Seven researchers and students embark on an odyssey on the St. Lawrence to document the extent of plastic pollution in the river. This new kind of ecofeminist project will combine scientists and literary creators.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
The crew of the Blue Expedition will leave the port of Sept-Îles on Friday aboard the two-master EcoHusbands to then sail to Anticosti, Natashquan, Tête-à-la-Baleine and the Magdalen Islands, where the journey will end on September 11. Several participants being in their first experience of navigation, they will be accompanied by four members of the crew of this sailing school, as well as a video production team.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Kateri Lemmens, Camille Deslauriers, Érika Arsenault, Anne-Marie Asselin (General Manager), Charlotte Belleau and Laura Rowenczyk: six of the participants in the Blue Expedition, a project initiated by the environmental conservation organization Organization Bleue, which will raise awareness of gender equality, the climate crisis and, more specifically, plastic pollution on August 26th in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
“We want to show this beauty to Quebecers to remind them that it’s our home,” says marine biologist Anne-Marie Asselin, founder of the Organization Bleue organization and head of mission. It’s untapped, it’s uninhabited, but it’s really tinged with our behavioral problem of overconsumption. »
During the expedition, organized in collaboration with the Réseau Québec Maritime, she and other scientists will continue their research on the micro- and macroplastics found in the waters of the Gulf and on its shores. If much remains to be known, Anne-Marie Asselin has a good idea of what they will find there. People from the Côte-Nord told him about many areas affected by plastic waste that have not been documented.
It’s hypothetical, but we risk coming up against beaches that are, well, quite polluted. The fishing industry colors our coastlines a lot, as does the fast food industry.
Anne-Marie Asselin, founder of Organization Bleue
Throughout the mission, the participants will publish their discoveries and their stories on social networks and in a blog that will combine text and video, as well as a podcast hosted by biologist Lyne Morissette. Director Mathieu Boudreau will also be on board to produce a feature-length documentary.
Fragments of plastic… and stories
Literary creators, teachers and students at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR) will compose micro-stories, fragments and poetic postcards based on their experiences.
“The project is part of a geopoetic posture, that is to say that the places in which we are will inspire us, the places as we live them, explains Camille Deslauriers, professor in the department of letters and humanities and author. What we are going to learn from the waters, from the shore, what we are going to find, we are going to draw inspiration from all that to write microtexts. »
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Boat ropes are plentiful on the Anticosti coasts.
Their mission will be to translate the findings of their scientific colleagues and the issues observed into “personal, sensitive perspectives”, continues Kateri Lemmens, also a professor at UQAR.
This is really a big question for literature today: how do we translate our concern about the climate, how do we write this from a literary creation perspective?
Kateri Lemmens, professor at UQAR
” As Don’t Look Up, adds Erika Arsenault. There is a concern to share the knowledge that they will seek through the scientific mission to raise awareness. »
“In this mission, we are a whole gang of ecofeminists, and we want it to be a gesture of hope, adds producer Charlotte Belleau. It is certain that if everyone thinks that there is nothing to be done, we will continue in this way. I think we are not sufficiently aware that we are responsible for the largest source of drinking water in the world. »
By bringing together an all-female research team, some of whom are from the LGBTQ2S+ community, Anne-Marie Asselin wishes to raise the voices of those who are underrepresented in scientific discourse, despite women occupying an important place. in climate action. “Ultimately, what we want is to inspire young women to pursue careers in more surprising, more intersectoral fields,” she says.
You don’t have to fit in a box, be a white man in a lab coat to do science!
Anne-Marie Asselin, founder of Organization Bleue
Outside their laboratory, the scientists will focus mainly on the gyre, a large whirlpool located off Anticosti. In the oceans, gyres are known for their concentration of plastic debris.
“We want to see if there are microplastic accumulation effects within these currents and to know if there is a transfer of these microplastics to the sediments, explains chemical engineering researcher Laura Rowenczyk, who participated in the publication of a recent study aimed at quantifying the presence of microplastics in the surface water of the St. Lawrence River. If these microplastics sink, that would be problematic because that would mean that they come into contact more easily with aquatic life and also necessarily with what is exploited in the St. Lawrence. »
Project of the Blue Organization, dedicated to the conservation of the environment and the popularization of science, the expedition will be the subject of a socio-financing campaign.