Eriksen to Talk About Plastic Peril to Seas

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Marcus Eriksen

Marcus Eriksen, the co-founder and executive director of the 5 Gyres Institute, will give an illustrated talk on “Saving Our Seas: The Perils of Plastic Pollution in the Marine Environment” from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main. The talk is free and open to the public.

Eriksen is a scientist-adventurer-activist-author who has worked tirelessly for the past decade to focus attention on the global distribution and ecological impacts of plastic marine pollution. In 2008, Eriksen journeyed across the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii on JUNK, a raft consisting of 15,000 plastic bottles supporting a Cessna airplane fuselage as a cabin (www.junkraft.com). The journey of 2,600 miles in 88 days brought attention to the work of the 5 Gyres Institute, the Los Angeles organization Eriksen co-founded with his wife, Anna Cummins.

Sponsors of the talk are the Parks Family Professorship in Science Education, the Center for Agricultural and Rural Sustainability and the Associated Student Government.