JAKE BURGHART: Starting to have a bit of a breakdown.
Let's see.
I'm going to take this tape out, put it in my pocket after
I shoot it, and--
I don't even know why I'm shooting it right now.
It's sort of a--
I just kind of really need someone to talk to.
I don't know where to start.
I came into this trip with a--
really excited about it.
Just nothing more than getting to be on the
ocean for three weeks.
Now I don't have any idea what's going on.
I can't sleep at night.
I'm, like, feeling sick, feeling really sort of trapped
on this boat.
There's nowhere to go.
It's a 50-foot boat, you know?
It's like, if you want to take a walk around the block, it
doesn't happen.
You want to like run or do anything to sort of forget
about what's going on, and it's just not there.
We're all here, all on this boat.
There's no getting away from each other.
We have two watches a day, and I don't think I've slept in
three days.
This is my first time I've ever gone night diving, or
diving in the ocean, or diving this far away from anything,
or diving with a camera, or diving with a knife, or diving
with a captain.
MEREDITH DANLUCK: It was like going into outer space.
Like, the point of something being so crazy and scary that
it's really fun.
[LAUGHING]
THOMAS MORTON: Jake and Meredith are under
the boat right now.
I'm still on watch, apparently, which I guess was
never factored into the schedule.
I puked pretty ferociously at around eight or so, and then
had kind of a long drying off spell where I probably would
have preferred to get a little bit of sleep.
JAKE BURGHART: That was pretty insane.
[LAUGHING]
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: All right.
This was quite a wonderful test.
I'm quite pleased.
The creatures you saw tonight will pale by comparison.
THOMAS MORTON: So watch just ended.
It gets really, really boring up there with absolutely
nothing going on.
So I'm going to make my own little log entry here, and
then call it a night.
Good luck with your watch.
JAKE BURGHART: So once every hour, we have to do the log
and check the engine rooms to make sure that they're not
flooded with water.
Before you know it, it's 3:00.
It's time for your second log and engine check.
From there it gets really slow.
This made us all kind of start doing really nerdy things.
I'm wearing a turtleneck and learning about the stars.
Oh shit, I think I just deleted the course.
MEREDITH DANLUCK: What?
JAKE BURGHART: I think I just deleted the whole course.
I was just--
I was just clicking on these things, and I don't know.
The whole course disappeared.
There's no Undo.
This program is stupid.
Fuck.
Goddamn it.
Captain, we're going off course.
We're dropping below 190.
MEREDITH DANLUCK: [LAUGHING]
THOMAS MORTON: No, you shouldn't have done that.
You should have put a sad face there, perhaps.
So it is day five.
I'm on watch with Joe now, and we are working out.
That's right, keep our strength up.
Kind of realized this, uh, this boat's almost like--
it's like being in prison but without, like--
I don't know-- like the punishment and the
gang rape and all.
You don't have shit to do.
You can either read, or as we decided, you
can try to work out.
Shit, fuck.
Here they come.
Oh, man.
This is fucking exciting.
Dolphins.
[SINGING]
Dolphin party, USA.
Dolphin party, coming here to play with dolphins.
Jesus Christ, there's, like, 20.
They're still coming from the distance.
[LAUGHING]
There are so many fucking dolphins.
Dude.
This is great.
You get so bored out here.
And then all of a sudden, you got fucking
dolphins and trash.
It's amazing.
Like, this is the highlight of our day.
It's kind of getting ominous out here.
For the past, like, two or three days, we've been kind of
occasionally seeing shit and kind of picking and choosing
what we want to pull out.
I'm still holding out hope for, like, half a kewpie doll
with, like, a fish coming out of its other arm.
MEREDITH DANLUCK: Hey, what's going on?
JAKE BURGHART: Probably kelp.
JOE: Good show then, mate.
You see the other two that came close?
Right there, look at that.
THOMAS MORTON: So what are you doing there?
Are you severing its gills?
JOE: Yes, its gill.
It's a gill artery.
THOMAS MORTON: OK, yeah.
So you're cutting that so it'll bleed out the right way.
I'm kind of glad I was on watch for that.
I'm not too squeamish, but I just don't like fish when
they're put together.
So it's kind of a double doozy when they're coming apart, or
when you're taking them apart.
[LAUGHING NERVOUSLY]
He was saying we're safer to eat smaller fish, even when
we're out towards the gyre.
They've had less time to accumulate all the toxins in
their system, so--
I feel kind of bad that we've been eating fish that have
been swimming in this fucking water.
I don't even want to think of all the--
just looking at the big particles--
all the shit we're probably ingesting.
But at this point, I'm sure it's too late.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: These compounds are lypophilic,
meaning fat loving.
So they stick in fat.
A million plankton, a thousand sardines, a hundred mackerel,
eaten by, say, a mahi-mahi or a tuna.
