00:07Cogos is literally drowning in plastic, which is really sad considering how incredibly remote
00:15these islands are. The nearest city, Exmouth, it's very small, is more than a thousand kilometers
00:22away. It's otherwise a very pristine and stunning location. And the community that live on Cogos
00:30is very small, only about six, maybe seven hundred people. Despite that, the beaches, most of the
00:37beaches are inundated with plastic. I don't mean to discourage anyone going there for tourism. There
00:42are still plenty of pristine, quintessential tropical beaches free from plastic. Please go to Cogos.
00:52But other beaches that face, for example, into the predominant currents are accumulating incredible
00:59amounts of debris. And this is obviously a real problem, but also an opportunity for research.
01:06And so our estimates of how much debris is actually present on the Cocos Keeling Islands is in excess
01:14of 414 million pieces of plastic debris, largely comprised of single-use, everyday consumer items.
01:27So this is a great opportunity for us to see ourselves in this debris and figure out how we can
01:34remove at least one of these items from our day to day activities. So if it's a plastic toothbrush that
01:40you use every morning with your brush, when you brush your teeth, maybe think about switching to bamboo,
01:45for example.
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