The year is 2003 and I am working 
for Jean-Michel Cousteau´s
Ocean Futures Society. 
My role on the team is to be 
a host with Jean-Michel 
and to run the marine operations. 
Since setting out from Honolulu to explore 
the distant North West Hawaiian Islands
Jean-Michel Cousteau and his team has 
surveyed 900 miles of tropical paradise
almost unkown to the outside world.
Their next stop, tiny Laysan island is so
vulnerable to damage by alien plant and
animal species that radical precausions
are imposed on visitors. 
Am I right, the last thing we are supposed
to do is put on the clothes, 
the frozen underwear. 
The government regulated islands
have strict landing permits
and for us to go ashore we have to wear
clothes that are sprayed with pesticides
and sealed, then frozen for 48 hours. 
Antoine, this is yours. 
Okay, everybody naked. 
We are trying to reduce the number 
of seeds and insects 
any kind of potentially invasive species 
that might colonies, this is a real simple
ecosystem in terms of  
very few species. 
Got to wear underwear.
You don´t have to. 
Appreciate you guys taking this 
really seriously, 
sometimes people are sceptical about 
this but it really does help the island.
Leaving the research  vessel, Searcher 
in Zodiacs
the Cousteau team will inspect efforts 
to revive the native Laysan environment.
Carried out by a handful of US 
fish and wildlife workers
operating out of tents. 
We find ourselves amongst
thousands of seabirds
and quickly discover how volatile this
unique environment is. 
Even though it is located in 
the middle of the Pacific 
hundreds of nautical miles 
from civilization. 
When we found out that not only the 
island is covered with debris 
which comes from the open ocean
The debris from the open ocean we
encounter is humongous. 
The year is 2003 and unknown 
to us at the time 
we are located in what we now call 
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 
A place where a swirling vortex, 
caused by ocean currents 
flow between the Americas and Asia. 
The North Pacific Gyre. 
A highway full of grabage making deadly 
trouble for seabirds and all other wildlife. 
Coming from all over the world,
children toothbrush, adults, mascara
Much of the smaller plastic pieces
are picked up from the ocean surface
mistaken for food,
and fed to the albatross hatchlings
by their parents. 
Wildlife managers can´t protect birds that
feed at sea in floating debris.
The carcass of a single adult reveals
a fatal feast of garbage. 
We are talking 150 thousand pounds 
of marine plastic 
comes on the island each year 
as land fill, really
inside the birds. 
What´s the name of it?
Droop wing (Midway island).
Something that contained lead for 
some reason he got a hold of. 
Because of the contamination 
on the island.
Right, which could have come in as 
marine debris from another bird, or
It is upsetting to witness the vast numbers 
of deaths on the islands cause by plastics.
The devastating consequences for
which we are accountable. 
Perhaps even more so
is how long it has taken
for the world to notice.