And then the higher cetaceans, they accumulate this whole
chain of accumulation of these chemicals.
Polycarbonate has Bisphenol-A in it, which leaches into the
water and can cause reproductive
harm and other defects.
For instance, one out of four male swordfish in the
Mediterranean are producing female egg yolk hormone that
you wouldn't expect a male fish to make.
THOMAS MORTON: It's screwing with their genetics.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: It's screwing with their genetics.
So that's an indication of disruption of the hormone
system, probably caused by industrial chemicals.
I mean, we're starting to see problems like when we talk
about how the Eskimo women have toxic milk for their
babies and are being asked to use formula instead to feed
their babies.
THOMAS MORTON: Are they particularly
susceptible to them?
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: Yeah, because they eat high off the
food chain.
They eat marine mammals that have high fat content when
this stuff is stored in the fat.
And they're producing fewer males and smaller males.
It's conceivable that there could be population crashes in
many sexually reproducing species that loses its males.
JAKE BURGHART: Was that your first swim?
THOMAS MORTON: Ever, in the ocean.
It's as terrifying as I fucking thought.
MEREDITH DANLUCK: What?
THOMAS MORTON: Getting out of the water, there was a little
chunk of, like, yellow debris that was kind of caught on the
corner of my lip.
And then later, Jake got out of the water, and it just
like-- it looked like he had body glitter on part of him.
There was just little particulate waste.
I've been like eating shit with my hands all day, too.
There's fucking plastic in my mouth.
I guess I can properly empathize with the fish and
filter feeders now.
But still, that's fucking gross.
I was in the water for all of, like, 10 minutes with a
snorkel in my mouth.
And somehow a piece of plastic fucking worked its way in.
I don't think we ever showed--
we ever did a little tour of the boat.
This is where all of us have pissed and shit.
What happens when you use it is it is empty.
It's basically, you fill it up with water, or if you're
peeing, you just fill it with that.
And then you stand here with your face about--
what, a foot and a half--
from your own fucking excrement.
The best part is when the boat's rocking and things
start to slosh around.
This is also our shower, too.
A lot of stuff gets done in this room.
I don't know.
There's been so much of that, like, this isn't cool to you,
but I've been in a boat for seven days.
And it's really neat that we can see a bird.
MEREDITH DANLUCK: [LAUGHING]
THOMAS MORTON: The days just kind of melt into
the nights and shit.
And it's just kind of like one big long hunk of walking
around a boat and doing stuff.
I don't know.
It sounds like I'm retarded, but I've just never looked at
the sky so much out of pure boredom.
MEREDITH DANLUCK: [LAUGHING]
Trash at starboard.
You got it?
That's good trash.
What is it?
Piece of something?
MEREDITH DANLUCK: Looks like a flowerpot.
JAKE BURGHART: There's a really big problem with
flowerpots in the Pacific Ocean right now.
So stop throwing them in here.
THOMAS MORTON: Garbage island is less a physical place than
really a state of mind.
At some point, we all find our garbage island, whether it's
out here in the Pacific or at home, comfortable, surrounded
by people you care about and enjoy interacting with on a
regular basis.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: I showed you--
stop, stop, stop.
JOE: Charlie.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: I gave you an example--
JOE: Charlie.
Charlie.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: And you totally ignored it.
JOE: Charlie.
Charlie.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: Don't tell me Charlie, Charlie,
Charlie, Charlie.
Then Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe.
Joe, it's-- look, it's so easy--
JOE: Hey, hey, hey, hey.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: Hey, you're making
more trouble for yourself.
You're cutting it smaller than it has to be.
JOE: Hey, respect, Charlie.
I've respected you.
You need to respect me.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: Respect the way you're doing it wrong?
JOE: If this isn't done right, then say
something at the start.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: That's what I'm saying.
JOE: You looked at me two minutes ago, and I
was doing it fine.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: No, I didn't--
JOE: No, you need to have respect.
I'm respecting you as a man.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: [LAUGHING]
JOE: Respect me, or we'll have further words.
Do we understand ourselves?
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: OK, I'm sorry.
JOE: Thank you.
Now how would you like it?
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: Like this.
Bigger.
THOMAS MORTON: Want to go catch the sunset?
Oh, my god.
I am totally having a "Joe-berdose" as of today.
I'm kind of lightening back up to it-- to the humor--
the humor that is Joe.
I don't know.
I was having a bad--
a bad time with it today.
Just like, being around a guy who's living
through the riff Holocaust.
I've heard every statement
I've made, basically--
I wouldn't even limit it to jokes--
repeated back to me.
The one thing I will never grow tired of is his politics.
He's one of those real just
garden-variety California liberals.
He's just like baffled by any other sort of worldview.
He called 19th-century whalers idiots.
[LAUGHING]
We've gotten a little bit of a radio signal.
