An all-women sailing crew takes on the Pacific Ocean

When Mission Lead and Isle of Man native Rowan Henthorn had her first taste of adventure in 2018, she immediately understood the value of female connection and collaboration in science.

This passion then led her to New Zealand and its neighbouring islands, working with a 10 all-women crew in a global study mapping ocean plastic pollution back to its sources on land.

Led by the British environmental organisation, eXXpedition, the mission looks to fill critical gaps in the understanding of where ocean plastic comes from and how to kickstart impactful solutions.

She told rova she jumped at this monumental opportunity.

“It’s incredibly inspiring to be part of a network and realize that I’m not alone as a marine scientist trying to tackle these problems,” she told rova.

“There’s a whole host of incredible people all throughout the world making efforts to find solutions to many of the environmental challenges we face… and all the women come from lots of different backgrounds; they bring lots of diverse skills and strengths to the boat.”

They first set sail on April 27th from Auckland Harbour, but chatted with rova on May 12th as they were fueling up near the Bay of Islands. 

Henthorn said she was ecstatic to be working in New Zealand, “It’s amazing when you can visit a country that’s completely different to your own and have that real luxury of being able to speak and communicate with a wide range of people. I’ve been blown away by the beauty.”

Otago University graduate Rāwinia Wikaira was the sole Kiwi on board the first leg of the mission.

“We’ve had Rāwinia on board for the last 10 days, and she’s just been a complete joy,” Henthorn recounted.

“It’s been really important to bring in that indigenous culture and wisdom. We want to learn from the communities and the knowledge holders of these places, so it’s been incredibly rich to learn from Rāwinia and learn about the islands and the indigenous connection to them as custodians of the land.”

Those on board will be taking water samples, litter transects and scientific store surveys. Henthorn compares it to similar and successful work she did in Antigua a few years back.

“We were finding a lot of paint and resin chips in the water, and we could link that back to the large amount of boatyards… So having that data and that evidence really helps areas create policy that can directly impact the solutions for a particular region.”

“So obviously, New Zealand and the South Pacific area is an incredible place to be, and we’re just really excited to do this research and see what comes out of it.”

Founder of eXXpedition, Emily Penn has said sources of pollution are vastly different, so it’s gonna take a diverse and well equipped team to tackle the issue globally.

The research is made up of 10 legs, with more getting added as time goes on. The first three trips, which conclude on June 11th, are fully crewed with those currently on board. But more women are being scouted everyday to join the upcoming missions.

Photo on board Science Time (c) Eleanor Church Lark Rise Pictures

Photo of Rowan Henthorn (c) ocean_row instagram

Photo of First Leg Crew (c) exxpedition_instagram