5 gyres plastic pollution scientists

Introducing 5 Gyres: Sailor Scientists Fighting Plastic Pollution

By: Environmental, Event, The Oceans

Sailors in every corner of the world are taking the ocean’s plastic problem into their own hands, or rather, into their own nets. Balloons, bags, bottles, ghost nets, and all kinds of plastic trash are being pulled out of the water by boaters everywhere, but what if we could do something more with all that trash? This is where 5 Gyres comes in. Named after the five swirling masses of plastic “soup” in the world’s oceans, 5 Gyres is a science-to-solutions organization collecting data on the millions of tons of plastic out in the big blue and using the results …

algae and sustainability

Could Algae Save the World?

By: Ask Lauren, Environmental, Nautical Trivia, The Oceans

Traditionally the boating community associates algae with one word: nuisance. It covers hulls, jams propellers, slimes up fishing poles, and can even make the water unswimmable. Algae is a gigantically diverse group of marine organisms, ranging from tiny single-celled plankton, to kelp that stretches hundreds of feet toward the surface, to the wrapper of your favorite sushi roll.

sealife tangled in plastic

Ask Lauren: What Do I Do If I See an Animal Tangled in Plastic?

By: Ask Lauren, Environmental, Safety, The Oceans

It is always exciting to encounter marine animals in their natural habitat- the vast diversity of creatures in the ocean both pull at our heartstrings and inspires a sense of wonder. We’ve all seen heartwarming videos of sailors, divers, and surfers having amicable run-ins with favorite marine animals like dolphins, turtles, seals… even sharks! The new trend in viral animal videos is much different: more and more we are encountering marine life entangled in fishing nets or plastic debris, choking on plastic pieces, or stranded onshore from a variety of illnesses and environmental causes. These videos often end with a …

plastic free food

Plastic-Free Provisioning

By: Cruising Tips, Environmental, Sailing Tips

ASA’s Plastic Pollution Purge campaign asked our fellow sailors to “bring back more plastic than you take to your boat”, and to have fun practicing your crew overboard drills as you recover trash on the water. But to break the vicious cycle of plastic pollution in the water we must prevent it from getting to the ocean in the first place. An analysis of our results from the Landfill Challenge showed us that most of the plastic waste we create in our day-to-day lives comes from the way we eat and drink. Since we usually do this 3 times daily, …

finding best sailing school

Shopping for a Sailing School

By: American Sailing Association, Learn To Sail

Join Lauren as she continues on her journey to learn to sail. Follow her as she gets her feet wet as a beginner, gains experience, and earns her ASA certifications. The ultimate goal is to complete ASA 104 and go bareboat chartering somewhere exotic. ASA 103, Part 1 – Shopping for a Sailing School I passed the ASA 101 course in the spring. I went home, bought a copy of Treasure Island and a pair of dock shoes, and suddenly the summer months had passed with only a handful of days on the water. I got so wrapped up in …

plastic pollution challenge

Join ASA in the Landfill Challenge!

By: Environmental, Partners, Sailing Fun

You’ve been challenged! Sailors are motivated to contribute less to the ocean’s plastic problem, but when plastic is incorporated into almost everything we do, where do we begin? The average American generates over 4 pounds of trash every day, and when we send it to landfill, it becomes out of sight, out of mind. Whether we live on the coast or we sail on landlocked lakes and rivers does not matter: about 95% of the plastic in the ocean originated on land and gets carried through our waterways.