We know the outside world still exists, basically.
We don't have, like--
we don't have any idea what exactly is going on there.
I like these weird towers, or dicks--
dicks of cloud.
One thing that's been killing me, horniness.
It's--
first few days I was fine.
But it's slowly waxing.
I'm starting to, like, really fucking pore through the
memory card up here in my--
I'm not even trying to.
I'm just catching myself in off hours.
Our minds are just folding in on themselves.
Oh, as far as trajectory, if this hand is California, and
we started here in Long Beach, we kind of did this.
And now we're plunking our way down into the gyre, which is
right there.
I think the current estimate is, like, two or three days,
when we're right in the fucking thick of it.
And then we can get down to business.
It'll be good to get out to the patch because
A, it'll give us--
I mean, we'll be working out there, as opposed to just,
like, sitting around and talking about
how fast it's going.
Also, it can serve as a scapegoat for any tension
that's building up, you know?
You can just redirect your anger towards the garbage.
And also, I think it being a bummer will help kind of level
everybody's moods.
Thar she blows!
MEREDITH DANLUCK: Oh, god.
The only thing that exists is, like, this boat, and the
people on it, and whatever this leviathan we're searching
for, this Captain Ahab, Moby Dick situation we have going
on here for this trash island, which I'm starting to get--
If We don't fucking find something--
MEREDITH DANLUCK: --I'll really lose my mind.
MEREDITH DANLUCK: That's what's freaking me out, man.
Captain, how far now until the garbage patch?
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: Yeah, we're a day away.
We're just penetrating into the second cell right now.
JAKE BURGHART: This is where we expect to find the--
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: That's where we'd expect to find the
highest concentrations, yeah.
JAKE BURGHART: We just officially passed
the 1,500 mile mark.
We got 1,500 miles to go, so we're halfway, which is
insane, because we've been here for so fucking long.
Thomas is up spotting pieces of trash.
We've been seeing pieces of trash every day, just, you
know, here and there.
I think in my mind-- and probably
Meredith's and Thomas--
we were eventually going to arrive somewhere.
We're going to get to the place where this is where all
the trash is.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: Everybody says, show me a
picture of the garbage.
OK, well, it's spread out.
It's diffuse.
This is an enormous ocean.
So you're not going to find--
THOMAS MORTON: I understand that.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: You're not going to find a dump.
There's no trash dump down here.
JAKE BURGHART: I was sort of under the impression that
there was going to be a visible patch somewhere, where
it's like--
where you could walk out on the deck and just be like--
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: Well, there's a windrow.
JAKE BURGHART: --there's garbage, garbage, garbage,
everywhere.
Yeah, like you were saying--
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: A windrow of garbage.
--patterns in the garbage.
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: But it's a line
and it's not a pattern.
JAKE BURGHART: We just need, like, for the big--
we've got everything we need, so much good stuff, so much
good information.
And I'm really happy, I think it's a really good piece.
But we need the big--
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: Well, I think that it's your job to
stay on deck.
MEREDITH DANLUCK: Yeah, but we also have to sleep for at
least a few hours every day.
JAKE BURGHART: We're all on the same team, we just need to
get something that--
CAPTAIN CHARLES MOORE: Well, we're ready
to move to any location.
It's not so important where you look.
It's looking at the calmest part of the ocean.
Because that's when the stuff floats up to the top.
The crap is everywhere.
But it floats up to the top in the calm.
Well, that's where I've brought you.
I've brought you to the calm.
This is the calmest part of the ocean.
JAKE BURGHART: Woo!
Fuck you!
Spring break, the gyre, 2007!
Woo!
Boo-ya!
MEREDITH DANLUCK: Another buoy?
THOMAS MORTON: That's a-- or is it a helmet?
MEREDITH DANLUCK: It's a helmet.
THOMAS MORTON: Dude, that's creepy.
MEREDITH DANLUCK: That is so creepy.
THOMAS MORTON: Creepy as shit.
MEREDITH DANLUCK: With a big chunk out of it.
JAKE BURGHART: Put it on.
[LAUGHING]
THOMAS MORTON: That shit's alive, asshole.
Ew, it's fucking moving.
[LAUGHING]
THOMAS MORTON: That wasn't worth it.
What kind of shot was that?
Hang on.
Should I be saying something?
It's hard to believe, looking at this.
I mean, this water is, like, beyond Crayola blue.
JAKE BURGHART: We got some fucking--
MEREDITH DANLUCK: Ew!
THOMAS MORTON: Ew!
MEREDITH DANLUCK: I don't want that one.
[LAUGHING]
THOMAS MORTON: That's glass though, right?
So that's not as bad?
Or--
JAKE BURGHART: That's not so much of a concern.
[ENGINE REVVING]
MEREDITH DANLUCK: Wait, wait, wait.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Jake.
[LAUGHING]