Day 17: June 15

Kelli Stephens writes:

So today was not one of the high points of my day. I have seemed to reach a “writer’s block” of sorts to the progression of my economic report. I would have never thought sourcing out plastic pollution could be so difficult. Getting started was not necessarily the hard part because there is a lot of information out there about plastic pollution, but the difficulty is narrowing down who are the main contributors to ocean plastic pollution both on the consumer side and the producer side. Fortunately, during our weekly progress meeting today with Lorraine and Monica, many things about the overall goal for Sea Scavenger were cleared up for me and a few of the other interns and it has helped me immensely. Before, I was under the impression that Sea Scavenger is to be like another research org conducting studies, but what we are actually trying to be are like garbage-men for the sea. This distinction was of great use to me. So now with a clearer understanding of my role, I am feeling re-inspired and ready to progress to the next stage of my report.