Australian world record solo sailor Lisa Blair has revealed the shocking extent of microplastic pollution in the Southern Ocean in the most comprehensive data collection achieved with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), recorded during her non-stop record winning race around Antarctica in 2022.

She set a new world record, becoming the fastest person in the world to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around Antarctica and the first women to do so. Lisa completed the journey in 92 days in 2022, taking 10 days off the previous record set by Fedor Konyukhov in 2008.

Working in partnership with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and supported by the Integrated Marine Observing Systems (IMOS), she was able to complete the first near-continuous microplastics survey in Southern Ocean waters. A total of 178 seawater samples were collected from the sub-surface of the Southern Ocean and 83 samples have been processed and analyzed.

“While I was expecting to find some plastic in the Southern Ocean, I wasn’t at all prepared for every sample collected to have microplastics present,” she said.

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