ALGALITA MARINE RESEARCH FOUNDATION Ship-2-Shore Education Program

Research voyage across the South Pacific - sign up now!

2011-02-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

We are currently running the Ship-2-Shore Education Program on a different web site. To access the program you must first register (registration is free for all students and teachers.) Registration information is below or follow this link; registration form
Voyage departs March 19, 2011
Join along with our upcoming voyage to study plastic pollution across the South Pacific Ocean. This research voyage from Valdivia, Chile to Easter Island departs March 19. During this voyage you will also have the opportunity to work directly with our research team to develop stewardship projects to address the issue of plastic pollution. Here is a link to the registration form to sign up!! For more information visit our program website here; http://algalita.org/ship2shore/
If you are already registered and have received your password information, enter the new Ship-2-Shore Program site here; http://algalita.org/ship2shore/blog/

If you are not a student or a teacher and you simply want to follow the voyage on a public blog check here; http://5gyres.org/whats_happening_now/blog

Research voyage across the South Atlantic - sign up now!

2010-10-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

We are currently running the Ship-2-Shore Education Program on a different web site. To access the program you must first register (registration is free for all students and teachers.) Registration information is below or follow this link; registration form

Voyage departs Nov. 8, 2010
Join along with our upcoming voyage to study plastic pollution across the South Atlantic Ocean. This research voyage from Brazil to South Africa departs Nov. 7th. During this voyage you will also have the opportunity to work directly with our research team to develop stewardship projects to address the issue of plastic pollution. Here is a link to the registration form to sign up!! For more information visit our program website here; http://algalita.org/ship2shore/
If you are already registered and have received your password information, enter the new Ship-2-Shore Program site here; http://algalita.org/ship2shore/blog/

If you are not a student or a teacher and you simply want to follow the voyage on a public blog check here; http://5gyres.org/whats_happening_now/blog

Nearshore Sampling in the Pacific Aboard ORV Alguita

2010-05-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

May 15, 2010

A warm, overcast sky burns into a gentle breeze and sunshine making for a pleasant day of nearshore sampling aboard ORV Alguita. Our work and enjoyment of the ocean scene along the Long Beach coast is, as usual, too often interrupted with balloons. We follow a bundle of silver hearts and an inflated #1 as it drifts out of reach over the water. Facundo skillfully hooks the bundle just after it settles on the ocean surface. Closer inspection reveals this pollution was generated in celebration of a little girls first birthday. Another colorful bundle of balloons reads "Caring with a personal touch".

Thankfully our first otter trawl yields more fish than plastic (on the left Captain Moore pours the tub of specimens into a tank for further inspection). Later in the lab we will see if these fish have been including plastic in their diet. Above research crew member, Christiana, holds up a bit of plastic she untangled from the net along with these fish.

Above, our second otter trawl yields a familiar reminder of the confusion marine organisms can have when deciphering between plastic and prey (the infamous visual similarity between sea jellies and clear plastic).

We draw a second, less common comparison between a fragment of a moon snail egg collar (on the left above) and the fragment of plastic.

We also sampled the surface water just inside the break wall of the Long Beach Harbor using a manta trawl (above). On the left, Christiana and Emily are rinsing the sample from the cod end of the net into a bowl. Unfortunately, even a quick inspection of this sample reveals that it is largely composed of plastic. Christiana points out some of the smaller fragments floating in the collection bowl beside a plastic bag.

We've arrived in Mauritius!

2010-04-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

April 4, 2010

We've arrived in Mauritius! The mountain top jets out of the horizon like the spine on top of a trigger fish. The last three weeks have been amazing. We accomplished many things. First, we documented plastic pollution in the middle of the Indian Ocean Gyre. We also successfully developed a high-speed trawl for future excursions. We were able to trawl at 8-10 knots, and found plenty of plastic in every trawl.

Now we will return to Los Angeles to plan for our next expedition to the South Atlantic Gyre in November 2010. Check back here for more photos and/or videos soon, to read our summary of this expedition in a few weeks, and to learn more about what's ahead!

April 2: Unidentified Swimming Objects

2010-04-03T15:20:00.000-07:00

Latitude: 20 33 South, Longitude: 63 58 East

"What on EARTH is that??"

Yesterday, we found perhaps the strangest organism we've ever seen in a trawl. Wrapped around a broken plastic coffee scoop was a silvery, eel-like fish as long as a pencil, with tiny, spines lining its sinewy body. Its body shape suggested it swam vertically.

No one has any idea what it is, not even the marine scientists on board. Our resident naturalist/author Redmond O Hanlin has a very fun hypothesis, but we won't bias you with his guess yet. Can anyone out there ID this fascinating creature?

2 days from Mauritius, and we're undoubtedly seeing an increase in plastic. This morning's trawl was full of trash - a broken cup, piece of a bowl, loads of broken down plastic film, and dozens of fragments, along with 6 small triggerfish, 5 pterapods, a few pelagic crabs, a strange, broccoli-like sea plant, several halobates (marine water skeeters), and another tiny, unidentified fish, possibly related to the Sargassum fish.
By the next blog entry, we will have either spotted land or landed. An incredible voyage coming to a close - and a third oceanic gyre now explored for plastic pollution. Though our research here will end tomorrow, the Beagle crew has agreed to continue gathering samples en route to Cape Town, hopefully coming closer to the center of the gyre. We will eagerly await their findings.

Click here to send a comment or question to the crew!

April 1: Pufferfish & Java

2010-04-01T07:56:00.000-07:00

21°15S, 71°10E

After weeks of tweaking, refining, head scratching, and testing again, the high-speed trawl finally works like a charm. One of the crewmembers, Johann the Bosun, took a special interest in the design and added several key modifications – some wooden skies, a few metal fins, and a longer bridle. And now, with 4 days to go before reaching Mauritius, we have a super Macguyvered trawl fashioned from scrap material that can be towed continuously at high speeds. We call it the “Flying Dutchman”.

Yesterday, we tried our first 24-hour trawl from the side of the boat. No sooner did we toss it in, the ship’s hotel manager Martin, a 6’8 boyish blonde with twinkling blue eyes, approached us apologetically. “I’m terribly sorry, but I forgot about the trawl, and threw coffee grounds over the side of the boat!”

Sure enough, the trawl was full of grounds, with something else....a thick ring of plastic packaging, a few nurdles, dozens of plastic fragments, and a pufferfish! In its final moments, the poor puffer was likely the most caffeinated fish in the Indian Ocean. The entire crew gathered around for a look at this beautiful little creature, inflated like a miniature porcupine.

Thanks to the Flying Dutchman, Johann and his team will be able to continue collecting samples for us, between Mauritius and Cape Town. Wind permitting, they will be able to venture deeper into the gyre, And with some additional samples, we should be able to publish our findings – a first exploration of plastic pollution in the Indian Ocean.

Q: Hey how did you guys know where the gyre is? Lawndale high school;
California and lawndale; im in the 10th grade; Toan;

A: Please visit www.5gyres.org and click on the "Research" section. You'll see a computer animation of where the 5 large subtropical gyres are. The animation was done by Nikolas Maximenko. His research paper is on the website as well. Basically, oceanographers release drift buoys into oceans with GPS technology on them so they can track their movements. This data allows us to see where the circular currents are, and where buoys drift to. When they get to the center of the gyres, they get stuck, just like plastic debris.

Q: Hello, Lawndale High, Hawthorne California, 10th grade. My questions
are 'Are you collecting the trash, if so what are you planning to do
with it?'

A: The small amounts we collect in our nets will be analyzed for total weight, size, color and type. We'll write a research paper about these findings. We'll describe where we found plastic debris, how much we found, and what kind of debris it was. After that's done, then we'll store the samples in case any other scientist would like to see it. In science, it's always important that you keep your samples in case someone doesn't believe what you've said.

Q: It appears, the choice is in mankinds hand but some people are simply
aiding the numerous amounts of debris we already have in the Gyre. How
would you truely feel if your home was simply a center of waste? ~Eric
T. a Sophmore at Lawndale High School located in Lawndale California

A: I'm not sure if I would call my home a "Center of Waste", but I cannot deny that we consume and throw away plenty of stuff. Waste is not a problem, as long as it's used by someone or something else as a resource. Think of nature, everything makes waste, but some other living thing eats it. In nature waste is food. In our society we make things out of products that are difficult to recycle, and when lost to the environment they do not biodegrade. Throw away plastic products are like this. So one way not to be a "Center of Waste" is not to have the things you consume be useless after you. One step would be to end the Age of Throw Away Plastic.

Q: Why did you and your reserach team choose to investigate the Indian
Ocean Gyre than any other Marine related issue, like the unbalance
equillibrium of marine ecosytems? ~ Lawndale High School,CA,USA,10th grade, Asanti

A: We each have personal reasons why we choose the field of science we work in. There is plenty of work to do to keep our oceans healthy. I choose to work on the issue of plastic waste. There are many other scientist working on sea level rise, ocean acidification, depleted fisheries, climate change and much more. When you speak of "Unbalance equilibrium of marine ecosystems" what do you mean specifically?

Cheers to successful research!

2010-03-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

With plastic in glasses, we toast to our 7 successful trawls we've conducted so far. In two weeks, and over 2000 miles, we have made a few simple observations. 1) There’s plastic in every trawl. 2) There’s more plastic waste as we near the center of the Indian Ocean Gyre. 3) There’s no practical way to clean up the ocean. Once you’ve been here you understand that all solutions begin on land. Cheers, Marcus

Answers to student Questions

Ahoy Ship2Shore mates, Anna here, with a few answers:

Heather from River Ridge High School, Florida wanted to know what we eat every day: unlike other voyages that we’ve been on, this boat has a full, equipped kitchen, and even a chef from Holland who prepares our meals! It’s an unusual luxury for us. Last night we had a big green salad, with tomatoes and goat cheese, alongside a fish fillet, and pork roast for the meat eaters. Having fresh produce 2 weeks into a sea voyage is incredible for us! By this time, were used to cabbage and onions being the only produce left.

We haven’t had much luck with fishing on this stretch – though we haven’t been trying hard. Sometimes we tow a line behind the boat, but no bites since before Perth. There just aren’t as many fish in our seas due to overfishing.

Another University High (Los Angeles, CA) student wanted to know how this plastic may affect fish: Algalita has found on past voyages that some foraging fish called “Myctophids” or “Lantern fish” are eating plastic along with the zooplankton they are used to eating. Lantern fish live in a deeper, dark region of the ocean called the “Mesopelagic” zone. At night, when they are safer from possible predators, they come up to the surface to find food. Unfortunately, they are finding more plastic near the surface as well. This is a relatively new discovery, so scientists aren’t yet sure how this affects them, or what the longer-term impacts on humans via the food chain are.

Kent (University High, CA), you asked how many fish die from plastic: again, we’re not sure how this plastic affects fish. We guess it can’t be good for them – if they eat too much plastic, they might feel full and not eat their regular food....or they might have problems swimming, with all this buoyant material in their stomachs. We have much to learn!
Anthony (University High, CA), we’re having a great time at sea. Life on the open ocean is very different from our busy, chaotic lives back in the city. We don’t have cell phones, TV, or internet. We’re surrounded by an endless view of blue water, which gives you an appreciation for the fact that our earth is mostly water. We do spend time at our computers – writing our blogs and working on other projects. Sometimes we help the crew with sailing – yesterday we climbed way up on the mast, inched out on the yard arm, and helped the crew tie up loose sails – a bit scary, but also fun. And when were not working on anything, we read, chat with other passengers, learn about other research on board, or just stare out to sea and think about how crazy and wonderful life can be.

Shardae and Uriel (University High, CA) wanted to know how to get rid of plastics and save sea animals: this is where we want you to do some thinking. You’ll see some past answers on our blog about how to reduce our use of disposable plastics, but we’d love to know your thoughts. How could you personally help – either in your everyday life, your family, or your school? Are there plastic products that you use and throw away often? What are some alternatives?

Marcus here, with a few more answers…

Q: “I also think that we should try to not throw plastic into the ocean because its very bad for the animals inn the ocean and they sometimes think its food do they end up eatying it and die :/ how does plastic affect the environment? university high school, united states, california 9th, Jennifer”

A: How does plastic affect the environment? Plastic breaks apart into millions of small particles, like confetti. They float for decades and are eaten by fish. But before fish eat them, the plastic particles soak up other pollutants, like PCBs, DDT, DDE, and PAHs. These chemicals are called persistent organic pollutants. They come from pesticides, oil drops from cars, smog, and many different chemical industries. These pollutants do not mix with water, but stick to plastic floating in the sea. What happens when fish eat polluted plastic? This is what we want to learn later this year when we collect fish from the South Atlantic Ocean.

Q: “Its good to see that you have been cleaning up the oceans, But how did you guys find the fishes all dirty? University High School Gal United states California”

A: We are actually not cleaning up the ocean. That is unfortunately a nearly impossible, and certainly impractical, task. To save the ocean from plastic we must act on land. That means we do everything we can to keep non-biodegradable plastic from being used for throwaway products, like plastic bags. You asked about fish. We collected 671 fish two years ago, looked in their stomachs and found plastic. 35% had plastic in their guts. This is alarming. I don’t want plastic in my sushi.

Q: “Seeing that you guys are on a ship and you are learning how to climb,are you out of shape? - Shabaka Johnson, 9th Grade, University High School, Los Angeles, CA, US”

A: We’re not out of shape, although we don’t get enough exercise here. We do climb a lot. This ship is amazing. It’s a Clipper ship, like the ones built 150 years ago. It has 29 sails. Yesterday we had to climb 75 feet in the air and stow a few sails away. You’re tied to the mast, but it’s still swaying back and forth, making you hold on tight. But with regard to exercise, I can’t wait to go jogging as soon as we arrive in Mauritius.
Q: “My question is why doesnt isnt there teams sent out to clean the ocean that would make more jobs and make the the ocean cleaner University High School U.S.A CA 9th grade Christopher”

A: We can’t clean the ocean. Our planet is 70% ocean. Plastic is broken apart in to many billions of pieces as big as grains of sand. It’s nearly impossible, and certainly impractical, to clean the ocean. The ocean is simply too big, and you can’t take plastic out of the ocean without taking out the marine life that lives there. Also, the plastic is not all clumped together. Imagine trying to collect a hand full of sand spread over a football field of area.

What would you do… sweep it? Now imagine sweeping 9 million football fields in the North Pacific alone! Change MUST begin on land. If you want to clean the ocean, start in your neighborhood. Does your school use plastic forks, straws or Styrofoam trays? Get your school off the plastic habit. Use paper instead. Get rid of straws. Use metal utensils. Bring your own lunch. You are the change. What will you do?

Two hurricanes in two months

2010-03-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

March 24 Latitude: 22 13.3 South Longitude:91 20.9 East

With a name as beautiful as Imani, none of us quite believed we were really nearing a tropical cyclone. Nor were our weather reports conclusive – a weather fax from a Belgian crew stated “nothing to worry about”. And a wildly different report from a French ship warned of an impending hurricane.

Better safe than sorry is always the rule of thumb, so we detoured North, making a wide arc around the possible weather. The crew sprung into “batten down the hatches” mode, taking down sails, putting up the small storm sail, stowing away all loose gear, and stringing up a network of thick safety lines around the entire boat. The seas continue to build unmistakably.

“Lets go watch from the bow!” Marcus and I step outside. We’re immediately enveloped in a thick sauna of warm, wet air. Thankful for the safety lines, we grab ahold, clip our harnesses on, and slip slide our way to the front rails. Mountains of water, deep valleys, and howling winds replace yesterday’s gentle blue tapestry. The crew now wear their waterproof foul weather gear. Less prepared, we’re soaked in a matter of minutes.

Just the other month, we found ourselves sailing through hurricane conditions in the North Atlantic. Our second hurricane, in another gyre! No one is concerned, least of all our Captain. Our detour will put us far from danger, but we will be in for a ride.

Meanwhile, we’ve been having a series of intense brainstorming sessions about real solutions to plastic waste. We’ll share those in tomorrow’s blog – assuming satellite connections work. And will ask that you start thinking too.

Answers to Student Questions

Hey Students, sorry for the communication gap, we've had a tropical cyclone pass through. 2nd hurricane for us! Hopefully weather should be calm from here on out. Cheers, Anna

Q: Many of you (including Chris and Michael from Las Vegas, Nevada) have asked what we are most excited to see, what our goals are and what we hope to accomplish. Marcus answered this question in the last blog, here I will add to his answer;

A:I'm most excited to see what new marine creatures, people, and adventures we'll encounter in this voyage, and what new ideas we might have long the way about solutions. We have more students than ever - you all - following the journey. And as a result of this, we now have thousands of young people that will learn about this issue, and begin thinking about ways to solve this problem in their own communities. We hope that some of you will join us in Los Angeles next year, when we hold our first international conference for young people - the next generation. You are our next great hope for making this world a better place. -Anna-

Doldrums of Debris

2010-03-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

March 23, 2010 22°31.39S, 91°39.93E

“Hey, there’s a turtle stuck in a ball of net,” someone yelled from the top of the mast, the best place to be for a 360° view of the world for miles. From 150ft up in the air came a barrage of sightings: a shark, two turtles, random large fragments of plastic floating by and one enormous ball of tangled fishing nets and rope. We’re in the Indian Ocean Garbage Patch.

An oceanic garbage patch is an area of relatively dense accumulation of debris, not an island, but a thin soup that’s more concentrated in the 5 subtropical gyres than surrounding waters. Other than the behemoth net ball, or trails of random debris forming wind rows, you usually will see very little with the naked eye. You detect an oceanic garbage patch when you trawl.

