KAZAN, July 18. /TASS/. Celebrated Russian adventurer Fyodor Konyukhov plans to cross the Pacific Ocean onboard a specially-designed single-sail raft in 2026. The voyage will be part of a project to explore garbage patches in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans.

"Someone may wonder - what do we have to do with this? Microplastic is in the ocean but we live far away from it, people say. <…> But I have always said that we are a great country, both in terms of territory, human resources, and mentality. We are a great country and we must not be indifferent to anything because Earth belongs not only to us or other countries - it belongs to all humankind. No matter if we live far away, we eat fish, and fish also contain microplastic. It’s everywhere," Konyukhov told a news conference.

The 160-day trans-Pacific expedition will kick off from Chile in December 2026 and end on Australia’s East Coast. The specially-designed Mirika sail raft will cover a distance of 15,000 nautical miles to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The raft will be equipped with steering, navigation, satellite communications, and auto piloting systems. Its research module will have instruments to monitor microplastic in the ocean. The raft will round the garbage patch and take hundreds of ocean water samples with precise coordinate indications.