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Latest
Updates Onboard
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Greenpeace activists are on the high seas to stop the illegal plunder of fish stocks by pirate fishing vessels. See below to get a feeling for life onboard.
The Garbologist and the art of GarbologyOur onboard garbologist, more commonly known as Craig, likes to indulge in the practice of waste management. His primary task: minimisation of the environmental damage occasioned by excess packaging to the marine environment. To this end, he delights in crushing empty cans in the ship's specially designed can-crusher, (an equally effective alternative is a determined stamp with booted foot).He revels in the neat separation of all recyclables into specially designated containers: organic waste, paper, card, glass (plain & coloured) plastic, tins and metal (aluminum and steel) and clear labeling of toxic materials (such as old batteries, paints & thinners, photo chemicals) - and he makes sure that fellow crew members are well initiated into this important onboard ritual. Equally importantly, garbologist and crew alike, eliminate as much waste at source as possible, leaving unnecessary packaging at the place of purchase. The only thing to be thrown over board is organic waste - food for the fish and possibly a shark that is following us at the moment. Once in port, the garbologist's level of activity is high, contacting suitable facilities to collect and recycle the waste collected on board. Yes, the garbologist is the counter weight to the "Pretty Packaging Pestilence", currently proliferating in western society and advancing at a frightening rate across the globe (coming to supermarkets in the developed world soon)! To those societies struck down by this frightening affliction, external appearance is all and content of but secondary importance, buried under layers of irrelevant plastic, film and cardboard. While rapid replication or reproduction of the garbologist across the globe could undoubtedly help in a damage limitation exercise, this is sadly to treat the effect and not to attack the cause. Which is not to say that the garbologist does not play a very important role in protecting the marine environment: waste production and its unsatisfactory disposal, constitute some of the major threats to the environment. Nowhere is the problem more acute than in the world's oceans. Under Annex
V of Marpol 73/78 (binding regulations for all vessels), all ships are
required to have a Garbage Management Plan, appoint a Garbologist and
carry a Garbage Record Book. Vessels registered on Flags of Convenience
do not observe international regulations and it is, therefore, unlikely
that they observe Annex V.
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