We’ve conducted 6 trawls in the last 7 days, each one with plastic debris. Trawls 1-4 had a visible fragment or two floating about. Trawl 5 had a dozen, and trawl 6 had twice more than all others combined (see the photo above).
So if you hold the idea that the solution to the plastic pollution problem is to go to any of the 5 gyres and get it, you’re wasting your time and money. The plastic out here will likely photodegrade and break apart into smaller and smaller fragments. After cycling through untold numbers of marine organisms through filter-feeding or food mimicry, the particles will likely sink to the seafloor, either as fish poop or become encrusted by colonizing critters. They will take their polymer chains and absorbed pollutants to the sequestering grave of deep sea mud.

Solutions to plastic pollution begin on land. More to follow…Video: Entering the Gyre- Crew member, Anna Cummins, scouts for plastic pollution and monitors plastic debris sampling from high up on the mast. She shares observations of increasing quantities of plastic pollution as they enter the Indian Ocean Gyre.

STUDENT QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Q: hello, we are the 6 year 7 students from Radford college, Canberra, Australia.our question for you is ' can you tell how long the rubbish has been siting there in the water? If so, how? Thanks and good luck!!!

A: It’s nearly impossible to tell exactly how long debris has been in the water. Sometimes you find a date on the object, like an expiration date on a plastic candy wrapper. Sometimes we assume that the amount of growth on an object, like a cluster of gooseneck barnacles, means it’s been in the ocean for awhile. But plenty of growth can happen in a few months. On our Junkraft expedition (www.junkraft.com) we observed mature barnacles growing under our raft after 88 days at sea. Sometimes we look at the amount of photodegradation by UV light to tell us that a plastic object ha s been in the sea for a long time. Overall, it’s really difficult to tell

Q: I'm thrilled to hear more about your adventure! Reading things like this makes me want to step outside my house and get straight to recycling. With Nikolai Maximenko's collected data from the 12,000 buoys, i'm curious about whether you plan on recollecting the buoys or leave them wherever they may be. Also, what are the buoys mainly made of? Toni - George Washington High School, Guam

A: The Maximenko Model is a computer simulation based on the data from other drift buoy release studies. Nikolai Maximenko didn’t release any real buoys. He used known drift buoy data, current and wind information to predict where the 5 gyres are. But what happened to the real buoys? Some of them disappear, likely sinking or washing up on shore. They are lost when the electronics inside begin to degrade, lose power or get wet. They are usually made of plastic on the outside, but 100 years ago they were made of wooden barrels or glass spheres. The science of oceanography has come a long way. Today’s buoys usually have information on how to contact the scientist that sent it, and sometimes there is a reward.

Q: Greetings! We are the fifth graders of Rutledge Hall in Lincolnwood, IL, just north of Chicago. We are wondering if you have heard about the green plastic breakthrough at Stanford (http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10466743-54.html) and what yourthoughts are on it. Thanks!

A: Please send me the article and I will tell you what I know. We can’t check the internet from here in the Indian Ocean, only check email. What I do know about green plastics is that some bioplastics are marine degradable. PLA is the most common bioplastic used today. It’s made from corn. It’s not marine degradable, but PHA is. Search “PHA bioplastic” on the net and share with us what you come up with.

Also, there are some technologies creating PET from plant based organic compounds. This is one solution to keep from using fossil fuels to make plastic. At this moment roughly 4% of a barrel of oil becomes plastic, and 3-4% of that barrel is used to make the power consumed to make the plastic. That means 7-8% of a barrel of oil is required to make the plastic 6.5 billion people in the world consume. That’s plenty of oil. Plant-based PET would change that. But plant-based PET is not biodegradable, so it will still persist in the environment if lost.

Q: Im Matt from Faith Lutheran High, Las Vegas. Where are you planning on porting
throughout the trip?

A: Our next port of call will be the island of Mauritius, which is roughly 680 miles east of Madagascar. Can you do me a favor? I need information on the Yellow-nosed Albatross that live on that Island. I need to know where on the island they live. 10 years ago I saw plenty of Laysan Albatross on Midway Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean, full of plastic in their stomachs. Anna saw the same thing on Guadalupe Island, near the Pacific coast of Mexico. We want to find out if Yellow-nosed Albatross are eating plastic as well.

Q: Faith Lutheran High School, Las Vegas Nevada, Senior, Chris. I was wondering what each of you are most hoping to accomplish on this trip, what your most excited to see?

A: We have a couple of research goals in mind. We want to know if there is plastic in the Indian Ocean Gyre, how much there is, and what is it doing to the organisms that live there. We’re also looking at the Maximenko Model that predicts the relative concentrations of debris in the 5 gyres of the world. We are planning to have visited all 5 gyres by May 2011.

What am I most excited to see? I want to learn. I want to see the world outside of my home, city, country. I decided long ago that combining school with travel was the best way to learn about the world. I’m excited to know what I don’t yet know. This is the joy of discovery. Equally as exciting is that I get to share this journey with you.

View the Indian Ocean Voyage in Google Maps

2010-03-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

Click here to view Indian Ocean Voyage 2010 in a larger map directly in Google Maps!

Now you can view the route of the voyage and the blog in Google Maps. Each blue sailboat icon is placed at the noon location of the research vessel given by the research crew in the Ship-2-Shore Blog. Click on each icon to view the images and text posted to the blog that day. Note: answers to student questions are not included in the map so you will need to check the blog for these!

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Lesson Extensions

Teachers- Here are is a link to our "Mapping Plastic Pollution Lessons" for grades 4-12, designed for use in Google Earth. With varying degrees of modification these lessons can also be used in Google Maps. We will be posting a .kml file of the Indian Ocean Voyage next week for use in conjunction with these lessons.

Mapping Plastic Pollution

Night Trawling

2010-03-22T10:47:00.001-07:00

22 March 24°29.25S, 98°06.39E

I was dreaming that I was sitting at a board meeting for the Algalita Marine Research Foundation when suddenly someone walked into the dream-office and said “Do you want to trawl now?” Half asleep, I responded “What? Yes. Huh?” She asked again, “We can trawl now at night so you can maybe catch some fish.” It’s 4:30am and Anna and I are zombies on deck staggering about with the manta trawl. The crew of the 250ft. tall ship “Stad Amsterdam” are eager to see what we will find next. “We’re only going 3 knots, so we can trawl as long as you like,” Christiana says.

Anna’s got the trawl log in hand, jotting down the starting time and latitude/longitude. I’m wearing the harness and locked into the side of the ship as we open the side gate, hang overboard with the trawl, and throw it in.

“We are approaching 5 knots,” the officer on deck says. Moments before sunrise, we pull the trawl back onboard. The cod end (that’s the removable sock on the end of the net) has a dozen 4-8 centimeter-long fish, like flying fish and myctophids. We’re still far from the accumulation zone of the Indian Ocean Gyre, but there are plastic fragments here as well.
I’m reminded again that our connected oceans are a plastic soup with varying surface densities of plastic pollution. We expected to find very little here, yet here it is. There are many people with good intentions that want to solve the problem of plastic pollution by going first to the ocean. It is extremely impractical to start here. It must happen upstream, in the hands of those that create plastic, make plastic goods, and the customers that use them. We need better systems for collection and containment of waste, better products with less packaging and better materials, and plastic itself should no longer be used for throw-away products. Knowing that plastic is an environmental hazard, we must end the “Throw-Away” culture that created this mess in the first place.

Climbing Masts and Oceans

2010-03-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

March 21, 2010 Noontime position: 24 25.510 S, 99 28.891 E

A few days ago we had our first climbing lesson, to learn to scale one of the tall ships vertigo-inducing masts. Meanwhile, our boat is also climbing - UP the ocean. In fact, on this trip so far, we’ve already descended around 30 feet, and are now beginning to climb again, another 100 to go before reaching Mauritius. How is that possible? I wondered - isn’t sea level a more or less constant height around the world – i.e. zero?

Meet Bert Vermeersen one of the chief scientists on board, taking extremely accurate, vertical GPS measurements on sea level height. Which is apparently quite difficult to do. Bert found Marcus and I on deck in the early morning, struggling to do some sit ups while the boat rocked and rolled about. We quickly abandoned this exercise in futility, and chatted with Bert instead.

“Believe it or not, sea level can actually vary by as much as 300 feet around the world” Bert explained, “depending on the relative depth of the ocean, the force of gravity, and differences in topography. The earth is a flattened elipse rather than a spherical globe – equator to equator the earth is 20 miles longer than at the poles. These differences in sea level height are measured with respect to the ellipsoid.”

And so, although the indigo blue expanse surrounding us looks perfectly flat, we are slowly, gradually inching our way up a marine mountain, at a pace so slow that only Bert’s high tech measurements will notice the change.

Climbing the mast on the other hand – this is a change noticeable enough to send my heart rate soaring! After a basic safety 101 from one of the deck hands, we donned our harnesses and scampered up the mast, as we’ve been watching the crew do enviously for days. The view from atop is breathtaking. This is now a daily must!

AND THE QUEST FOR THE PERFECT HIGH SPEED TRAWL CONTINUES
For the last few days, a group of around 10 eager men, lead by Marcus and Haico, have been wrenching, bolting, testing, and retesting a space age looking steel-torpedo device, rigged with an underwater camera and a long net. The idea was to create a high-speed trawl, with a camera that would capture footage along the way. The first try had the contraption bouncing and diving along the surface like a lovable robotic dolphin. The footage was mesmerizing – a crystalline underwater seascape – but the device still spins wildly. And so Marcus is back in the workshop, welding another prototype. We all wait anxiously.

Still, we’ve had a chance to trawl twice so far – both times yielding a trawl full of Portuguese Man O War (ouch!) and one or two plastic fragments. We’re still far from the accumulation zone.

TALKING PLASTIC WITH THE BEAGLE CREW
Last night, Marcus and I gave the evening lecture, a daily routine. We all gather in the dining room for the Captain’s 7:00 address – he gives a brief talk on the next days wind and weather patterns, shows a slideshow of photos from the day, and then one of the guest scientists on board shares their research. We’ve heard presentations on core sample drilling in Antarctica and the Artic from paleoclimatologist Henk Brinkhuis (www.iodp.org), seen a film tracing Darwin and Wallace’s parallel findings on natural selection, and last night, we were given the floor. We shared our research with Algalita and 5 Gyres on plastic in the world’s oceans, to a room of scientists who seemed genuinely intrigued by the issue. And in a few days, the evening program will be dedicated to plastic pollution solutions. We’re very interested to hear what comes out of the brainstorming session – full report to come.

Answers to Student Questions

2010-03-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

Hi Marcus here answering a few questions…

Q: What are you most excited about seeing on this trip or doing? Michael Las Vegas, NV Faith Lutheran

A: I’m having so much fun just sailing on a tall ship. There are three masts. The middle mast is 150ft tall. There are 29 sails! It’s an amazing opportunity to sail the way people did 150 years ago. When we get to Mauritius we’ll check out some roosting sites where albatross nest. We want to know if they eat plastic like the albatross do on Midway Atoll.

Q: Hi I'm Chase from Faith Lutheran in Las Vegas, Nevada. I know that the plastic has a large effect on the smaller marine life, but does it affect such larger animals as the beluga whale?

A: Yes, we find that Beluga whales are not only ingesting plastics and storing them in their stomachs, but their bodies develop deformities because of the chemicals they absorb from the ocean environment. Please do some research online to see some of these stories. It’s a really sad affair for these cetaceans and others. As you know, whales are at the top of the food chain, so they are eating all of the pollution that thousands of smaller animals have already consumed. It bioaccumulates in their tissues and organs. It happens to humans as well. Search on the internet for a study conducted by the Environmental Working Group called “Ten Americans”. You will be surprised.

Q: Howdy Yall, my name's John and I'm your favorite duputy. I am at 12thgrader from Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was just wondering, what do you guys do for fun, besides researching of the ocean?

A: We do have lot’s of fun studying the ocean. We’ve now traveled 3 of the world’s 5 subtropical gyres. For fun, and work, we’ve done a couple of things recently. We bicycled 2000 miles from Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico to give 40 talks about plastic to universities, politicians and local conservation organizations. Before that, we built a raft from 15,000 plastic bottles and sailed 2,600 miles across the Pacific Ocean. Check out www.junkraft.com to see the fun we have doing our work, and follow the link to Algalita to see the research we’ve done.

Q: greetings fellow sailors, i was wondering since the small fish eat this plastic, does the plastic effect the bigger fish when they eat the small plastic filed fish?- brandon faith lutheran high school

A: Yes, plastic carries POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants). These likely bioaccumulate up the food chain and end up on your dinner plate. This is where the science is now. We want to know if plastic really does this, and how bad it is. There is a need for people like you to become environmental scientists and help create a sustainable world.

Q: Greetings from Faith Lutheran HS in Las Vegas, Nevada. I am called Samuel, but my comrads call me Sam and am in the grade of 12. I pondered how you would fix this problem of large amounts of plastic in the ocean?

A: We can’t clean up the ocean in any practical way. Starting in the ocean to clean up the plastic is the most expensive and time consuming place to clean up waste. It has to happen on land first. To fix it you’ve got to stop adding more. Plastic is an environmental hazard at sea. We’ve got to stop making throw-away, single-use products from a material that’s designed to last forever. That means, no more plastic bags, straws, cup lids, bottles, bottle caps, knives and forks made from cheap, oil-based plastic. But you can start right now! Do you have a steel water bottle? You can buy a steel water bottle for the price of 10 plastic bottles of water, but your canteen will last for years. Do you have a cloth grocery bag? I’ve got a dozen made from t-shirts.

Q: Faith Lutheran High School Nevada,USA 12th grade Trevor What other products do you suggested we use instead of plastic?

A: Steel water bottles, cloth bags, bamboo reusable silverware and cloth napkins. In a restaurant tell the waiter, “No straw in my water please.” As far as the material, paper, metal, glass and wood worked just fine 50 years ago. Right now all of the solutions exist around you. Aluminum cans carry soda, why not water, liquid detergent or motor oil? Glass bottles carry wine, why not other liquids? Detergent powder comes in a box, so we don’t really need it in a plastic bottle? Do you ever need a straw? A plastic bag? What other observations of solutions to you see around you?

Q: Ahoy maties! I am John of Faith Lutheran, located within the boundaries of Las Vegas, Nevada. Besides encountering any swashbuckling pirates, what might be yer' greatest danger upon the deck's of the mighty Stad Amsterdam?

A: No Pirates, but we did see a few fishing boats yesterday. Maybe you could do us a favor and research instances of piracy off the coast of Madagascar. It’s actually a very serious issue for sailors. There are more and more boats being hijacked, crew killed, and ships left abandoned. It’s nothing like what you see in the movies.

Q: Hey, I am a senior at Faith Lutheran Jr/Sr High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. My question for you is "What type of equipment do you use daily on your expeditions at sea?"

A: Check here to see the manta trawl we deploy to capture our surface samples of the sea. It’s basically a net with two wings that keep it flying on the surface. We pull it at 3-4 knots for an hour, then empty the net into a jar. After counting the pieces of plastic and weighing them, we can publish the data in a journal.

Q: Is there a reason for following Darwin's expedition? Did the HMS Beagle go through the 5 gyres or something?

A: Following Darwin isn’t our idea, it’s the idea of the Dutch production company that invited us. Beagle VPRO has taken the challenge to follow Darwin’s footsteps to see how the world has changed. It’s an awesome opportunity to be a part of it. We’re also looking at how the world has changed. Darwin saw a new world. We’re now watching that world begin to fall apart. Human civilization must learn to live within our ecological boundaries, and not take more than what can naturally replace on its own. That means, no overfishing, no destroying natural ecosystems when other developed land lies abandoned, no dumping waste into the sea, especially plastic, and sending less carbon into the air from power plants. Eat local food, drive less, walk, ride your bike, and put a solar panel on your roof. The smartest human tomorrow will be the person/family/community that gives more to the world than they take.

Q: Jacobe (from Faith Lutheran High Las Vegas, NV) How much government money are you guys using and how much is this whole project costing.

A: No government funds here. We were invited to be part of a production about Darwin, so the TV show pays those expenses. We are doing research, so we will collect 10-15 samples of the sea surface. Back at the Algalita lab we have some money given by a private family, which we will use to process the sample. This trip across the Indian Ocean is basically a dream come true.

Q: Hello, I am from Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas, NV, USA. I was wonder have you discovered any new species of marine animals?

A: No new species, but if we were to trawl near the ocean floor 5000 feet below, we might find something new. The seafloor is the new frontier. With so much attention focused on going to Mars, we only need to go deep in our own oceans to find new life in the solar system. There’s a need for new oceanographers to understand the ecology of the ocean ecosystem. It could be you.

Q: Hello, I'm from faith lutheran high (Las Vegas NV). My question is how long will it take to reach your destination, and what are some personal goals you wishto accomplish while your in the midst of your travel?

A: We’ll be at sea for two more weeks to get to Mauritius. My goals, to arrive safely with my wife Anna, and I want to collect at least 10 samples. My greater goal is to tell the world about the state of our oceans. Our planet is 70% ocean. We are a blue planet, and this watery world is what keeps most life on land alive. Plastic does nothing good for the ocean. I would be very happy to see no more new plastic pollution entering the sea.

Q: Hi! I'm Paige Fulfer from Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. How long is this expedition going to last? And also, how expensive is it?

A: How long….2 weeks. How expensive…2 much. I’m not paying the cost. The production company, Beagle VPRO is retracing the route of Charles Darwin. Anna and I were lucky to be invited along.

Q: Hello there crew of the grand ole stad amsterdam. My name is Joe fromLas Vegas Nevada. I want to know where you put the plastic when you get it?

