The cleanup carried out by the Ocean Voyages Institute is the largest to date in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This remote area of the Pacific Ocean is a swirling vortex that corrals and traps an astonishing amount of trash. The Pacific Gyre, located halfway between Hawaii and California, is the largest area with the most plastic, of the five major open ocean plastic accumulation regions, or Gyres, in the world’s oceans. Sadly, the crew found numerous turtle skeletons tangled in the nets, which shows the real-life consequences of these careless actions.

The expedition uses GPS satellite trackers on tagged fishing nets to find high-density areas of plastic.