said. We have a rough idea of how this ocean plastic is distributed: 1 per cent is floating, 5 per cent is on the beach and 94 per cent is on the sea floor. Micro-plastics are a problem that have long simmered under the radar because they are so small; most of the time we can’t see them and we don’t know how much is actually there. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 300 million tons of plastics are produced every year, half of which are used to design single-use items such as shopping bags, cups and straws. Every year, somewhere between 8 and 15 million tons of this plastic flows into our oceans, causing severe injury and death to marine life due to ingestion and entanglement. Plastic pollution also threatens food quality and safely, human health, coastal tourism, and contributes to climate change. Professor Grice said while a study based on an 11-year data set in the North Pacific estimated a weight of 21,290 metric tons of floating micro-plastic in these regions, to date there was very little data for the world’s southern oceans. Curtin researchers are yet to analyse the Pacific Ocean, which is famous for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, so the full picture is not yet known. Although Mr Sanders was successful in his mission, the trip didn’t unfold as expected, with the two-year planning process and intricately organised eight-month itinerary evolving into a 15-month voyage due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic instigating the closure and lockdown of many key ports. “COVID changed everything,” Mr Sanders said. The lockdowns and delays forced him to scrap his plans, re-think his route and stray from his carefully-crafted path with perfect currents and winds, leaving him to contest colossal storms and damaging waves while undertaking his journey and research. He was forced to take certain safety precautions including going to supermarkets in the afternoon to avoid the crowds. COO of the Minderoo Foundation’s No Plastic Waste Initiative Nakul Saran said Sanders’ remarkable voyage reinforced the urgency and importance of limiting the catastrophic impact plastic was having on our ecosystem. Estimates suggest that plastic costs more than US$2.2 trillion a year in environmental and social damage. This cost is what led Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation to come on board as a supporter for Sanders' solo circumnavigation of the globe. “The Minderoo Foundations No Plastic Waste initiative aims to eliminate the negative impacts of plastic on people and the planet,” Mr Saran said. “We thank Jon for his herculean efforts, which have provided a unique insight into the state of plastic pollution in the Southern Ocean.” “When I was young,” Mr Sanders said, “there was no plastic, and we used to get along fine without it.” “We just have to improve. We have to reuse what we’ve already got, instead of making more of it and we must reduce our consumption.”