A: The plastic we get will be kept with our scientific samples. We’re not out here to clean up the Indian Ocean Gyre. That would be a waste of time and money. All solutions MUST begin on land. If you spend a few hours to remove a pound plastic out of the sea, in that time the world has contributed hundreds of pound more! You’ve got to stop the source.

Q: Do you think spreading the cause to help the great pacific garbage patch, would make people stop the pollution of plastic in the ocean? -Roland

A: There are 5 garbage patches in the world. This is a global issue. A soon as we recognize that, and have a consensus about solutions, then we’ll see the flow of plastic pollution to the ocean end. But it begins with science, then communication. Check out www.junkraft.com to read about our bike tour that went 2000 miles from Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico to give 40 public lectures about plastic waste.

Q: Hello, my name is Tyler. I am currently a senior in Marine and Desert Bio at Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas. My question is can anything actually live in this "plastic ocean"? If so what animal or plant matter is it?

A: Everything that lived in the oceans before plastic, is still there today, but populations of many marine organisms are declining rapidly, especially cetaceans. Plastic makes life more difficult for the things that live there. We’re finding more plastic ingested by marine life. 44% of seabird species either ingest or are entangled by plastic, 22 cetaceans, all sea turtle species, and a long list of fish.

But remember, when we talk about a plastic ocean, we’re talking about a soup, not an island of trash. Imagine a handful of plastic confetti spread over a football field. That’s pretty much how thick it gets. Or imagine the worlds largest oil spill dispersed over the planet, with a cup of oil over every square mile. If you look at it that way you begin to understand that it’s impossible to clean up.

Q: Faith Lutheran Las Vegas, Nevada, USA 12th Grade What has been the most recent astounding discovery on your vessel?

A: Well, the eastern Indian Ocean is cleaner that any other place I’ve trawled before. We expected that. But we’re still finding some plastic. We expect to find the most at a point 300 kilometers south of Mauritius. We also plan to look inside the stomachs of fish we catch in our trawls. So, stay tuned.

Q: Hi Hows the trip? After all the studies what do you think about Darwin's theory? –Cody

A: Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is as solid as the theory of gravity. Life evolved on this planet. That’s a fact. How it happened is explained by natural selection. This vessel, the Stad Amsterdam, is repeating that voyage. What we’re learning is that the world has changed. Darwin discovered a world exploding in biodiversity. Now we see a world of biodiversity shrinking. We are experiencing an extinction event that rivals what happened to the dinosaurs. Think about it, with 6.5 billion people on the planet consuming land, food and water, and all the transportation, industry, and war that we do, it’s going to take a lot of work to make our planet livable in the future. This is why conservation and human rights are so important. What is your contribution to the cause?

Q: Faith Lutheran High School Las Vegas, NV 12th grade Robert What is the coolest thing you've ever witnessed while at sea?

A: 40ft waves and 60 knot winds is quite impressive. But when I sailed my plastic bottle raft across the Pacific Ocean in 2008 (www.junkraft.com) I witnessed a small fish the size of my shoe with 17 particles of plastic in its stomach. Check out the Junkraft website and look for the video titled “Plastic Sushi”.

Q: Hello there mates. I am Tyler from Faith Lutheran High School located in the world famous city of Las Vegas, Nevada. What do you consider the biggest danger to the ocean? And what is the best way to get this critical information out to the world so it can be taken seriously? Oh and what do you do to entertain yourselves for the long voyage?

A: First, why is Las Vegas world famous? What’s dangerous here? If you fall overboard you will likely never be found. That’s probably not a fun way to die. How do we entertain ourselves? Music, read, sing when no one is listening, or just practice sitting quietly and pay attention to the world around you. The best way to get the information out there and be taken seriously is to do good scientific work. That gets published in a peer-reviewed journal. Peer-review means that other scientist critique your research paper before it gets published in the journal. If you get your work published, then people, organizations and lawmakers take you seriously.

NOTE: From now on ONLY questions with school name and location will be considered- make sure you follow the directions provided!!!

Where we are and Where we’re going

2010-03-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

20 March 25°15.91S,104°53.52E

There are still 2,000 miles and two weeks between us and Mauritius, with the Indian Ocean Gyre between us. We’re working with another scientist from the University of Hawaii, Nikolai Maximenko, who has developed a computer model which predicts where plastic pollution might collect in the world’s oceans.

To create his model he took information from 12,000 drift buoys, which have already been tracked around the world. He added what is known about currents and wind to the equation. On his map of the world, he released hypothetical drift buoys evenly across every point in the sea. Amazingly, the drift buoys migrated to the 5 gyres.

We’re using the Maximenko model to plan our route through the 5 gyres. We’ve already been through the North Pacific Gyre and North Atlantic Gyre. After 500 miles in the Indian Ocean Gyre, we’ve conducted two trawls. We found plastic in each one.

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Lesson Extensions

Teachers- Here are links to more activities and lessons relating to the topics discussed above- Ocean Currents and Plastic Pollution

Here are links to two NOAA Flash presentations introducing ocean currents;

NOAA Ocean Currents Video/Flash Presentation (10min) A good introduction to ocean currents

NOAA Global Impacts of Ocean Currents Video/Flash Presentation (3 min) An explanation of how we depend on ocean urrents for survival and how our actions may impact the currents.

Click here to send a comment or question to the research crew!

Climbing And Welding: Yardarms and Building a High Speed Trawl

2010-03-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

26°27.21S,106°51.17E

The crew of the Stad Amsterdam are stoked about building a new trawl out of the scrap steel lying around. I’m in heaven standing in the stern workshop welding iron bars and rods to make a prototype trawl that can collect a valid surface sample at 8-10 knots. Yesterday we launched the suitcase manta trawl, which performs well at 3 knots. Captain Andy explained that even with the sails down, the ship alone acts like a sail and still moves at 5 knots or better. “It will be difficult to reduce our speed to 3 knots. Can you build a faster net?” the captain ask“Sure,” I replied. It will take a couple of days to figure it out.

It’s 12:30 and time for our climbing lesson. If you want to climb the rigging and sit on top of the main mast, above the 6th sail, then you’ve got to know where to put your feet. There’s a spider web of rigging and lines dangling from the masts. We don harnesses and begin to ascend. Anna goes first. Like a little monkey she scampers up the mast to the first platform. I lumber up the ladder behind her.

The mizzen mast, the third and last mast of the three on deck, is 75 feet tall. We stop at the first platform and scoot across the yard arm. The yard arm is a 40ft pole as thick as a tree trunk that hangs horizontal to the deck. A giant square sail, like a blanket that could cover a house, hangs down from the yard arm. It’s full of wind and balloons out like a giant belly. Anna and I hug the yard arm for a while and marvel at the view. There’s nothing but blue ocean all around.

Click here to send a comment or question to the research crew!

First trawl in the Indian Ocean

2010-03-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

Latitude: 30 04.312 S, Longitude: 112 51.078 E

Our first 24 hours on the Indian Ocean! Neither of us can quite believe we’re here. When the opportunity arose 2 weeks ago to join a Dutch expedition from Perth to Mauritius, leaving... immediately, we both jumped at the opportunity. All right, I admit I had a few concerns, “but we JUST got home from 2 months on the Atlantic! And what about looking for a house to live in, and I’ve missed my family, and....” But having married a perpetual adventurer, it didn’t take long for his “life is short, opportunities like this just don’t come along often” approach to rub off on me.

This is truly a once in a lifetime experience. The expedition, headed up by a Dutch production company, retraces Darwin’s route around the world. Along the way, they are producing 35 documentary films, exploring various aspects of life since Darwin – from coral reef ecology, to sea level rise, to plastic.

And so we find ourselves passengers on the 250-foot clipper, the Stad Amsterdam, one of the most beautiful vessels we have ever seen. She carries 50 people – scientists, filmmakers, producers, authors, and a crew of 25 in charge of sailing the boat – i.e. no night watches for us!(In answer to Melissa and other student questions from Las Vegas, Nevada.)

We had our first chance to trawl today, an unexpected surprise. We had just spent an hour in discussion with the film crew about how to balance the ships need to arrive in Mauritius on time with our interest in trawling. Slowing a boat of this size is a major undertaking, and time is of the essence. Marcus found a workshop and welding machine on board, and may try to design a high-speed trawl. Which would be a huge help.

And then magically, the boat slowed to 3.5 knots on her own, just long enough for us to throw the manta trawl in. Here’s what we pulled up:

A bowl full of juvenile Portuguese Man O War, with one visible piece of plastic. Our first piece of plastic from the Indian Ocean Gyre. And not likely to be our last.

Here is a link to learn more about how we collect samples of marine plastic pollution, the equipment we use, and where we have collected samples in the past.

ANSWERS TO STUDENT QUESTIONS

Welcome and thank you for the questions and comments from Rutledge Hall Elementary (Lincolnwood, IL), Belmont University (Nashville, Tennessee), Kinder students from Escuela Nº41(Montevideo, Uruguay -wonderful that you want to get families involved too!) and Faith Lutheran High School (Las Vegas, Nevada). We’re thrilled to have you all on board, we hope this will be an exciting trip for all of us. We left Perth 2 days ago, and are just starting to get acclimated to the boat, our fellow passengers, our daily routine, and our sense of balance!

The most common questions we received have to do with how/if we can clean up the plastic in the gyre, what solutions we can all try on land to stop this problem, and how plastic pollution impacts marine life, etc. (Thank you Alex, Lauren, Kirsten, Dylan, Ana, Trevor, Jessica, Shardonnay, Mackey, Kyle, Sean, Lauren, Eli, Nicole and others Las Vegas, Nevada from Las Vegas, Nevada for your excellent questions on this topic). Dylan and Kirsten asked if it would be possible to remove all the plastic from the ocean. We believe that is impossible to do out here. It has to start on land. Imagine a trying to clean up a grain of rice out of a bathtub. That’s how spread out the plastic is. There are billions of plastic fragments floating everywhere. They are hard to see, so we drag or nets across the surface to collect them.

So what do we do on land to solve this problem? First we need to find a different material than plastic to make the products that are designed to be thrown away. It makes no sense that we are using a man-made material that's designed to last forever, to make products that are designed to be thrown away. Second, we can improve recovery methods by making recycling easier, or increasing the cash deposit on products. Already, Los Angeles works to capture trash flowing down the LA River using nets, and by putting screens on storm drains, but it’s not enough. It’s going to take plenty of change to end the plastic plague in the world’s oceans, and I’m sure we can do it. What ideas do you have? We would like to hear your own ideas for solutions!

Mackey (Las Vegas, Nevada) asked how many turtles are affected by plastic pollution. The answer is that we don't know. However here are two examples that we shared with the students who joined us on the Atlantic voyage last month. We saw this Hawksbill turtle shell in Bermuda at the Aquarium. See the vial full of plastic trash next to it? This was all plastic found in its stomach! How could you design a study that would estimate how many turtles in the world are affected by plastic pollution? What information can you find about studies like this from different parts of the world?

Also, check out the video at the bottom of this blog post of a snapping turtle that got caught in a plastic ring.

In answer to the question Tim (Faith Lutheran High, Las Vegas, Nevada) asked about how we stay in touch with our families: Our internet time here is limited – as you can all imagine, getting a connection at sea, thousands of miles from land, is difficult. Marcus and I brought a satellite phone so we can communicate with the world – this lets us send low resolution photos and video, as well as answer questions, write on our blogs, and send occasional notes to our families so they know were safe.

Emily and Shannon ( Las Vegas, Nevada) wanted to know what else we do to raise awareness besides research:

We both do tons of education, visiting schools to give presentations, giving talks to the public, and talking to people wherever we go. We think awareness is a very important first step. Right now, we’re planning a big youth conference for next spring in Los Angeles, bringing high school students together from all over the world to talk about the plastic waste problem – we will keep you all posted! After we visit the 5 gyres, we will share our findings with the world through another plastic boat like the "JUNK Raft" (a raft made out of 15,000 plastic bottles that Marcus sailed to Hawaii), only this one will be made from a million straws! We will take our boat STRA to Europe, to raft down the Seine River, across the English channel, and up the Thames to London. Can you plot this route on a map?

And in our day to day lives, Marcus and I are both careful to avoid disposable plastics – we always carry stainless steel bottles and reusable bags, we try to buy food at the farmers market or in bulk, we compost our organic waste, and look for products in glass when possible.

Jillian and others (Las Vegas, Nevada) asked what we are doing about plastics and recycling on the boat: we separate all of our trash on board, to take home and recycle. Kara (Las Vegas, Nevada) asked about the other waste we produce. The organic waste – apple cores, banana peels, bread crumbs – can go overboard, this will quickly break down, or be eaten by animals. Glass, plastic, and aluminum are all stored for recycling.

Lauren , Audrey, Dylan, Hayley, Ana and others (Las Vegas, Nevada): the expedition will take almost 3 weeks. We’ll land in Mauritius April 4^th, and fly home on the 7^th. We’ve heard Mauritius is incredibly beautiful, and there are Albatross on the island, so we’re happy to spend a few days there.

Because Satellite minutes are limited, we have a favor to ask all of you! We LOVE all of your wonderful questions, and will do our best to answer most of them. But since many of you have the same questions, now we ask that you first have a look through the blog to see if your questions have already been answered.

Click here to send a comment or question to the crew!

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Lesson Extensions

Teachers- Here are links to more activities and lessons relating to the topics discussed above-
Ocean Currents and Plastic Pollution
Watersheds
Plastic Ingestion

Welcome Message from the Research Crew

2010-03-16T07:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome aboard Ship to Shore crew!
What a thrill to have you join us again so soon - this opportunity to cross the Indian Ocean came up very suddenly.....Marcus and I had barely unpacked our bags and settled in when the invitation came to join a Dutch expedition from Perth to Mauritius, traveling through another gyre. Many people don't know this, but there is in fact a gyre in the Indian Ocean.

This is a very special voyage, retracing Darwin's route around the world. The purpose is to look at the state of the oceans since his 5 year voyage on the HMS Beagle, and make 35 documentary films along the way, including one on plastic.

There are a number of incredible scientists on board, studying sea level rise, coral reefs, and a number of other topics. We will be featuring their work as well as sharing our observations about plastic - so we should all learn a lot of exciting new topics. There are also 25 crew members in charge of sailing the boat - an incredible, 250 foot long Clipper called the Stad Amsterdam. Here she is arriving in Perth just a few days ago, to stock up on supplies before heading back out.

We'd love for you all to do a quick search on Darwin and the HMS Beagle in the next week - you'll have more fun following our voyage that way.

We leave in 2 hours, so the next time you hear from us, we'll be sailing!

Ships ahoy and thanks for coming along,
Anna and Marcus

Welcome Aboard Participating Schools!

2010-03-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

View Ship-2-Shore Indian Ocean 2010 in a larger map

Welcome Aboard! First use the comments section to introduce your school and tell us something about your class. Then, take a moment to view the locations of the schools of other students participating in this voyage. You can click on the yellow school icons to learn the name and location of each school (zoom in to locate more schools). Choose a school or schools to address a question about plastic pollution to. Use this as an opportunity to learn a bit about plastic pollution in different regions of the world! Remember to include the name of your school so they know who to respond to! Follow the directions provided under the steps to submitting a comment. Click here to submit your question.

If your school is not on this map and you are following this voyage let me know!vesselsupport@algalita.org (Note: You may need to zoom in to see your school, especially in areas where there are several schools in the same city)

Voyage across the Indian Ocean (Join us March 16-April 4!)

2010-03-14T12:27:00.001-07:00

This week our research team will be embarking on a voyage from Perth, Australia to Port Louis, Mauritius to investigate plastic waste in the Indian Ocean. They will be joining the "Beagle Project", tracing the path of Charles Darwin aboard the 250ft Clipper Stad Amsterdam to see how the state of the ocean has changed since Darwin's famous voyage 178 years ago. To sign up to join us for this voyage online send an email to vesselsupport@algalita.org

Ship-2-Shore Participant Projects!

2010-02-16T12:17:00.000-08:00

It has come to our attention that many of the participants in the Ship-2-Shore Education Program are involved in really amazing projects addressing the issue of plastic pollution in our oceans. We are asking participants to share their projects here to provide inspiration for all of us! If you have a project you would like to share send an email to vesselsupport@algalita.org and let me know about it! Thank you, Holly Gray

Participant Projects

"A Day in the Life of a Plastic Bottle"
Jack and Walden (from East Hills 4H, San Leandro CA) shared this movie that they made about how plastic ends up in the ocean and the effects it has on marine life. Excellent work Jack and Walden!!!!!

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Teresa is an artist and college professor at Belmont University, Nashville Tennesee and has an amazing project to reduce the amount of plastic waste entering our oceans called "Green Bag Lady." Teresa makes reusable cloth bags and gives them away to encourage people to avoid using disposable bags! Not only are her bags reusable, they are made out of fabric that is unwanted, donated or upcycled (used to be curtains, sheets or a fabric sample), and they save all the scraps from the cutting and sewing and stuff them into pet beds and then she donate the beds to local animal hospitals and shelters for ill or abandoned animals! Amazing!!! Also she doesn't just make these bags herself, she teaches others how to! Below is her video to show you how to make bags, here is a link to the pattern to use, and a link to her blog (http://greenbaglady.blogspot.com/) where people from around the world share their experiences making and using reusable bags! Maybe you would like to make one too?

Safe in port!!!!

2010-02-13T08:20:00.000-08:00

Our vessel, the Sea Dragon, is now sitting in port in the Azores. There’s another hurricane passing over us as I write, but we are safe in a marina. We’re in the town of Horta, and today is the first day of the holiday “Carnival”. But in a couple of hours we’re going to the other side of the island where we expect the waves to be enormous. We’re going to the beach to see what the hurricane has washed ashore. We’ve received plenty of great questions from students around the world. I’ll try to answer as many as possible this morning, but soon I must leave the boat.

