Ben Lecomte Swims from Japan to Hawaii to Raise Awareness of Pollution

Ben Lecomte planned to swim from Japan to San Francisco to bring awareness of the ocean pollution but bad weather forced him to make a pit stop in Hawaii.

Ben said, "My legs are a little shaky. I'm not used to having something stable but it feels good. I grabbed some sand with my hand to feel the earth. We had very bad weather along the way. We tried to fix a few things that broke on the boat, the reef and all that, but in the end we couldn't that. It was putting too much stress on the boat and compromising our safety also, so we decided to hold off on the swim."

As Ben made his swim he estimated he saw one piece of plastic every three minutes. The boat, that was collecting data as well as being a support boat, collected three pieces of microplastic every minute.

He says he plans to continue his journey and swim to San Francisco.