The Vortex Swim is a 300 nautical mile swim from Hawaii to San Francisco done by Ben Lecomte and his team. Ben Lecomte is a long-distance swimmer from France, who has been seen to be the first man to swim the Atlantic Ocean. The past two summers he has tried to swim through the Pacific Ocean, but last summer he had to stop in Hawaii because the swim took longer than they had planned. Instead of trying again, Ben and his team decided to swim from Hawaii to San Francisco through the Pacific Trash Vortex, which holds millions of microplastics that affect marine life in the Pacific Ocean. When most people think of plastic in the ocean, they envision these large pieces of plastic floating around. In reality, there are millions of tiny pieces of plastic rather than large pieces.

The microplastic which Ben and his team collected have been given to scientists to test and study. This swim brings to light the negative affect that plastic has on the environment. Looking at how much microplastic Ben Lecomte and his team picked up from the swim, has shown me how much the world needs to change if we want to protect the ocean and the organisms living in it. This swim has driven my curiosity on the direct impact the plastic has on the marine organisms and the future effects it may have. It is also interesting to see the affects of the swim on Ben, as he swims for 8 hours each day in cold salt water filled with all of this trash.

If you want to learn more about the Vortex Swim, you can visit Ben Lecomte’s site that holds logs from each day in the water: https://benlecomte.com/#

Works Cited:
“4ocean Helping Advance Science in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – The Vortex
     Swim.” 4Ocean, 22 July 2019, legacy.4ocean.com/blogs/blog/
     4ocean-helping-advance-science-in-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch. Accessed
     2 Sept. 2019.

Potts, Mary Anne. “This is what it’s like to swim through the Great Pacific
     Garbage Patch.” National Geographic, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/
     2019/08/great-pacific-garbage-patch-swim-science/. Accessed 2 Sept. 2019.

The Vortex Swim – Ben Lecomte | DE. Composed by Icebreaker, 2019. Youtube ,
     www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvlcFHfTn4c. Accessed 3 Sept. 2019.