Answers to Participant Questions

Alcaparros School in Bogota, Colombia- Miguel asked about how polluted the Caribbean coast is. Well one year ago Anna and I visited Cartagena, Colombia and saw plenty of throw-away plastic products, like bottles, bags, coffee cup lids, forks and spoons, and straws washing ashore everywhere. But you are not alone. Every society on Earth has imported plastic. Although the products made from plastic are convenient and very useful, the problem it that they are made from a material that’s is designed to last forever. Plastic is the wrong material to use to make single-use throw-away products. This is why beaches and oceans around the world are trashed. I’ve included a couple of photos Anna took in Colombia.

Students from Alcaparros School in Bogota, Colombia (including Valeria, Jorge, Gabriel, Sara, Sophia, Serenito, Anky, Juan, Julio, Manuela and others in the 4th grade class) also asked about the boat, the plastic, and dolphins. Sophia, yes, we do cook on the boat, but I don’t. If you like to have boiled eggs and toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner, then let me cook for you. What we do is work in teams. Each team of 4 people takes turns to cook a good dinner for the 13-person crew. The system works very well. If you’re not on watch, or cooking, you can go look for plastic or dolphins. Sara, we’ve seen dolphins at least every 2 or three days. They usually appear off the bow playing in the wake of the boat. Dolphins have been observed by other people playing with plastic bags in the water. I know that other marine mammals, like whales, have been observed being entangled by nets, or have stomachs full of plastic bags (these would be the biggest animals to have plastic inside of them in answer to the question by the students at BOCES). This is real problem. Just yesterday Anna and I gave a talk at the University of the Azores and met a scientist that found a fin whale with a fishing net wrapped around it’s mouth. The rope was tearing into its jaw.

Which plastic materials do we find and what ocean is more polluted? We find plenty of hard plastic products made from polyethylene and polypropylene, and many fragments of them, because they float. We don’t find as many plastic film or foamed polystyrene pieces. Hard plastic fragments last longer under UV light than foamed polystyrene, or plastic film, like bags and tarps. Most of the hard plastic is broken down into fragments, like confetti. We can’t tell what it is, but when we find big pieces it often surprises us. We’ve seen so many bottle caps, but also plenty of crates and buckets, bottles, light sticks, shotgun shells, toys, fishing buoys, pen caps, pipe, dental floss dispenser, mouthpiece for a boxer, anything you can imagine that’s made from plastic is here. We also find thousands of nurdles, these are the pre-production pellets that plastic manufacturers make. Nurdles are sent around the world, then they are melted and turned into all the plastic things we use.

Max from Brooksbank Elementary in Canada asked which colors of plastic appear most often in the ocean? Fragments are often white, blue, green, grey and black. The tan, red orange and yellow pieces are gone. This could be for a few reasons. We find that some animals select red colors to eat because they look like zooplankton. The dominance of white fragments could also be because we make mostly white plastic products.

Gabriel (Alcaparros School) and Mitchell (from Brooksbank) as well as Daniel, Sean, Landan, Jackie, Makayla, Marie and others (from River Ridge High School, Florida), as far as which ocean is more polluted, we’ve only visited two – North Atlantic Gyre and North Pacific Gyre. They are so similar. The only difference I’ve noticed is that the North Pacific seems to have more fishing nets floating about. Otherwise, the types of plastic, and the condition of the plastic looks the same to me.

Of all the plastic we find, which is the most harmful to marine life? Teresa, of Belmont University in Tennessee, Chris from South Gate, CA, Stephen from Christensen Middle School and the students of BOCES, Binghamton, NY asked great questions here. All plastics impact marine life. Last week we found a fish stuck in a dark colored plastic bottle. The living fish was facing the bottom of the bottle. It couldn’t turn around, and it couldn’t back out because it grew to be bigger than the mouth of the bottle! If you look at all the research done on animal interactions with plastic, it amounts to 44% of seabird species are either entangled or are ingesting plastic, 22 marine mammal species, all sea turtle species (including several endangered species), and a very long and fast growing list of fish. Jasmin (West Anchorage High School), we’ve also found that plastic is a sponge for many different pollutants that are flowing into the ocean. Pesticides stick to plastic, oil sticks to plastic, PCBs and flame retardants stick to plastic. When marine life ingests plastic, it is also ingesting plenty of other toxins that stick to it.

Students from Brooksbank Elementary School in North Vancouver, BC, Canada (including Oscar, Megan, Michael, Mitchell, Max and Kurt and others in Mr. Clarke's 5th grade class) asked several good questions. Students from Christensen Middle School, CA and Oscar from Brooksbank wanted to know- what inspires us? I can speak for myself in saying that you inspire me. I’ve had a few past experiences that we’re powerful moments, like visiting Midway Atoll and watching young Laysan Albatross chicks die with stomachs full of plastic cigarette lighters. I once canoed 5 months down the Mississippi River and saw tons of plastic junk floating out to sea. But I’m mostly inspired by the nature of people to change their ideas and behavior when they know the right thing to do. When you know that the poorly designed throw-away plastic products we consume are trashing the world, then people want to stop. They want to tell others and make them stop. That inspires me.
It’s inspires all of us on board the Sea Dragon to want to travel to all 5 sub-tropical gyres in the ocean. Megan, there are many more smaller gyres in the world that we want to visit as well, like the one near the coast of Alaska, or the one above the Arctic Circle in the North Atlantic (Michael), or the one in the Mediterranean Sea. It will take plenty of inspired people to study the plastic pollution issue and bring the information to the public so we can end this Age of Throw Away Plastic.

How do we deal with hurricanes? First, we try to avoid them, that’s why we arrived in the Azores a day early. Right now I’m listening to 50 knot winds whistle through the rigging on the boat. Last week we were not so lucky. The Sea Dragon averages 7-8 knots of speed, so we cannot outrun a hurricane (in answer to your question Jorge). We get weather faxes, so we have an advance warning. We were riding the edge of the last one. I can tell you that I’ve never seen seas as big as last week. Imagine waves as big as a three-story building towering over you. We were lucky that those waves we’re not breaking. They rolled under us, pushing our 45-ton boat high into the air, then down into the bottom of the swell.

Of our 13-person crew, we always have at least 4 people on watch at a time. The people on watch are usually outside watching the boat. During the hurricane you MUST tie yourself to the boat. Occasionally a giant wave does crash over you, soaking you and turning the cockpit into a bathtub. There is nothing to do but sit there and deal with it. Every crewmember realized that we had to work together. We really took care of each other. It was wonderful to work as a team. (Does this answer your question Kurt?)

What kinds of plastic do we find in fish? The Algalita Marine Research Foundation has been studying this issue for 15 years, but just two years ago we began to find plastic in fish. We documented 6 species of fish in the North Pacific Gyre that ingest plastic. Then the JUNK RAFT expedition found a Rainbow Runner with plastic in its stomach. Then the ORV Alguita went out into the North Pacific Gyre again and found an Mahi Mahi with a piece of a plastic bag in it’s stomach (Michael from Christensen Middle School, this is the largest species of fish that we have found plastic inside of). This list of fish eating plastic keeps getting longer.

What about plastic on the bottom of the ocean?

Many students from Christensen Middle School and South Gate Middle School asked good questions. Jessica, we haven’t looked on the bottom of the ocean for plastic yet, but those scientist that have are finding plastic also. Half of the plastic we make in the world sinks, like PET soda bottles, PVC, vinyl, all polycarbonate, like CD’s and DVD’s. You can find those kinds of plastics in our local watersheds, like rivers, lakes, estuaries and in the nearshore environment. But if a PET soda bottle has a cap on it, it can then float around the world, until the cap degrades and sinks.

The plastic that floats in the middle of the 5 gyres is usually polyethylene or polypropylene. We’ve observed that the smallest microplastic particles, those less than half a millimeter, are not appearing in our nets. Where do they go? I guess that those small particles are sinking because small organisms, like bryozoans, are growing on them and making them heavy. A small particle has a larger surface area compared to its volume. So it might not take much growth of organisms to make it heavy. This is one hypothesis we would like to test during the next expedition.

It could also be that marine organisms are eating the small plastics. We have found microplastic particles in zooplankton. Gupreet and Jovavna (Christensen Middle School, CA), we have found several types of fish on our North Atlantic Gyre expedition, including trigger fish and lantern fish. We collected many of them in our trawls and will look in their stomachs for plastic once we get to our lab. Tyler (from River Ridge High School Florida), the Algalita Marine Research Foundation has a lab in Redondo Beach, California that does plenty of work sorting microplastic particles from samples of the ocean and from inside fish. In our North Pacific Gyre expedition two years ago we collected over 600 lantern fish and discovered mircoplastic fragments in 35% of them!

Well, that’s it for questions! Thanks everyone and keep them flowing. We’re off to go see what the hurricane washed up in the Azores.

"Land ahoy"

2010-02-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

The sight of land after weeks at sea is always exciting– but arriving in the Azores is especially so. And beating the next incoming storm was an added bonus.

At around 6:00 am, we heard the loud clanging of the “land ahoy” bell. Skipper Clive hand steered us into the harbor masterfully, reading and riding the winds so that our crew didn’t have to tack once. And there in front of us, framed by an incredibly bright, full rainbow, the Azores – we were all silenced. A soft, green landscape disappeared up into a cloudbank, patchworked with natural hedges dividing plots of land.

Anticipating landfall elicits a range of emotions on a journey like this. We’re all eager to walk freely, sleep in a stable bed, have a green salad, real coffee, and exercise. Thirteen grown adults sharing a small space certainly has its moments. At the same time, there is absolutely nothing that compares to the freedom and sense of space that crossing an ocean brings. Far from our work routines, cell phones, and internet, we spend hours on deck, staring out to sea, watching the stars, and musing on life’s mysteries. We will miss these peaceful marine meditations.

We collected 35 surface samples total, despite hurricanes that mandated a 600-mile gap in our research. All of them contained plastic. We collected some fish – not as many as we’d hoped to based on our Pacific Trawls, but the Atlantic is new territory for us. We found one incredible fish – a trigger living in a plastic bottle - a synthetic cage. We collected tons of debris on all three islands. And we made some tremendous connections, in Bermuda and now the Azores, to collaborate with in the future.

Now, to explore the Azores!

Only 150 miles to go!!

2010-02-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

Feb. 10 6pm position 37.20N,31.04W

The Azores are near. We've only 150 miles to go, which we should cover by tomorrow morning. Before the sun rose we threw our trawl in for one last sample. Once again, plastic, but also plenty of myctophid fish. We'll send this sample to the Algalita lab in California for stomach analysis. When we did this in the North Pacific Gyre we found 1/3rd of the fish had ingested plastic fragments.

This trawl did not contain any sargassum. There seemed to be more large fragments of plastic in this trawl, leading me to think that that sargassum mats floating in the North Atlantic Gyre serve a sieves for large fragments of plastic pollution. In the absence of this floating seaweed the plastic fragments are more distributed across the sea.

We've trawled 35 times in 3,000 miles. Tomorrow we will land on our third island in the North Atlantic Gyre. We'll travel around the Azores to see what washes up on their shores and discover how they deal with plastic pollution. Stay tuned...

Answers to Participant Questions

Santa Monica High, CA asked how we get the internet. We’ve got a program on our computers called OCENS Mail, which allows you to check email by plugging a phone into your computer. But you need a phone. We use a satellite phone, which communicates to several satellites circling the earth. We could surf the net if we wanted to, but we usually only send emails and photos to our blog. At 3 bucks a minute for satellite time, there’s no time to waste!

Rolani, at George Washington High School in Guam, asked if we often find fish stuck in objects, like the trigger fish we found in a bottle last week. We’ve seen only a few examples of marine life interacting with plastic on this trip. We’ve seen plastic bottles chewed by fish, plastic particles stuck inside comb jellyfish, and another triggerfish hiding inside a floating piece of plastic pipe.

There is a larger issue of ingestion and entanglement that has been documented world wide. So far, 44% of seabird species have been found with plastic inside or entangled around their bodies. Also, 22 species of marine mammals, all sea turtle species, and a very long list of fish. Last night Joel, one of the crew members on the Sea Dragon, described working for NOAA to remove fishing nets from the Hawaiian Islands and finding whale bones and turtle skulls trapped in nets. Each of these examples of ingestion and entanglement are messages to us to be responsible for the end use of the materials we create. Perhaps you can share with us what is happening in Guam to deal with plastic pollution.

Giselle and Valerie from South Gate Middle School, CA asked how many pounds of plastic have we collected. We’re only skimming the surface of the ocean every hundred miles to collect whatever floats in those areas, so we’ve only got 10-15 pounds. We could have collected tons of plastic pollution on the beaches of Bermuda.

Our goal out here isn’t to clean up the Atlantic Ocean. We believe it’s impossible to clean it up once it enters the sea. Our goal is to document what’s out here by sampling in many places. We would like to see only marine life out here, but all of our samples contain plastic.

So, how do we clean it up? It has to begin on land. Much of the plastic pollution out here begins on land. We must find better ways to recover plastic waste, either with a higher return deposit for all kinds of waste. We can also pass laws to end the use of the plastic products that are poorly designed, like plastic bags, Styrofoam cups and products designed to be thrown away.

Silvia and Brandy from South Gate Middle School, CA asked about cleaning up the ocean. We believe that is impossible to do out here. It has to start on land. Imagine a trying to clean up a grain of rice out of a bathtub. That’s how spread out the plastic is. It’s little pieces of plastic everywhere. Now think how big of a bathtub the Atlantic Ocean is! There are billions of plastic fragments floating everywhere. They are hard to see, so we drag or nets across the surface to collect them.

Sometimes we find the big stuff floating with mats of seaweed. That’s been really shocking. We’ve found plastic buckets, crates, boots, shoes, bottle caps, plastic forks, bags, bottles, even half a toy babydoll. It’s impossible to clean up all this stuff. It has to happen on land.

I know you live near the Los Angeles River. Imagine a bottle cap floating down that river. If no one picks it up it will flow out to sea and stay there. Imagine a plastic bag blowing down the street. If now one picks it up it may fly into the ocean. Imagine a plastic fork in your school cafeteria that is dropped on the ground. If it rains, where does it go?

So what do we do on land to solve this problem? First we need to find a different material than plastic to make the products that are designed to be thrown away. We can pass laws to ban plastic bags and other single-use disposable items. We can also improve recovery methods by making recycling easier, or increasing the cash deposit on products. Already, Los Angeles does plenty of work to capture some trash flowing down the LA River using nets, or putting screens on storm drains, but it’s not enough. It’s going to take plenty of change to end the plastic plague in the world’s oceans, and I’m sure we can do it. What ideas do you have?

Juan from South Gate Middle School, CA asked what’s a knot? It’s a nautical term to measure speed, like the way we use miles per hour on land. One knot equals 1.15 miles per hour. And how did we end up in a hurricane? Well, we chose to do our research in the North Atlantic Ocean in winter. There are almost always hurricane-force storms here at this time of year. I don’t think I would like to be in one again. In fact, there’s another one headed our way in three days. Fortunately, we’ll arrive in the Azores by then.

Q: Hizers from Terra (forth grade) in San Francisco! I was wondering what percentage of things were found in the gyre, such as toys, food wrappers, packaging, or just things that don't work all together so we can avoid putting them in the ocean ourselves.

A: It looks like half of the large plastic objects we find come from the fishing industry, like fragments of fishing line, net, and floats. But there’s plenty of plastic pollution coming from land. We’ve found things like plastic toys, a boxers mouth piece, and plenty of broken buckets and crates. Most of what we find are tiny bits of plastic confetti that cannot be identified. Those pieces could have been plastic bottle caps, or knives and forks, pieces of buckets, toys, wrappers and packaging.

Keeping all plastic waste out of our watersheds is the best solution. It begins on land. It begins where you are. What kinds of solutions can you imagine to keep plastic out of the sea?

Less than 300 miles to go!

2010-02-10T13:09:00.000-08:00

1:45 am, our daily alarm clock sounds: “Marcus, Anna, your watch is up in 20 minutes...” Despite Marjolin’s sweet, gentle voice, we groan in protest. For several days, finding a safe position to fall asleep in without being thrown out of our bunks has been a losing battle. We’re all sleep deprived. Aside from our skipper Clive, these are the heaviest seas any of us have seen.

We haven’t had a chance to observe the subtle changes in the oceans surface for the last few days, distracted by massive waves. We now notice: no more floating patches of Sargassum. We wonder if we’re still in the “Atlantic garbage patch”. A quick glance at our trawl answers our question: the same collection of small plastic fragments, 3 nurdles, and a few surprises:

“Look at that! 3 Portuguese Man of War!” Marcus picks one up by its inflated air bladder, careful to avoid the deceptively alluring, still stinging tentacles. A small piece of plastic is nestled amongst the bright blue tentacles. These potent creatures are actually comprised of a colony of different polyps, each with distinct functions, that work together. A very cool, cooperative survival tactic. Just keep your distance!

We’ll trawl one more time tonight, during our 10:00 watch – our 35th and final trawl. We’re now less than 300 miles from the Azores, and beginning to reflect on the last 6 weeks. The same questions echo from friends and crew: have we found what we expected? Is this similar to what we've seen in the North Pacific? What comes next? We'll touch on some of these tomorrow, now back to research!

Meanwhile in the Pacific Ocean...

2010-02-09T21:01:00.001-08:00

Hello from aboard ORV Alguita in the Pacific Ocean! ORV stands for Oceanographic Research Vessel, and Alguita is the research vessel that has carried our research team to the most remote regions of the Pacific Ocean to study plastic pollution. Many of you have joined us on these voyages so I thought you would be interested to see what Alguita and crew are up to now.

