World champion paddler Jenny Kalmbach is raising awareness about an invisible—but detrimental—problem in our oceans.
By Rob Casey
They couldn’t actually see it: 16-foot waves blocked any sign of the Kauai beach where they’d land after 16 hours of standup paddling across the Ka’ie’iewaho Channel. But just because the goal was hard to spot, didn’t mean that Jenny Kalmbach and Morgan Hoesterey would give up. The women, both accomplished Hawaii-based standup paddleboarders, were on a mission to cross the 72-mile channel—along with seven other open-ocean channels before the month was out—and also to raise awareness about what Jenny calls “an invisible problem”: plastic debris in the ocean.
Jenny, who grew up playing on Costa Rica’s Pacific beaches before moving to Hawaii in 2005, took the standup paddling (SUP) world by storm in 2008 when she started racing and quickly racked up trophies at the first annual Battle of the Paddle and the Molokai-2-Oahu Paddleboard World Championship. “But even though I’ve spent a lot of time on the ocean,” says the 27-year-old, “it’s only within the last two years that I’ve realized what a problem plastic ocean debris really is.”
Awareness is low because currents move plastic to the middle of the ocean or to remote beaches where tides concentrate it—and few people see it. “Plastic isn’t an in-your-face issue for most people on the water,” says Jenny, noting that during the women’s 300-mile paddle last spring, she never spotted any plastic in the water.
That’s why Jenny and Morgan teamed up with Algalita Marine Research Foundation as the beneficiary of their expedition paddle. Algalita has been conducting research and raising awareness about dense pockets of plastic debris in the oceans, called gyres, since 1997. The organization was founded by a Captain Charles Moore after he sailed through the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre and noticed lots of pollutants—fishing nets, toothbrushes, plastic bottles, and bits of shipping containers—which he later discovered covers an area as large as the state of Texas.
According to Algalita researchers, 80 percent of ocean debris originates on land, and the best chance for reducing plastic contamination in the oceans is by reducing the use of plastics in general. Aside from making the first female SUP crossing of Ka’ie’iewaho Channel and cruising more than 3 degrees of latitude on their paddle across the Hawaiian islands, Jenny and Morgan spoke to community assemblies, reached out to conservation groups on each of the islands they visited, and looked for evidence of plastic contamination on remote beaches. It was on the island of Lanai, near the beginning of the trip, that the reality of plastic contamination hit home for Jenny. “We were visiting Shipwreck Beach on the north side of the island, and the entire beach was covered in bits and pieces of plastic,” she recalls. “It was shocking and really sad to see.”
Through paddling, Jenny’s learned that it’s hard to stay focused on a goal when it’s not visible, and that’s one reason she thinks the movement to stop the problem of ocean debris has only just started gaining momentum as a serious issue and why she’s trying to help raise awareness about it. “People tend to not care about something unless it’s affecting them directly,” she says, pointing out that ocean pollution does impact human health. “As they break down, plastics leech chemicals into the water, and little bits are consumed by fish, which are consumed by people.” So what’s the lesson that Jenny and Morgan want people to take away from their mission? That reducing your personal use of plastics will reduce ocean contamination and health problems associated with plastic chemicals in the environment. “Our trip might not make people go out right away and buy a reusable bottle, and I’m sure some people will still take a plastic bag at the grocery store,” says Jenny, “but if they’ve heard our message, that’s a start.”
In 2009, volunteers for the International Coastal Cleanup collected 1.1 million plastic bags and enough plates and utensils for a 100,000-person picnic.
How you can help in…
…10 Minutes
Read up about how plastic debris affects beaches and the ocean. It’s what inspired Jenny and Morgan’s Hawaiian-Island expedition, “Destination 3 Degrees.” Watch trailers of the film about their expedition—it just hit stores in April—and share their message with friends via Facebook and Twitter. destination3.com
…1 Day
Join more than half a million worldwide volunteers on September 17th for the Ocean Conservancy’s 26th Annual International Coastal Cleanup. In addition to removing millions of plastic bags and bits of plastic from beaches and waterways—events take place in inland rivers and lakes, too—the data gathered during the cleanup contributes to a report, which helps strengthen and focus policy initiatives for healthy oceans. oceanconservancy.org
…1 Week
According to MarineBio, a California-based conservation organization, learning about the oceans is the number-one way to inspire an appreciation for their fragility. Their advice? Learn to scuba dive. Do it responsibly, with environmentally conscious dive operators, and stick to small-boat tours. Leave only bubbles, take only pictures. marinebio.org
…1 Month
Become an actual researcher and see a gyre for yourself. The Algalita Marine Research foundation’s research vessel—a sailboat called the Sea Dragon—makes cross-ocean cruises trolling for plastics and documenting evidence of plastic contamination. Pick a leg of a journey—from Easter Island to Tahiti, or British Columbia to Hawaii, for example—and spend time as a part of the crew. algalita.org
