992 kilos of garbage… and still a lot more

DSC_3287All who followed this blog know about it –  during the last Arctic Season I carried out a Citizen Science Project on Spitsbergen about Anthropogenic Marine Litter, for the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven. Lots of guests on our expedition cruises helped with the project, and we were able to collect and count lots of garbage. After return, we could now have a look at the data and make a first resume. But first of all, a big thank you goes out to all participants! You were great!

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Microplastic in Nordaustlandet

DSC02955Beachcleaning with artists – a whole new experience! The last two weeks we have been on a trip with a group of artists, young people from all over the world, who come with the organisation „The Farm“ to the SV Antigua. They took part in our plastic project for the Alfred-Wegener-Institute with big enthusiasm, and very different than all other groups we ever had!

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The Sea Monster

DSC05967We have fought. And won. It took us four long hours to bring down an orange coloured sea monster, laying on a beach in Spitsbergen. We did that for our Plastic Monitoring Project for the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. Afterwards we were tired, dirty, and smelled like a monster ourselves. But we had it on board. Monster 0, Antigua 1!!!

 

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Barbiehorse and ammunition

IMG_0673 The first voyages with SV Antigua are over, we sailed from the Netherlands to Spitsbergen, from Harlingen to Longyearbyen. On the way we started our plastic project for the AWI, the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany.We have found lots of garbage on land and at sea. It was clear before, we would find more than we could ever collect and weigh, but how much it was in the end, was still surprising.

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The Ice is calling

Birgit Lutz (c) Bengt RotmoI am going again! I am happy, proud and very, very thrilled: I have the great honour and pleasure to support Felicity Aston (the fantastic lady who crossed Antarctica solo) with her Women´s Expedition to the North Pole in 2017! This will be an exciting project: The participating women come from Europe and the Middle East – the goal is to build role models for girls and women in all these countries and to foster greater dialogue and understanding between women of those cultures. And of course: to go to the North Pole, from Barneo.

The way to the North will this time be even more interesting for me: When I went with Thomas Ulrich from Barneo to the North Pole in 2010 and 2011, Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen was the gate to the Pole.

Now everything seems, that this route is history: Due to some trouble with norwegian authorities, the Barneo Team has decided to establish a new route from Russia. It looks like it will go via Murmansk and Nagurskoye on Alexandra Land in Franz Joseph Land.

This means more work when realizing the project, more excitement – and the prospect, to meet many russian friends again!

I am looking a lot forward to all these exciting experiences!

While I am currently sailing on the SV Antigua along the norwegian coast, on the way up to Spitsbergen, my thoughts have started to wander more and more to the Northeast. . .

Go, girls, go! 🙂