There are over 4,000 miles of Ocean and North American Continent between us and the crew aboard Sea Dragon- but we are working together to answer many of the same questions about plastic pollution. Today our job aboard ORV Alguita is to investigate the connection between plastic pollution entering the ocean through our watershed and the marine food web in Southern California. We also had the opportunity to head a little way offshore to observe some of the debris flushed out to sea by the recent storms. (The pic to the left shows some of what we found.)

Marcus and Anna have explained that most of the plastic pollution that they are finding in remote areas of the ocean found its way into the ocean through watersheds. Plastic litter on land flows directly out to sea when it rains. Today we traveled to the mouths of three major rivers here in Southern California: The Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Ana Rivers to see if the large quantities of plastics entering the oceans at the river mouths are also entering the food chain through the mouths of fish. (The pic to the left is of the mouth of the Santa Ana River.)

To find out if the fish at the river mouths have been eating the plastic debris as it flushes out to sea, the crew used an otter trawl to collect fish from the ocean floor. Here the crew is pulling in the net to see what they have caught. For those of you who have joined on past voyages you may recognize Captain Moore, Christiana (our ichthyologist) and Jeff- Facundo also joined in and helped everything run smoothly. Below on the left Christiana shows us two queenfish that she collected in the trawl. Unfortunately a few of the trawls contained almost as much plastic pollution as they did fish. On the right is an anchovy she caught in the trawl along with the plastic top of a soda cup, a piece of plastic packaging, and a black trash bag. The fish will be taken back to the laboratory where Gwen and Christiana will examine the contents of their stomachs.

Today we also had the opportunity to head a bit farther offshore to see how much plastic pollution the recent storms washed out to sea. It was very disappointing to find windrows thick with plastic pollution outside the harbor in the open ocean. We stopped briefly to scoop up what we could. It is interesting to see how similar plastic items congregate in the same location. We found one section of a windrow that was dominated by plastic straws of every color, shape and size- a "strawrow". Some are striped with a bend, others have spoons on one end for digging through a slurpee. As the straws bob amid loose bits of seaweed they look like the branching canopy of some mysterious underwater plastic forest.

A cormorant surfaces through the "strawrow" adorned with a clear straw- the reality of how we have littered this marine organism's home suddenly strikes deep. The straws are difficult to catch because they slip through the mesh of our nets- but after a few moments we already have a collection of 32 straws. Nearby we find a section of the windrow where plastic bottle caps have gathered.

Unfortunately today we were also reminded of how directly plastic pollution can harm wildlife. Several California sea lions were sunbathing on a buoy. As we passed by them Captain Moore noticed that one had plastic fishing line wrapped around her neck- a potentially deadly necklace. It was frustrating that we could do nothing for her- she is still strong and if we had approached her she would have slipped into the water and swam away. All I could do was take pictures and ask all of you to be very careful with your fishing line if you go fishing.

The variety of plastic pollution we encountered today was bewildering, but the strangest item was a balloon. Balloons unfortunately are an extremely common sight on the water, many people throw parties and release their balloons into the air (though I know none of you would do this). We saw balloons of all shapes and colors today but this one was different. We could see this bright pink balloon from quite a distance, when we got closer Captain Moore skillfully captured it with the boat hook. Pink, shiny and adorned with a picture of Hanna Montana the balloon read "Lets Rock." And sure enough hitting the balloon with the boat hook caused it to launch into song from a small speaker embedded inside.

For me, the day provided a continually changing perspective on our local marine ecosystems. Dolphins joined us to play in front of our bow, pelicans and terns dove from the air catching fish around the research vessel, harbor seals and sea lions basked in the sun barely opening their eyes as we passed- the diversity of marine life in this area is amazing! Similarly to Marcus and Anna's experience in the Atlantic, as we passed through windrows of plastic litter suddenly the serene ocean scene would give way to an uncomfortable reminder of our impacts on the ocean and how much work we have ahead of us.

Thank you all for joining us -Holly-

Notes to Participants;

Sara (from Alcaparros School, Bogota, Columbia), I included the picture of the dolphins for you. When I first saw them join the boat I thought of your question asking if we had seen any dolphins having problems with plastic pollution. Thankfully these dolphins appeared healthy as they played on our bow- we will know more about the amount of plastic in the fish they eat when we examine the fish samples in the lab.

Teresa (Belmont University, Nashville TN), I thought of your fabulous efforts to encourage folks to use reusable bags each time we pulled up the otter trawl and found the netting tangled with plastic bags.

I thought of the question Christensen Middle School asked regarding the origin of marine plastic pollution as we sampled at each river mouth. It is frightening just how much plastic washes out of a city that puts so much effort into waste collection, disposal and recycling- clearly more effort is needed!

Chris from South Gate Middle School, CA (and the many others that have written concerns about entanglement of marine animals in plastic). I was thinking about your question today as I photographed the sea lion wrapped in monofilament line- unfortunately this is a pretty common sight and deadly for marine mammals and birds alike.

Stormy Weather!

2010-02-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

Photo by: MaartenVandenEynde.com

Dear Ship2Shore students,
Wonderful to have you all on board! We’re thrilled to hear from you all - River Ridge High in Florida, Santa Monica High in California, George Washington High in Guam, Alcaparros School in
Bogota, Colombia – what an amazing range! For the last few days, the seas have been wild – wind 40 knots per hour, huge waves washing over us on deck, and our boat heaving from side to side like a dizzy, 3 legged elephant. This photo above of Joel trying to throw some orange peels overboard, while strapped into the boat with his lifeline gives an idea of what its like - a bit rough, but your messages put a smile on our faces. And the winds are just now starting to die down!

Many of you had similar questions, we thought we’d try to answer some of them together. It might take a few days to get to them all, so bear with us. We ask just one thing in return: many of you asked what you can do to stop this problem. We want to throw this right back to you - you are the next generation, bright, and full of great ideas. Discuss this as a class, and better yet – start getting active in your communities – we have no time to lose! And next year we’re going to hold a big international gathering called “Plastics Are Forever” for students around the world to share, learn, and have fun with each other, so start thinking now, we’d love to have you join us. Stay tuned for more info.

Answers to Student Questions

Q: SHOULD WE STILL EAT FISH? Leilah, Sandi, John, Christina, Erin, Anna Lisa, and several others had questions about whether or not eating fish is healthy – this one comes up a lot!

A: You may have heard our discussion on Good Morning America – we talked about the fish we’ve seen in the North Pacific Gyre with Captain Moore: we collected 671 lantern fish and found that at least 35% of them had plastic particles in their stomach. Marcus also caught a fish called a Rainbow Runner, with 17 pieces of plastic in its stomach (see pic below).

Now, does this mean you should stop eating fish? Not necessarily in fact we all ate fresh tuna just the other day, fished straight from the Atlantic. Fish are a wonderful protein source, full of many nutrients that are important for our development. But we need to do a much better job keeping plastic out of the oceans. We’re facing a few major problems globally with fish - overfishing, pollution, and climate change to name a few. See what you can find out on line about these issues.
We’re only just beginning to look at the impacts plastic may have on our health through fish eating plastic. This is really a newly documented problem, and will require much, much more study. We do know that plastic particles can absorb certain chemicals like PCBs, flame retardants, and pesticides that wash into our oceans. And we know that some fish are eating plastic particles. But we have no idea yet how common this is, or what happens to these particles after ingestion.

Are there chemicals on the plastic pieces that fish eat, and if so, are these chemicals getting into their tissue? Are there trace levels of these chemicals in some fish tissues, and if so, how will this affect us? Only further research will help us answer these questions – we don’t yet know for sure. Still, you’re probably better off eating fresh, wild caught fish than many of the processed foods we buy in markets. If you’re concerned about eating healthy, clean foods, your best bet is to try and buy organic, whole foods – or even grow your own! Make sure you eat lots of fruits, veggies, and whole grains, and avoid anything with ingredients you can’t pronounce. This is also a great way to reduce plastic packaging, since processed foods always come wrapped in throwaway plastic.

Q: MARINE ANIMALS AND PLASTIC ENTANGLEMENT Evan from Florida, Tayllor from Santa Monica HS, California and others were concerned about how plastic impacts animals, and what we can do about this.

A: All over the world, animals are affected by our wasteful ways on land. 44% of all seabird species, 22% of cetaceans (whales, dolphins), ALL sea turtles, and hundreds of fish have been found with plastic in or around their bodies. They may mistake it for food, get tangled in it, or sometimes even be living in it, like the trigger fish we found the other day. Unfortunately, we can’t find all of these animals to help them – the oceans are so vast, and these creatures generally try to avoid us.

The BEST thing we can do to help them is to get active in our schools and communities to stop the flow of plastic trash into our oceans. What plastic packaging do you see on campus? Is there a lot of wasteful plastic in your cafeteria? How about at home – can you encourage your family to reduce the waste you generate? Or can you find out when your local city council meets and go talk to them? We have to stop this problem at the source.

Q: LIFE AT SEA: Many of you (including a student from Santa Mornica High, CA and Mike from Florida) wanted to know what life is like on board.

A: Perhaps some of you might want to embark on an adventure like this some day? We actually have a young man on board, 19 years old, who decided to sail around the world for a year instead of going straight to college. Here’s a photo of Stephen, hoisted up in the boatswains chair to shoot some video from higher up. He’s going to share a bit with you about his experiences.

STEPHEN: Hi everyone. Last June I graduated from high school in California. Instead of going straight to college or work, like most of my friends, I decided I would take a few months to adventure and experience the world. I had no experience sailing before, but now it’s been nearly six months since I started on this journey in England, and I am loving every minute of it! Life on a boat is very different from what I was used to back home. Being at sea requires a lot of hard work, and the ability to adapt to many situations. The sleep schedule is strange. Sometimes you have to wake up at odd hours, sometimes you go to sleep in the afternoon. Everybody has to do a watch, which means spending a few hours on deck to run the ship. Before I came aboard, I was worried that I would have to eat only canned food for months. Luckily we have a full galley, meaning we get to eat well. Living on a boat is quite an experience. We get to experience many different cultures and places, and travel in a way most people aren’t able to experience. In a month I’ve gone from SCUBA diving in tropical waters to sailing in a gale over 30foot waves. Everything is always changing, which means life is always interesting. If you ever get the chance to go sailing, or even traveling, I strongly suggest you take it!

Q: WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO? Teresa, Stephanie, Josiliyah, Anastasia, Shannon, Sandii and many others wanted to know what we can do to solve this problem.

A: Unfortunately, we can’t clean up the gyres, the oceans are bigger than you can imagine – vast, endless expanses of water. The plastic we see here is so spread out, it would be impossible to remove it all. And until we stop the problem on land, plastic will just keep flowing out to sea..

Solutions have to start on land. Marcus and I have many ideas about things we can do to help solve this problem, from simple, everyday actions people can take, to larger approaches from our governments and businesses. Rather than tell you all of our ideas right now, I’m going to suggest that you guys first do some brainstorming on your own. Use the internet, talk as a class, and see what you can come up with – we’d love to hear YOUR ideas! Then maybe you can share your ideas with us at our “Plastics Are Forever” youth summit next year! Check out Team Marine in Santa Monica and the Green Ambassadors in Lawndale for some interesting ideas – see what young people like you are doing already.

Thanks again guys, we’ll try to answer more of your questions tomorrow!

February 5 “HURRICANE!”

2010-02-05T14:37:00.000-08:00

“50 knots!” Anna yelled above the roar of wind and sea spray. It’s 3:00 AM and we’re on watch. Though the center is 800 miles from us, and slowly moving away, we are still feeling high winds along its edge. A couple hundred miles south of us it’s calm, but we need to head northeast. We’ve got a week to go before we reach the Azores. We’re hoping the weather lightens up soon.

Two days ago we completed Trawl 33 at 28N,50W. It was densely packed with sargassum and microplastic particles. Our two primary research goals have been accomplished. First, to document what’s floating on the sea surface in the middle of the North Atlantic Gyre. Second, to collect enough samples to validate computer models that predict the eye of the gyre, where plastic pollution accumulates.

The next watch has taken over the helm. We climb down from the deck soaked from seawater, while the next team ascends into chaos. Sustained 40 knot winds create mountainous seas. I don’t think we’ll put the trawl back in the sea anytime soon.

-Marcus-

Replies to student comments and questions

Q: Do you think that plastic in the water can be an influence to the development of red tide algal blooms? From Nick, Senior at River Ridge High School, New Port Richey, Fl.

A: Nick, red tide algal blooms are more likely affected by runoff - nutrients from agricultural fields and urban areas – than plastic. But there are many other environmental problems associated with plastic in the ocean.

Q: How do you find the gyres? Do you hope to see your data change dramatically from your first goyage? Peace, Rachel, 11th grade from River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, Florida

A: Rachel, the gyres have been studied since the beginning of ocean travel – sailors hundreds and hundreds of years ago began figuring out where the currents were traveling to help them navigate. Our techniques have become more sophisticated over time – using satellite technology and tracking devices, we can predict where currents converge, and by extension, where debris might accumulate. This is our first voyage to the North Atlantic, so we’re not sure yet how our data will change. We hope our research will help encourage more solutions.

We came here not knowing exactly what to expect, but we didn’t think we’d find as much plastic as the North Pacific. The North Pacific Gyre is bounded by North America and Asia, regions that are likely contributing huge amounts of plastic debris to the Pacific. So far, what we’ve seen fits this notion – but what’s disturbing to note is that every single sample we’ve collected so far contains plastic. There’s no doubt it’s a problem here. As for fish: we’ve seen many flying fish (some even land in our boat!), many small, deep sea fish in our trawls, a few sunfish, tuna, and Mahi Mahi. When we find a windrow of debris, we often find trigger fish – we even found one the other day living in a plastic bottle! We haven’t seen nearly as many fish as we thought we would though – partly due to overfishing.

Q: Hey, I was just curious as to how the bad weather makes you unable to use your trawl. Is the force of the current too powerful and may break the trawl? I would think that you would probably obtain more plastic samples in a faster current. - Andrew from River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, FL

A: Hi Andrew, As I write this, we’re being slammed by 30-40 mile per hour winds, and our boat is lurching like a bucking bronco! When the winds pick up this much, it creates choppy waves and turbulence that pushes plastic debris below the surface, making trawling difficult. Many kinds of plastics float, but they are very close to the buoyancy of water, and can sink in these heavy seas, beyond the reach of our sampling equipment.

Q: Hello, my name is Micah and I am curious about chemical releases from plastic. Can plastic cause chemical imbalances or other issues in the water? Also what kinds of chemicals or other pollutants can plastics give off? Thank you for you time. River Ridge High School, New Port Richey, Florida. (Grade 12).

A: Hi Micah. As far as I know, no one has looked at chemical imbalances in the ocean due to plastic – but we do know based on other studies that chemicals from plastic – BPA and phathlates for example- can leach into water, so this is a good question. What we do know is that certain chemicals like PCBs, pesticides, and flame retardants that are already in the ocean can stick to plastic particles. These chemicals are “hydrophobic”, meaning they wont mix with water, but they will stick to oily substances like plastic. This can pose problems for the marine foodchain, as many creatures are now eating plastic.

Q: What is the average life span of the animals affected by the plastic products washed out at sea? Will pollution eventually lead to extinction? Beatrix from River Ridge High School in New Pt.Richey Fl.

A: Beatrix, marine animals are affected by plastic in many ways, so their life span depends entirely on how they interact with plastics. For example, they can become entangled in it, like turtles or seabirds getting trapped in plastic nets, or they can ingest it, mistaking plastic trash for food or trying to eat barnacles or fish eggs stuck to the surface. Plastic pollution, along with many other environmental issues like ocean acidification, climate change, biodiversity loss etc. can together create huge problems for humanity in the long term if we don’t start acting now. Your generation will need to step up and get involved, so the more you can learn now, the better!

Q: Hey this is Landan from Mrs. Smith's Marine Bio Class, will this low pressure system delay your time in anyway?

A: Hi Landan, this low pressure system blowing through won’t delay our time – if anything these high winds and heavy seas are pushing us forward. The biggest issue for us now is its interfering with our ability to collect samples!

Q: Hi, my name is Aaron and I am from River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, Florida. I would first like to applaud your work in the environment and wish you good luck and weather in your travels. Secondly, what is the most abundant piece of plastic that you are finding in gyres and do you think the removal of this piece of plastic would significantly reduce the adverse effects of plastic pollution? River Ridge High School/New Port Richey/Florida/Senior/Aaron

A: Hi Aaron, thanks for your good wishes. We’ve only been to two gyres so far – the North Pacific and the North Atlantic, so its hard to say what is the most abundant single item overall. Mostly what we’re seeing here in the Atlantic are finely broken down fragments. We do think that removing single use plastics – the cups, bags, bottles, and plastic packaging that’s designed to be thrown away, could help significantly.

-Anna-

Near The Center of Sargasso Sea

2010-02-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

We’re near the center of the Sargasso Sea at 28N,50W. It’s just about as far from land that you can get in the North Atlantic. Yesterday we found a windrow filled with patches of sargassum and plastic. Everything you could imagine finding in your local department store was bobbing in the sea, the EASTERN GARBAGE PATCH. (above Marcus and Anna examine plastic pollution collected from the "Eastern Garbage Patch")

Then we came upon a bucket. Anna and John brought it aboard, only to find something violently wriggling inside. There was a trigger fish far larger than the opening of the bottle! Who know how long it had been in there, destined to be entombed there. We found plenty more pieces of plastic – toothbrush, crates, buckets, bottle caps, shoes, glove, plenty of fishing gear, and a boxing mouthpiece. “What are you going to do with the fish?” someone asked. I explained that one question we want to find out is, “Who is eating plastic bottles?” We would keep the fish for stomach analysis, but only if I promised not to waste the fillets, which we later ate for dinner.

