An offshore trimaran destined for Bermuda is taking part in a scientific sailing expedition to safeguard the oceans from plastic pollution.

The Multi One Design 70 or MOD 70 trimaran, Race for Water is participating in the Race for Water Odyssey that will see the yacht travel 40,000 nautical miles in 300 days and make scientific and outreach stopovers in 13 countries to conduct the first global assessment of plastic pollution in oceans.

Bermuda will be the second scientific stopover after the Azores.

The Race for Water Odyssey was initiated by the Race for Water Foundation which is an organisation dedicated to preserving water.

“The objective of this unique expedition is to conduct the first global assessment of plastic pollution in oceans by visiting island beaches situated in the five trash vortexes,” Lucie Gerber, the Race for Water Foundation spokeswoman, said. “Our ambassador ship, the trimaran MOD 70 Race for Water, will allow us to anchor in remote places and to study beaches that haven’t been studied before.”

The crew aboard the 70ft offshore trimaran includes Marco Simeoni, the expedition leader and founder of the Race for Water Foundation and Steve Ravussin, skipper of the expedition, who will also be joined by scientists.

Scientific as well as human, the Race for Water Odyssey also aims to raise awareness about marine pollution. It is estimated that 80 per cent of plastic debris in the ocean comes from human activity on land and 20 per cent from human activity at sea.

Plastic waste that is dumped into the sea floats and travels along marine currents.

This plastic garbage which slowly degrades in the water can travel for years in the high seas before conglomerating in areas of diffuse pollution known as vortexes or ocean gyres. These enormous whirlpools are created by the circulation of the oceans, whose slow, rotating motion creates relatively calm areas where debris accumulates.

There is no technical means to precisely map these areas and detecting them is complicated since plastic waste deteriorates into flakes through a chemical process, making it almost impossible to the eye and impossible to detect in aerial photographs.

There are numerous negative impacts of this pollution on the ecosystem and the human population.

The fragmentation of plastic into micro-particles that can be easily ingested threatens marine ecosystems and the rise of potential vectors for toxic materials that can contaminate the food chain and therefore end up being consumed by humans.

“Marine plastic pollution is alarming and we must quickly find sustainable collection and valorisation solutions,” Mr Simeoni said. “To devise solutions we must fully understand the problem.”

He added: “I am confident that when we return from this expedition we will have genuine leads for developing solutions that will preserve our oceans.

“Drawing up the assessment won’t be the end of our mission; the assessment is merely the first phase of a project that will take several years.”

The trimaran Race for Water, sailing from Bordeaux, France, is due to arrive in Bermuda on March 31.