Trigger fish have a really bad overbite. The teeth of a trigger fish are designed for biting little things. They have small sharp teeth that can snatch a shrimp from the sargassum, or a barnacle from floating debris, or a triangular fragment off a plastic bottle. Looking closely at the bite marks on a plastic bottle, one can see two little dimples above the triangular bite. These are the two upper teeth. The lower teeth, oriented to form a sharp triangular edge, rip a fragment off the bottle.

Though we haven’t observed this, the teeth seem to match the bite marks. There are no other fish present. I don’t think small birds or turtles have the power to be contenders for this feat either. I’m confident we’ve identified another species of fish mistaking our plastic waste for food. One more reason why we need to rethink how we use plastic.

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Replies to student questions and comments

Q: Hi, my name is Jerie and I am a senior at River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, Florida. My question is: How much plastic are you expecting to see while crossing the Sargasso Sea, and how are you going to deal with all the seaweed when collecting plastic samples?

A: Hi Jerie, Anna here, thanks for your message. We knew we’d find plastic in the Sargasso, but we weren’t sure exactly how much. We’ve been to the North Pacific Gyre to study plastic with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, and have seen everything from toothbrushes, suitcases, toys, and plastic bottles floating in the middle of the ocean.

Though this is our first time in the Atlantic, other people have studied the Sargasso Sea, and we know they have found areas around Bermuda and the Virgin Islands where plastic pollution floats, getting trapped in Sargassum, a brown algae that floats on the surface of the Sargasso. Now we’ve had a chance to see for ourselves, and sadly we’ve seen a lot of plastic here as well. Just yesterday, we came across a few big patches of this Sargassum, with tons of plastic trapped tangled inside – bottle caps, shoes, shotgun shells, crates, buckets, a toothbrush – even a plastic mouthpiece for a boxer! It was a lot like what we’ve seen in the Pacific.

Good question about how we deal with the Sargassum: as you can imagine, our samples are often full of this seaweedy plant after dragging our nets across the surface. So we’ll dump our entire sample into a large bucket, wash the plastic particles off, strain all the plastic into a cloth bag, and freeze it. Though it can be time consuming, the best part is seeing all the strange and beautiful creatures that live in the Sargassum – tiny squid, shrimp, flying fish, baby eels, and other amazing organisms – we’ll write more about these later.

Q: Hi, My name is Karleen and I just wanted to ask How old I have to be, to be a part of this crew? I would honestly love to be a part of this! It's amazing what you guys do. It's a wonderful thing actually, saving the sea creatures who are in need sounds exciting, except the part where you see them with a stomach full of plastics... So what do I have to do, to be a part of this? It's a really interesting and cool organiztion actually.. It's amazing how that turtle survived after 7 years with that peice of plastic around it. It is truly wonderful for you guys to help all the sea creatures who are in need of help. You guys are wonderful =D George Washington High School, Mangilao, Guam /Junior/Karleen.

A: Hi George Washington High School! Karleen, thanks so much for your message, great to hear that you’re interested in this kind of work! You’re never too young to get involved in environmental issues – and we’d love to work with you and your school more directly. Our youngest crew member right now is 19 – after graduating from high school, he decided to spend a year learning about ocean issues and doing research on a sailboat before going on to college. But you don’t need to be 19, or spend a year at sea....

The best thing you can do is start learning on your own – do some research on the internet, talk to your teachers, ask lots of questions, find some articles/books and see what you can find out about ocean issues. Then you might see how you can make some changes in your school or community - talk to other students, and share what you’ve learned. We’ve worked with two school groups in Los Angeles – Green Ambassadors and Team Marine that might have good ideas for you – let us know if you’d like to get in touch with them. Next year, we’re having a big conference in LA, bringing young people together from around the world to talk about plastic pollution. Maybe you can join us, so do keep in touch!

Q: Why are only some plastics made biodegradable? Also, how long do you normally leave the trawls in the water, and what are expecting/hoping to find on this trip? Christina-11th grade-River Ridge High School, Florida

A: Hi Cristina, Biodegradable plastics sound like a perfect solution, but there are still some problems with them. First, most bioplastics are not designed to break down in the ocean – they need a very hot, commercial composting environment. Also, bioplastics are generally made from GMO crops that are grown with pesticides and herbicides, which create other environmental problems. And bioplastics are still more expensive to produce, so many people want the cheaper option of petroleum plastics.

Still, as more people figure out innovative ways to make environmentally friendly, marine degradable plastics, they will start to become cheaper. Your best bet is still to use reusables, and avoid single use plastics when you can.

As for our trawls: we’re hoping to complete a “mega transect”, sampling at least every fifty to one hundred miles, and leaving our nets out for three hours at a time. When we pull them up, they are usually full of Sargassum, bits of plastic, and a bunch of fascinating marine creatures.

Responses from crew member Anna Cummins

The Atlantic Garbage Patch

2010-02-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

We’re less than a hundred miles from the predicted accumulation zone, the center of the Sargasso Sea. Yesterday we came across our first real glimpse of what we’ve seen in the North Pacific Gyre – the infamous “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”- only here in the North Atlantic.

We had just pulled in our first trawl after 48 hours of laying low due to heavy winds. We can’t sample when storm winds pummel the oceans surface – suspended plastic is so close to the buoyancy of water that the slightest disturbance nudges it below the reach of our trawl. Forced to do nothing for 2 days but tend to boat duties, read, and entertain one another, we were all starting to climb the walls. And then we spotted the windrow, flanked by a group of dolphins dancing in our wake.

Stretching far across the horizon was a long chain of floating Sargassum mats, clumped together like huge wicker doormats. Embedded in each patch was a disturbing mosaic of plastic junk. “This looks more like the Pacific gyre”, commented Joel Paschal, who has also been on several long research voyages with Captain Moore. We grabbed our nets and began fishing furiously, amassing a pile of bottlecaps, shotgun shells, crates, toothbrushes, a boxer’s mouthpiece, and myriad unidentifiable chunks floated by, gently pulsating with the ocean’s currents.

There is no doubt in our minds that the Pacific plastic plague is not an isolated phenomenon, but an International problem. We’ve seen plastic trash covering beaches in Bermuda, carried from the mainland by the Gulf Stream. We’ve seen broken down fragments in our trawls after sieving the ocean’s surface. We’ve now seen mini “islands” of plastic trash entangled in Sargassum. And yesterday afternoon, we saw the strangest thing yet, involving a large trigger fish and a plastic bottle. But that’s a story for tomorrow.....

Replies to Participant Questions And Comments

Q: Hello! My name is Terra and our environmental systems class has just started a unit on pollution. We are excited to follow your progress and ask you questions during your trip. West High School, Anchorage, Alaska

A: Hello Terra, Great to hear from Anchorage! Please ask all the question you would like. We're now in the middle of the Sargasso Sea. We're finding patches of sargassum filled with plastic.

Q: Hello, We are 6th grade Magnet students from South Gate, CA. We are looking forward to following your journey to study the "garbage dump". We will be talking to you over the weeks of this project. Thank you for sharing with us. Ms. Walker and Company

A: Hi Ms. Walker and Company, We're in the middle of the North Atlantic Gyre, and we're finding lot's of plastic. We'll be back in Los Angeles in March. We would love to come to your school and tell you in person about our research. Please stay in touch with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. Cheers, Marcus

Q: During your new voyage to the Atlantic ocean's gyres, what will you do to better your results? Have you gained any more experience on how to retrieve more helpful results? Exactly what do you expect to accomplish during your new expedition? Thanks, Bryan and Ashley at River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, Florida

A: Hi Bryan and Ashley, Our goals are to document the presence of plastic and determine how dense it is on the surface. We're using the same protocols we've used in the Pacific Ocean. The only difference here is that there is seaweed , called Sargassum, that clogs our trawls. This forces us to conduct shorter trawls. Also, there are more storms here. There is currently a storm with hurricane force winds just north of us. Winds are expected to gust up to 35 knots tomorrow. Cheers, Marcus and Anna

Q: Do you think that you are going to find the same results in these Gyres that you did in your previous voyage in the North Atlantic? What are you expecting? Thank you and have fun. From, Kayla, 11th grade at River Ridge High School New Port Richey, Florida.

A: Hi Kayla, We truly don't know what to expect. It's best that scientist enter new territory with an open mind. We do have hypotheses, but it's important not to let expectations cloud your objectivity. From what I've seen so far, this gyre looks like what we know from the North Pacific Gyre. The one difference is that there are fewer pieces of netting and rope from the fishing industry.

Q: How will you do things differently on this expedition then you did on the first? Also how do you like your work? Are you seeing any improvements in the oceans? Thanks, Patty, 11th grade at River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, Florida

A: Hi Patty, We are using the same methods here as we have done in the North Pacific. There are only differences in the amount of seaweed. There's none in the North Pacific, but in the Atlantic there's a seaweed called "Sargassum" that's everywhere. "HOw do we like our work?" It's wonderful! We're are learning new things all the time. Cheers, Marcus

Q: Greetings from 4H Are your filmmakers planning to produce a documentary or are they just documenting your travels? Will they post some of the footage on this blog site? We have some filmmakers in our midst too! We wonder how we can upload their video for all to see. It is called "A Day In the Life of A Plastic Bottle." We would like to share it with other schools participating on this blog so they can share it with their larger school community and educate others.

A: Hi 4H We're making a film of our expedition in the future. Please share your video with us. We would love to see it! Cheers, Marcus and Anna

Answers from Crew Members Marcus and Anna

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Our research voyage on Good Morning America!

2010-02-03T08:13:00.000-08:00

Computer Says a Storms Brewing

2010-02-02T20:44:00.000-08:00

35 knot winds! We pulled the 7th trawl out of the sea just in time. It's likely the last one for a couple of days, until a large low pressure system blows over us. We're finding more plastic in every surface sample we collect. We're heading to the center of the accumulation zone (28.5N,50W). From there we'll turn and sail to the Azores.

We use the manta trawl to skim the surface of the sea for micro-plastics. It’s working as expected, and the samples we're collecting look a lot like samples from the North Pacific Gyre. There are plenty of fragments of plastic in each trawl, but there’s little debris related to the fishing industry. In the Pacific we find plenty of lost nets, line and floats. The Atlantic Gyre appears different in this regard.

Winds are still howling. Our skipper, Clive Crosby, works with us to find the optimal course and speed so that we can get a trawl every 100 miles or less. Right now we’ve got the storm jib up. We’re moving slow, maybe 4 knots. Hopefully we’ll trawl tomorrow.

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Hurry Up and Slow Down- Day 3

2010-02-01T15:02:00.000-08:00

Noontime position: 30 30.06 North, 60 22.23 West
Three days, twenty-six trawls, countless pieces of plastic, and fourteen hundred miles till we reach the Azores. Though we added 4 new crewmembers in Bermuda - an increase in bodies and decrease in personal space – the additional 3 artists, filmmaker, and veteran sailor Joel Paschal are all adjusting to the unusual routine of boat life. Bursts of activity – trawling, cleaning, cooking, sailing – followed by long bouts of waiting. Staring out to sea. And catching regular sun and moon rises – here’s Stiv greeting the day with his best Titanic rendition... (Photo above)

Since leaving Bermuda, our trawls have looked nearly identical to those we collected on our first leg – clumps of Sargassum peppered with small particles of plastic – whites, blues, grays, and the occasional pastel. Which gives staring out to sea a bittersweet tone – in this seemingly pristine landscape, impossibly clear waters stretching thousands of miles in all directions, our random samples all contain plastic.

We’re still on track with our goal of conducting a mega transect – sampling at least once every hundred miles, but the weather continues to be our wild card. After 3 dreamlike days, high winds now force us to slow down - we can’t get beyond our 100-mile limit between trawls unless we absolutely have to. Built for speed, this slow pace is torture for the Sea Dragon. At 10-15 knots, she slices through the water gracefully, an aquatic gazelle. At our trawling speed of 2-4 knots however, she plods and heaves heavily, engine growling, stray lines clanging in protest. But we have no choice but to wait – the heavier winds churn the sea surface, pushing plastic beneath the range of our trawl. So we’ll continue to pass the hours, meditate on the seascape, entertain one another, and await the next weather forecast.

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Day 2 “Not a Plastic Bag”

2010-02-01T14:37:00.000-08:00

“Don’t touch the tentacles!” Joel warned everyone. We’ve got a Portuguese Man of War in the net. It has beautiful colors in shades of blue, a translucent balloon with a pink stripe across the top. We’re seeing plenty of wildlife. Just an hour ago two crew members spotted three whales. Both whales and jellyfish are susceptible to ingestion and entanglement by plastic. Baleen whales are filter feeders, and the tentacles of jellies tangle anything in their way. Anna just saw the fluke of another whale. We’ve now been at sea for 24 hours. A third of the crew has been sick. We’ve completed three trawls. And at this moment there’s still daylight while we travel 8 knots under sail power alone.

Q: Hello from Burbank Middle School-6th grade-since you're so close to Bermuda, the kids want to know if the legends about the Bermuda Triangle are true? Will you cross the Bermuda Triangle? What types of animals have you found? Are the waters safe to be touching with the bare hand? Burbank Middle School- Houston, Texas

A: Hi Burbank Middle School, Marcus here. Yes, you can touch the water with your bare hands. In fact, you can jump into it and swim around. You can even put it through a reverse osmosis filter to remove the salt, then drink it. It’s quite an amazing place to be. We haven’t seen land for a week. About the Bermuda Triangle, I don’t get it. I think it’s a popular urban legend that people talk about because it’s a good story filled with mystery and danger. The only dangers in the waters here might be sharks, which we haven’t seen yet. Unfortunately, we are seeing fewer and fewer sharks around the world. The other danger might be the swirling currents. The Gulf Stream brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida, and along the coast of North America. This current is like a giant river in an ocean. Sometimes the Gulf Stream creates giant swirling currents. You can’t feel them, but they can move your boat to places you don’t want to go, like backwards! Thank you for keeping in touch with us.

Q: The East Hills 4H Green Teens (aka Plastic Eliminators) are wishing you a safe voyage. We have become quite educated on the Pacific Gyre so we look forward to expanding our knowledge about these other gyres. Two of our members have made a short educational about the North Pacific Gyre which they will be showing at a 4H County Presentation Day On Jan. 30th. Maybe they will mention your new voyage as a footnote in their introduction?

A: Feel free to mention this Atlantic Voyage during your 4H County Presentation. We’re finding similar concentrations of plastic in the Atlantic Gyre, as we have found in the North Pacific Gyre. We’re catching a few fish as well. We’ll look in their stomachs for plastic. Please feel free to ask more questions.

Q: Ahoy captain and crew! My students and I are excited to join your voyage! We learned about your quest to from our special education newspaper called "News 2 U" and all about Plastiki. We have non-readers, but were able to enjoy the video footage online. As your voyage begins, if you can please provide as much video footage as possible that would be great. I'll be teaching a unit about "reduce, reuse, recycle" and reducing our carbon footprint on the environment as your voyage continues! God Speed! Mrs. H (BOCES classroom teacher) BOCES, Binghamton, NY, USA

A: Hi Mrs. H, Marcus here. I’m glad you’re giving some attention to reducing, reusing and recycling. There’s another “R” that is also important. That is “Recover”. There is so much plastic in the North Atlantic. It’s similar to what we’ve found in the North Pacific. You can’t go into the ocean and get it. It’s too small, too spread out, and too many living things that would get in the way of recovery. Recovery must begin on land. Unfortunately, plastic has no post-consumer value. Voluntary recycling programs recover less than 5% of what we create. One solution might be to create a monetary incentive, like a dollar for each pound of plastic recovered from the environment. What do you and your students think?

With regard to Plastiki, that’s a different boat. Two years ago we build JUNK, a raft floating on 15,000 plastic bottles. You can see all the photos, videos and journal entries at http://www.junkraft.com/home.html. It was quite an adventure to be at sea for 88 days as we drifted from Los Angeles to Hawaii. We may be building another boat made from plastic pollution to sail in the Atlantic. Stay tuned for that adventure.
And please send us more questions!

Click here to send a comment or question to the crew!

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Lesson Extensions

Teachers- Here is a link to more activities and lessons relating to the topic of
Plastic Ingestion in Marine Organisms

Day One At Sea! Plastic Ring

2010-01-30T18:39:00.001-08:00

We end our first day at sea after an unbelievable 10 days in Bermuda. The island in now a distant glow on the horizon as we put the research trawl back in the water. We slow the sailboat down to 2 knots and trawl for 3 hours, skimming the surface for whatever floats. At 1:30am we pull in the net. Among the shredded plastic film, nurdles, and random pieces of plastic confetti, we’ve also nabbed a milk jug ring. (Click on the image above to get a closer look at the contents of the sample.)

This is an example of two key problems to the plastic pollution issue. First, that milk jug ring is a product made to last forever, yet designed to be thrown away. Throw away plastic products, which do not biodegrade, are quickly littering our world. Second, of the millions of products made in plastic, only a handful have a reasonable plan for recovery.

In our lectures we often talk about the impact of plastic pollution on wildlife. There is a snapping turtle named “Mae West”. When she was a hatchling she walked into a milk jug ring. As she grew she could not break this corset around her waist. Now she’s as big as a football, but with a thin waist, looking more like an hourglass. Her spine has never healed.

Video: Snapping Tutle with Plastic Ring - Crew members Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins meet a snapping turtle that was entangled in a plastic ring when young, and view the effects the entanglement had on the turtles body. Note: this is an archived video from before the voyage that they requested we share with you.

The voyage has begun!!!

2010-01-29T13:58:00.000-08:00

The crew successfully departed from Bermuda yesterday, beginning their long voyage across the Atlantic to the Azores. They have received your questions and I am sure we will be hearing from them soon. In the meantime they wanted to share some of their experiences in Bermuda with you...

Bermuda is an island in the middle of the North Atlantic Gyre. We’ve been here working with groups like “Greenrock” and “Keep Bermuda Beautiful” to clean beaches and lecture about what we know about plastic. My growing impression of Bermuda is its likeness to Hawaii. Both are in the path of their respective gyre currents – North Pacific Gyre vs. North Atlantic Gyre. Both carry a burden of trash from the shores of other nations. The trash even looks the same. Nurdles are everywhere. Bottles are full of bite marks. And plastic confetti of colored and degraded fragments litter the wrack line.

On our second beach cleanup- a similar scene - we found one remarkable piece of plastic: a wad of plastic film/sheeting, with a colony of corals, Foraminifera, growing on top. Nature has a wonderful way of adapting that will hopefully supersede our efforts to destroy her...

Little or none of this trash originates in Bermuda – rather this is trash from the mainland, carried some 700 miles by the Gulf Stream, and dumped on distant shores. Frequent beach cleanups by Keep Bermuda Beautiful serve as a temporary fix and a wonderful community effort, but more plastic simply washes up the next day. This serves as a sobering reminder that the problem starts on land – and on land is where solutions must begin. We can’t sieve, net, vacuum, or cleanup all the plastic on the world’s oceans and beaches, we must move further upstream to where the problem begins.

Video: Bermuda Beachcombing

Crewmembers meet with Judy Clee, a naturalist and beachcomber, to learn about what she has found on Bermuda's beaches. Judy shares unexpected examples of plastic pollution such as deodorant rollers, glow sticks, plastic chewed by marine life, crabpot tags, and plastic toys.

Two dozen Bermudan High School teens combed Coopers Beach despite 20 knot winds and horizontal rain. In half an hour they create a pile of trash as tall as me. Do these clean-up efforts work? A storm is fast approaching and I can see a barnacle-covered milk crate in the surf. Where did it come from? If we pick up this one, how long till the next one arrives?

Meet the Crew!

2010-01-27T16:32:00.000-08:00

Sea Dragon Crew Members: Anna, Marcus and Joel (More coming soon)

Anna Cummins has worked in marine conservation, coastal watershed management, sustainabilty education, and high school ecology instruction. Anna received her undergraduate degree in History from Stanford University, and her Masters in International Environmental Policy from the Monterey Institute for International Studies. In 2001, Anna received a fellowship from the Sustainable Communities Leadership Program, to work with Santa Cruz based non-profit Save Our Shores, coordinating bilingual outreach education and community relations. At Save Our Shores, Anna came across The Algalita Marine Research Foundation's work on plastic marine debris. She later joined the Algalita's 2004 research voyage to Guadalupe Island, to collect evidence of plastic ingestion by Laysan Albatross. In 2007 she joined the Algalita Marine Research Foundation as education adviser, conducting school outreach and giving public presentations on the plastics issue. With Algalita, Anna completed a month long, 4,000 mile research expedition studying plastic debris in the North Pacific Gyre. Anna has published a number of articles and chapters on environmental themes. She is currently continuing her work on plastics education with Algalita Marine Research Foundation and Bring Your Own, and completed a 2,000 mile bicycling journey from Vancouver to Mexico to give dozens of presentations on plastic pollution in the marine environment .

Marcus Eriksen received his Ph.D. in Science Education from University of Southern California, and his M.A. and B.S. from the University of New Orleans. During this academic career Marcus worked many different jobs, ranging from Research Assistant in University of New Orleans Vertebrate Paleontology Lab to Educator and Exhibit Supervisor at the Los Angeles Zoo, Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, and New Orleans Audubon Park and Zoological Gardens. He teaches and conducts research in earth science, lectures at schools and museums and supervises an annual field course in paleontology in Wyoming. Marcus published his first book, titled "My River Home" (Beacon Press, 2007) chronicling his experience as a marine in the 1991 Gulf War and a rafting journey 2000 miles down the Mississippi River on a raft of plastic bottles. Marcus also sailed 2,600 miles from Los Angeles to Hawaii with crew member Joel Paschal on a raft made of 15,000 plastic bottles to raise awareness about plastic pollution. Marcus has served as research crew aboard ORV Alguita on multiple research voyages studying plastic pollution in the North Pacific Ocean and currently works as Project Developer for Algalita Marine Research Foundation.

Joel Paschal is an experienced sailor, underwater photographer and videographer. Joel has studied plastic pollution in the North Pacific on extended voyages aboard ORV Alguita in 2008 and 2009. Joel previously worked on marine debris removal with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). After the 2008 Gyre Expedition Joel and Marcus Eriksen built a raft out of 15,000 plastic bottles and sailed it 2,600 miles from Los Angeles to Hawaii to raise awareness about plastic marine debris.

Shore Crew

Holly Gray

Holly Gray received her Bachelors degree from UC Santa Cruz in Environmental Studies and Biology, and completed UCSC's graduate program in Scientific Communications. She is currently conducting research for her Masters Degree through the University of Nebraska in conjunction with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. The focus of her study is plastic marine debris ingestion in seabirds. She has also worked with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation for two years as the Research Vessel Support Coordinator and will be providing shore support for the Ship-2-Shore education program during this voyage.

Welcome Message from the Research Crew

2010-01-21T12:57:00.000-08:00

Greetings and welcome aboard the Sea Dragon!
We're really looking forward to having you join us for our voyage across the North Atlantic Gyre, studying plastic marine pollution. On Thursday, January 28th we'll set sail from Bermuda, to cross the Sargasso Sea, and head towards the Azores. Can you find these places on a map? We started our journey in the US Virgin Islands, and spent 9 days sailing to Bermuda, collecting 20 samples of the oceans surface along the way. What did we find? Small particles of plastic in every sample, along with many amazing marine creatures. This plastic gets into our oceans from our communities - the litter we see in our streets and rivers eventually washes out to sea, where it gets swept up into huge current systems called "gyres". As scientists, we want to know how this plastic is impacting marine wildlife - the fish, turtles, seabirds, and other creatures that live in our oceans. And how it may be impacting us as well.

Life aboard a sailboat is full of excitement and challenges - storms, high seas, occasional battles with seasickness, cooking for 13 people in a rocky boat, spectacular views, and fascinating marine organisms - we will share these with you over the coming weeks. We hope you'll enjoy the ride - ask us any questions about what we're seeing, or just say hello - we'd love to hear from you!

Cheers,
Anna and Marcus

Write a message to Marcus and Anna

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Lesson Extensions

Teachers- Here are links to more activities and lessons relating to the topics discussed above-
Ocean Currents and Plastic Pollution
Watersheds
Plastic Ingestion

Getting Started with Ship-2-Shore!

2010-01-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

Welcome aboard! Here are some suggestions about how to get started!

1) Read "Welcome Message from the Research Crew". This message, from crewmembers Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins, provides you a with bit of information about what we have to look forward to! (If you are short on time skip to #4)

2) Learn more about this research voyage by reading "North Atlantic Gyre Research Voyage- Background".

3) Catch up on what happened during the first part of the Atlantic Voyage under "Highlights from the Atlantic Voyage Leg 1"

4) Introduce your school and send a question to another participating school under "Welcome Aboard Participating Schools!"

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Lesson Extensions

Teachers- Here are links to more activities and lessons relating to the topics discussed-
Ocean Currents and Plastic Pollution
Watersheds
Plastic Ingestion

Welcome Aboard Participating Schools!

2010-01-20T18:14:00.000-08:00

View Ship-2-Shore Schools 2010 in a larger map

Welcome Aboard! First use the comments section to introduce your school and tell us something about your class. Then, take a moment to view the locations of the schools of other students participating in this voyage. You can click on the yellow school icons to learn the name and location of each school (zoom in to locate more schools). Choose a school or schools to address a question about plastic pollution to. Use this as an opportunity to learn a bit about plastic pollution in different regions of the world! Remember to include the name of your school so they know who to respond to! Follow the directions provided under the steps to submitting a comment. Click here to submit your question.

If your school is not on this map and you are following this voyage let me know!vesselsupport@algalita.org (Note: You may need to zoom in to see your school, especially in areas where there are several schools in the same city)

Highlights from the Atlantic Voyage Leg 1

2010-01-15T14:32:00.001-08:00

Day 1 We left the St. Thomas yacht harbor on Friday afternoon, after several days of prepping, stowing, running errands, and squeezing in last emails while the rest of the crew arrived- nine total. After the first evenings wave of seasickness bouts – from mild nausea to hanging over the side of the boat – we’re now settling into a routine: sleep, cook, trawl, eat, clean, trawl, sleep, trawl, scan horizon for debris, trawl. Our goal is to collect at least 25 samples by the time we reach Bermuda in 8 days, and another 25 as we continue on, crossing the Atlantic to the Azores.

Day 3 We pulled up trawl #1 on Saturday morning, as an eager crew clustered around the manta trawl, flip and digital cameras in hand. After thoroughly rinsing and tossing a few handfuls of Sargassum we found a few tablespoons of planktonic organisms flecked with small plastic particles. What at first appears a scant amount compared to our Pacific trawls is still reason to reflect: in this vast ocean, several hundred miles from the predicted accumulation zone, using a relatively tiny device – we’re finding evidence of plastic. This short clip shows how we conduct our sampling.

Video: First Research Trawls

On day 3, about 200 miles northeast of St. Thomas the research team pulls up some of their first trawl samples of the voyage. They find plastic fragments, plastic sheeting, plastic line, sargassum, and a sea jelly with a fragment of plastic inside.

1st Trawl in Caribbean from 5 Gyres on Vimeo.

Day 6 Clear skies cede to gray clouds, howling winds, and boiling seas. And with it, our ideal trawling conditions come to a temporary halt. Crew stumble around the galley grabbing onto handholds for support, while poorly stowed pots and pans rattle until someone gets the hint. Now, we don foul weather gear on our night watches – life jackets and “deadliest catch” sea suits, harnessed at all times to the boats safety lines.

Just as suddenly, she turns again – the seas settle to a gentle ripple and we resume our trawling. “The calm before the storm” remarked Stiv. How right he is...A spectacular double rainbow stretches across the horizon. We reel in trawl #11 – to find the by now predictable handful of Sargassum, a few pelagic crabs, a dozen halibates (like a water skeeter, the only marine insect) and the plastic fragments we’ve come here to research. Though we’ve found plastic in every trawl, the pieces have been tiny, and few – nothing like the density we’ve seen in the Pacific. And then we came across our first windrow – a series of counter currents that create a slick line of debris on the oceans surface. “A plastic bottle! No...it’s a BOOT!” Bobbing amongst a patchy line of Sargassum was a large rubber boot, covered with barnacles and algae. As our skipper Clive shifted gears to backtrack, we began spotting more and more plastic trash. “A bottle cap, another bottle cap! A roller blade wheel!” Marcus stood at the bow shouting directions to Clive, while we dashed from port to starboard with our modified pool skimmer, netting as much as we could. 45 minutes later, we’d collected some 17 bottle caps, a shotgun shell, a plastic roller ball from a deodorant stick, numerous plastic chips, several plastic milk jug rings, and finally – the boot. fter 45 minutes of conditions calm enough to explore the windrow, the winds regrouped, and we’re now slamming along over fairly rough seas – too rough unfortunately to trawl. We’re hoping for another break in the weather, to gather a few final samples before racing to Bermuda to beat a nasty storm on the horizon.

Video: Chasing Windrows: A Trail of Plastic in the Sargasso Sea

The research team observes and collects a variety of plastic from a windrow, including; bottle caps, shotgun shells and a boot.

Chasing Windrows from 5 Gyres on Vimeo.

Video: Night Trawl in the Sargasso Sea

The research team pulls up their 17th trawl sample in the early morning about 100 miles south of Bermuda. The sample is thick with plastic, including fragments and the piece of line shown above. (Click here to learn more about how the team samples for plastic pollution.)

North Atlantic Gyre Research Voyage- Background

2010-01-15T14:29:00.000-08:00

During this voyage you will be joining the first comprehensive study of plastic pollution in the world's oceans. Over the past ten years our research team has studied plastic pollution in the North Pacific Ocean. Now we will be expanding our research to the North and South Atlantic Ocean. The project is called 5 Gyres because there are five sub-tropical gyres in the world's oceans (see the map on the left). A gyre is a giant circular oceanic surface current (1) where plastic pollution tends to gather. (Here is an advanced explanation of ocean surface currents and gyres). Thank you for joining our research team to voyage thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean studying plastic pollution!

To the left is a map showing the route of the first two research voyages across the North Atlantic Ocean. The first voyage (Jan. 7-18) went from the Virgin Islands to Bermuda. The next voyage, that you will be joining us for, will go from Bermuda to the Azores (see if you can find these locations on a map!) On these voyages, we'll collect oc ean samples to study how much plastic is in the water, as well as examine fish for possible plastic ingestion (this means checking to see if the fish have eaten plastic!) These expeditions will help us to further understand the impact of plastic waste on the world's oceans!

(1) GYRE. (2010). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved January 20, 2010, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/GYRE

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Lesson Extensions

Teachers- Here is a link to more activities and lessons relating to the topics of Ocean Currents and Plastic Pollution.

Join us as we research plastic pollution in the Atlantic Ocean!

2009-12-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

Please join us!! The 5 Gyres Project is the first comprehensive study of plastic pollution in the world's oceans. We will travel thousands of miles across the North Atlantic, South Atlantic oceans, adding data to what we already know about plastic pollution in the North Pacific Gyre. On these two voyages, we'll collect ocean samples to study plastic accumulation, as well as study fish for possible plastic ingestion and toxins in their tissues. These expeditions will help us to further understand the impact of plastic waste on the world's oceans.

You and your students are invited to join the expedition through the Ship-2-Shore Education Program. The 5 Gyres crew will be sending images, videos and descriptions of their experiences while they are at sea conducting research. Students will be able to communicate with the crew by sending questions and comments through the internet. The next opportunity to participate will be during the voyage from;

Bermuda to the Azores Jan. 27 - Feb 12, 2010.

The Ship-2-Shore program is free and signing up is easy. Simply send an email to vesselsupport@algalita.org and include:

1. Name and location of school
2. # of students participating
3. Grade level

We will send you more information as the voyage approaches! For more information about the program please visit Ship-2-Shore Education Program.

Thank you,
Holly Gray
vesselsupport@algalita.org
Research Vessel Support Coordinator
Algalita Marine Research Foundation

The Warm Welcome Home

2009-10-09T07:57:00.001-07:00

Thank you Algalita and friends for the warm welcome home. The last few miles in, I sat on the bow ready to video any sea lions or dolphins sightings so I could send a picture back to Vicki Rivenbark's class at Holly Tree School back in Wilmington, NC. The only thing we saw as we neared Alamitos Bay was plastic trash making its way out to sea as we headed in. Things like Styrofoam containers, chip bags, bottles, and even a soccer ball accompanied by a bottle. But the most disturbing was actually witnessing a seagull pecking at a floating plastic bag. "It looked like we were back in the gyre." Lindsey turned to me and said, "This is where it all starts." Thank goodness the Algalita supporters were out there to distract us. It was all too overwhelming to see so much trash in its origin- from land. It played out like a scene in "The Twilight Zone." I, personally, felt like our trip out into the gyre was some kind of victory, only to return to business as usual. The jaded twist to the end of our journey.

It's going to take a lot more people, like Marieta, willing to lend a hand not letting plastic pollution go out to sea.

I do have a better ending to our last night together though. We left Avalon early Tuesday morning after a dinner the night before at the The Lobster Pot. The waiter asked us where we would like to sit and Lindsey, spying a table for six elevated by a handful of steps into the back of a sawed off boat, said "How about there?" We all looked at the stern nestled up against the wall, shrugged, and climbed the stairs. Why not, what was one more meal elbow to elbow enclosed by the sides of a boat.

Bonnie Monteleone over and out

ORV Alguita Arrives in Long Beach

2009-10-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

ORV Alguita and crew have returned safely to Long Beach, California after a successful research voyage. Thank you all for joining us in studying plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean! In the photo below the crew receives their well deserved chocolate, chocolate cake!

Here are links to read more about Alguita's arrival in the News:

Day 29

2009-10-06T07:59:00.001-07:00

Noon Coordinates 32 47.708N 118 18.320W

Day 29 Monday 10/5/09

When I woke for my last morning alone on the ORV Alguita, it was anything but. Gwen, who does the watch before me, decided to stay up with me due to the problems Lindsey and Jeff were having with the auto pilot. The wind kicked up to over 40 knots causing the auto pilot to fail. The only way to handle the situation was to change course, and if need be steer. There was no beating into the winds. It would also require a sail change from the genoa jib to the staysail, but the captain didn’t want to risk someone getting hurt or blown overboard by the assaulting winds so we traveled off course at 10 knots per hour getting nowhere fast. Bill, who comes on after my shift, was also up due to the outlandish banging under the ship. Few could sleep.

Gwen, who takes good care of this blogger, often times let me sleep in an extra 15 minutes. Today it was an hour. I didn’t change my watch when we sailed into the Pacific Daylight Saving Times yesterday so when I looked at my watch at 0345, I figured I was ahead of the game. It was actually 0445. Not letting on that I was late, nor did she try to wake me, Gwen had just started the tea pot on the stove for me. Yesterday I was running late too, only that time it was because I was making my way out of the top bunk, a wave came and literally threw me. I fell out of my bunk 4” down landing on the top of my left toes (don’t ask). To add insult to injury I slammed into the side of Gwen’s bed, trashing my leg all in one full swoop. It took a minute for me to rub out the sting. The captain, who has something for everything, came out of his state room with some all natural salve that eases out bruises. It worked on my leg, but the middle toe on my left foot is perhaps broken. Ugg.

We rolled into Avalon, Catalina Island, with a circus show of several sea birds and sea lions. (they swam beside our boat as if so happy to see us!) 3,460 nautical miles later!!! We walked around the island like drunken sailors though not having a drink. It’s called dock rock. Once on a boat for any length of time and then off, one feels the world rock when while off the boat! We met Faith in the restaurant we had dinner at tonight, a six year old Girl Scout who her and her older sister had accolades for the captain’s work on protecting the oceans. Great to meet both of you!!!

We’re rocking on the island and look forward to seeing everyone at the Algalita Headquarters tomorrow afternoon! Thank you Gwen, Cooper, Lindsey, Jeffy Pop and especially Captain Moore for an experience of a lifetime, but more importantly, allowing me to see the unseen, plastics accumulating in our defenseless ocean. Bonnie

Day 28

2009-10-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

Noon Coordinates 30° 8'41.40"N, 121°39'11.94"W

Day 28 Sunday 10/04/09
We are winding down to our last 48 hours on the ship. The air is too cold to sit outside for more than a couple of minutes especially since the sun hasn’t shown its face for more than a few minutes each day. Strange to think a week ago we were melting from the heat. Lindsey went for a walk around the ship and was back in less than a minute. Stiff legged and arms out like a scarecrow she was soaked from head to toe. That didn’t stop the captain who put on his swim shorts and headed to the bow to take on the ocean spray head on. The water is a refreshing 65 a shade warmer than the air.

We have been pinched between the Tropical Storm Olaf (sp) below us and Gale winds above us. The sky wants to rid itself of the stainless steal clouds, but it is a losing battle for most of the day. Tonight they loosened up enough to give us our last sunset. Tomorrow night we will be in Avalon, Santa Catalina Island which will block the view of our final sunset set at sea.

The wind is up and the seas are down to a four, perfect conditions to be traveling an average of nine knots without the restless baseball bats banging below. When I say the wind is up, I’m talking straight up. According to the captain these winds are going to take us all the way in.

By dawn we will be traveling right past Cortes Bank which is about 100 miles off the California shore. This exclusive location has attracted the attention of surfers from around the world. It is said that Cortes Bank has the potential of making 150 foot waves due to a deep canyon that has one wall that stretches to just six feet below the surface creating a reef effect for the waves to curl on. It doesn’t happen all the time, but given the perfect conditions, the surf is up like no other in the world. Surfline’s Sean Collins, crew and surfers waited 10 years for the conditions to be perfect for them to go out and surf there. On 11/26/02, the conditions were ripe and they arrived to find 60 foot waves. Because the captain had the video “Making the Call” from the event, we were able to see it with our own eyes. Unbelievable! Chances are, we won’t see this phenomenon, but from what the captain says, it is a great place to fish for tuna. I’ll keep you posted if either materializes!

More later,

Bonnie

Day 27

2009-10-04T12:01:00.001-07:00

Noon Position 30°19'29.82"N, 125°29'6.84"W

Day 27 Saturday 10/3/09
When the sky turns gray the vast ocean turns a dull shade of purple. Today it was purple all day. The sea state remains a treacherous six with the winds in the high 20s and the waves frothing at 10-12 foot peaks. The captain says they are trying to conform, but are still battling a confused state. We repeatedly see Everest-ridged waves whitecap then avalanche, cascading down near vertical slopes, leaving a temporary white stain in its trough. A sight I have yet to tire of. Sometimes the ship catches the wave in its throat causing the white froth to slam into our windshield. It reminds me of home in NY when the wind gets under a car hood full of snow and momentarily blanks the view. It’s a lot less scary on a boat!

The captain and Bill changed our sails again this morning, taking down the staysail and putting up the genoa jib. The reason why is because we are now catching the northerlies we’ve been desperately needing in order to connect to the north-westerlies that will get us to shore. Bill couldn’t dodge the froth that heaved over the bow, caught him in the back and nearly swept him off his feet. The 68 degree water, about the temperature of the air, felt even colder with the wind chill. The last time we changed the sails the captain had me working the winch table. I’d like to report that dyslexia translates well into the sailing world. I wittingly grabbed a sheet and it just happened to be the wrong sheet and didn’t go unnoticed by the captain. Darn dyslexia. The good news is we are now traveling at 10 knots and it’s looking up that we will port for the Tuesday afternoon welcome home. I’ll continue to keep you posted on the status.

Our on-board marine biologist Gwen Lattin received a special delivery today. A beautiful flying fish flew up on the bow in the night to volunteer itself to science. These fish are even more beautiful than I imagined. Even though I saw them when I was in the North Atlantic Gyre, out here I got to see one up close and personal.

Tonight’s dinner started last night with Jeff brining a plump chicken. It was ready this evening when Jeff plucked it out from the oven along with purple jams, and orange squash. Yep, we’re still eating fresh veggies with two days to the finish line. The captain slit the outrageously good jams in half then mashed them adding coconut sauce, it’s to die for!!!

We ended the night with a special treat. Jeff made homemade hot cocoa and then we shut off all the lights and with only a coalminer’s headlamp, the captain read us a short story from the book, The Bedtime Book of Sea Stories called “Three Skeleton Key” by George E. Toudouze. It doesn’t get much better than that!
More later, Bonnie

Day 26

2009-10-02T20:34:00.001-07:00

Noon Coordinates 30° 8'33.78"N, 128° 7'8.22"W

Day 26 Friday 10/02/09
One of our favorite past-times (and there is a lot of time to pass) is watching albatrosses appear as if out of nowhere and escape our gaze the same way. Sometimes, albatross will adopt a ship to follow for a few hours. And, according to Carl Safina’s Book The Eye of the Albatross, an albatross followed a ship for 2,880 miles. Yesterday one came to visit while we were sitting out on the stern. We watched it as it appeared from the proverbial nowhere and headed straight for us. It's wings spread wide above the froth-tipped wake. We watched awe struck by the speed at which it came in without flapping its stealth shaped wings. I know I was personally hoping to have a pet bird for at least a day or two. But then it began to drop its landing gear, first one of its huge webbed feet and then the other as if walking on air. We started asking each other what we thought it was doing when it stopped moving toward us and hung suspended over a distinct distance from the boat. We then watched it dip its beak in the water, like dunking for apples. And then we knew what it was doing. We jumped to our feet and shouted, “No!” We had a fishing line out and the end of the line happened to be just below the albatross. Bill ran and grabbed the fishing pole and started reeling it in. The bird dove again. Bill reeled faster as I let out another “No.” The bird responded by flying up to the starboard side of the boat, preformed a few figure eights then went back to looking for the lure camouflaged hook. But it couldn’t be found, Bill had it all but reeled in. (phew) Fishing gear can catch birds as easily as they can fish so it was a good lesson in keeping an eye on our fishing lines. You never know when you’ll have a desperately hungry bird looking for a freebie.

We have quite the book exchange flying around here. Eye of the Albatross is a favorite , as well as Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin. The captain and Jeff swapped them via careful lobs across the room. Lindsey’s been flopping between reading Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell and Our Stolen Future, by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Person Myers. Personally, I think she’s having trouble getting through Julie and Julia, it does seem to be inspiring her to cook though. She’s had Adelle Davis’ 1947 recipe book out a few times. We aren’t complaining! Another way the books are getting around is by falling off the bookshelves. It didn’t start happening until we hit these really high seas and now it happens on a regular bases. You might say, move them. Some have been moved, the others (that keep falling) are because someone thinks they’ve devised a way to make them stay. We’re always devising ways to try to keep things where they belong. It’s an ongoing part of living on a boat. The farthest I’ve gone, personally, is clipping myself to the side of the boat to videotape under the behest of Jeff. And I’m glad I listened. Yesterday, I wasn’t out on the bow two seconds when a huge wave came and nearly knocked me off my feet soaking me from head to toe. With the shot I took, I got a good shot of one enormous beautiful wave.

Today the ocean is more uniform, but the sea state is a good seven. Sails have been up since Monday and it looks like we will be sailing all the way home getting in for our welcome home on Tuesday at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation office. We’ll keep you posted and all are welcome to stop by, say hi and check out our finds.

More later,
Bonnie

Day 25

2009-10-02T08:42:00.000-07:00

Noon Coordinates 30°27'16.62"N, 130°57'31.86"W

Day 25
As of yesterday, we crossed over into another time zone - Pacific Standard Time - and are now only one hour behind California. The ocean continues to pound the bottom of the boat while rouge waves hit us from all sides. What to do? Make Jeffy Pop popcorn. Jeff is a maestro popcorn popper! (picture coming soon) He shakes the pot down while shimmying on his feet to maintain position in front of the stove. There is a whole lot more talent involved then it sounds.

So after three days of trying to play my 20 minute game and not spotting one thing in the ocean, I finally asked the captain why. The obvious answer was the sea state, but in the gyre, we were still seeing stuff in pretty rough seas. The better answer came from a simulation presentation on how trash works its way around the North Pacific done by Dr. Jim Ingraham. Due to the California current, the current carries debris from the states south of our current position and sends it toward the Philippines via the Equatorial current. The trash from Japan area comes via the Kuroshio Extension to the Oyashio Current. So we are in an area that plastic pollution is not so apt to be spread around. The captain assured me we’ll be seeing trash from the States as we get closer to shore.

Since I’ve mentioned our wonderful students in the continental US and Canada, I would also like to thank the participation of students at George Washington High in Guam! Great to hear from you and all of you, keep the questions rolling!

More later,
Bonnie

ANSWERS TO STUDENT QUESTIONS

Q: Hi. I have a question about the plastic ratio to plankton.Has it changed at all?If so, what was the change.Oh and be careful because of the storm. George Washington High School Mangilao, Guam, 12th grade Quentin Thank you for your time.

A: Hey there Quentin, All of us, including the captain are very happy to hear from you students in Guam. You put a smile on his face though the results from our surveys do not. Although we haven’t analyzed our samples, it appears from our winter samples and what we’ve seen out here this summer, the ratio of plastic to zooplankton has increased. Once we finalize the numbers, we’ll post it on our website. Thanks for asking Quentin and we’ll be sure to be careful! Best to you, Bonnie

Q: Hi, my name is Cassandra and I'm a senior at George Washington High School on Guam. I would like to know what are your predictions for the future due to plastic? How long until, do you think, that bioaccumulation will be at its most high? Cassandra

A: Hi Cassandra, With respect to what we have observed during this cruise we predict that plastics will increase in the gyre unless we change peoples behavior to be more responsible for disposing of plastics properly. Though your bioaccumulation question is good, it is very difficult to answer. I assume that you are asking about bioaccumulation of plastics in marine organisms. Bioaccumulation is a biochemical process and one could argue that plastics won't bioaccumulate as they are not broken down by organisms. On the other hand, small fish can and do ingest small plastic particles and these fish then may be eaten by larger fish and the plastic accumulates in the big fish. In fact, on the first leg of this voyage - from southern California to the international date line, there was a Mahi Mahi caught that had a lantern fish in its stomach that had plastic in it. Depending on the size of the plastic, once the fish is digested then the Mahi Mahi might retain the plastic piece. At higher trophic levels like albatross, sea turtles and whales, there are numerous examples of death from ingesting of plastics or plastic bags.
I hope this helps. Dr. Bill Cooper

Q:My name is Marquisha. i am from George Washington High School, Guam. I am a junior and i am currently taking Marine Bio. I have recently watched your video, synthetic sea. It brought a concern. I was wondering what is the economy doing to prevent plastics or debris that gets into the ocean. Plastic is a major thing nowadays because its cheaper. But have your statistics brought up a concern in the world.... And how is the weather. Storms are coming from left to right in the pacific ocean. Hope you guys are managing okay.

A: Hi Marquisha, Glad to hear you are taking Marine Bio. It’s through education that people will begin to understand why plastic in the marine environment is bad and your education can help. You pose some very good questions that are difficult to answer. Before we can get the economy to change its production of plastic, we have to get people to stop buying things like balloons that are used for such a short time and then here for hundreds of years. Usually when there is not a demand for products, they are no longer produced. So people have the power to decide if they will buy items in plastic. Sometimes you don’t have a choice. What you can do is write to companies asking them to stop putting their products in plastic. The captain says we need chemists to redesign the way we make plastics so they are not toxic as well. As far as awareness around the world goes, we are beginning to see more environmental groups taking on the plastics industry as well as educate people on the problems with plastic. Captain Moore has been to several countries around the world giving presentations to educate leaders on the problems with plastics. Thank you for your very bright questions. Best, Bonnie

Q: iv always ben very curious if this has ever happened to anyone. has a squid ever got you with its ink before? :) how is the weather on the boat? is it as nice as it seems? have you guys ever come across a bad storm? do you guys always have toe at fish? if not, what do you guys usually have? have you ever ran out of liquids to drink? Ariel, River Ridge, Florida

A: Ariel, as a matter of fact, Dr. Cooper got inked by squid that he caught in a net down in the Florida Keys! The weather changes every half hour it seems. It’s sunny, then cloudy, then rains a little, then it repeats the cycle. It is in the high 60s-low 70s. We haven’t come across any bad storms, just high seas.
We don’t have to eat fish, but we try to catch one a day to necropsy their stomachs looking to see if they ingested plastic and then we eat them. We have only caught Mahi-Mahi so far. We have a watermaker on board which takes salt water and makes it drinkable so we have an entire ocean to drink! It tastes good too. Thanks for the questions. Best, Bonnie

Q: I have read that a group from Scripps Institution of Oceanography has also gone out to the Pacific Plastic Gyre to take samples and study it. Are you collaborating with them or if not, what are they doing differently from you?

A: Happy to know you and your 4H group is voyaging with us! Thanks Amy. Yes, AMRF is collaborating with Scripps and have procured samples for them as well. Scripps even used the same protocol guidelines as AMRF.

Q: You mentioned that there is little ocean life in the gyre itself. Yet your previous statistics say the ratio of plastic to plankton in the gyre is 6:1. But if fish are not in the gyre then where are they ingesting plastic and what do you estimate is the ratio of plastic to plankton is in those areas?

A: It’s not that there aren’t any fish, it just doesn’t have the great schools of fish as in transition zones where the warm water meets the cold water and is nutrient rich. The fish that are here are eating plastic because plastic emulates food in many ways. As far as the ratios go, the samples from this summer will be processed over the next several months.Thanks for the questions and I hope the answers help. Bonnie and Crew

Day 24

2009-10-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

Noon Position Noon Position 31°22'15.12"N, 133°30'8.82"W

Day 24 Wednesday 9/30/09
It’s been a bit maddening to have to stay inside only to watch an occasional monster wave come up over the bow, cruise past our cabin porthole windows, on up another three feet to the galley windows and portholes and then slosh beyond the top of the boat out over the stern. Not that the spectacle doesn’t provoke some oos and ahhhs, but three days of this and I am so ready to get out on the bow to, at the very least, get some really great footage. Getting wet is a small price to pay for great footage. Given that information, you can probably visualize a certain someone with a harness and life vest with a waterproof camera in hand hanging from the starboard side. I didn’t get very far when I was beaten back by the spray. The lens covered in salty drops, I decided to continue shooting from inside. My friends will understand why there are water spots. We’ve gone three weeks with the sea state changing nearly every day, but the last three have consistently been the same - hanging around six to seven. Even though it isn’t raining from the sky, it’s raining from the bow. So we have left the boundaries of the said Garbage Patch without giving it much more than a last glance.

So what do we do? Read, write, fish, and eat. And the people aboard this boat know how to eat! You’d want them on your Iron Chef team. (Not me, I’m more comfortable jumping off the mainsail boom than I am making oatmeal.) The captain’s homemade hot cocoa alone is example enough. The captain’s recipe calls for Abuelita (a bar of Mexican chocolate), Scharffen Berger 99% cacao dark chocolate, milk and garnished with a vanilla stick. Amazing. As far as the fishing goes, the captain caught two Mahi Mahi this morning using squid that volunteered themselves for bait by jumping up on the bow in the middle of the night.

I got an encouraging email from my fellow plastic pollution warrior, Jennifer O’Keefe. The items discussed in the video confirms much of what Algalita Marine Research Foundation has been conveying. Your assignment is to read the message below and then go to the link, watch the video and tell me what you think!

An online video focusing on the science and politics of ocean trash published by the DC Bureau of the Public Education Center (http://www.dcbureau.org/) has recently been posted, highlighting an interview with the Dr. Holly Bamford, Director of the NOAA Marine Debris Program. The video and corresponding article, part of a series titled "Fish and Paint Chips," cover the issue of marine debris from a variety of different angles and interviews. The purpose of DCBureau.org is to provide bloggers, individual reporters, editors, news directors and others involved in all media platforms a new resource for stories, ideas and help. Recent research has the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concerned that the huge quantities of metal, plastic, paint chips and other man-made debris floating at sea, hundreds and even thousands of miles from land, may be working their way into the American diet.

Now here are the links;
(NOAA Marine Debris Program highlighted in "Fish and Paint Chips" Series by DC Bureau.)

Fish and Paint Chips Part I: The Science of Trash

Fish and Paint Chips Part II: The Politics of Ocean Trash

Let us know your thoughts!
More later.
Bonnie

Thank you for all the great student questions! More answers coming soon!

Day 23, and lots of answers to student questions!!!!

2009-09-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Noon Coordinates 35°12'19.92"N, 138°24'39.84"W

Day 23 Tuesday 9/29/09
I’ve had a lot of students asking what kind of fish or sea animals do we see - Turtles? Sharks? Dolphins? Manatees? I did get to see some dolphins while scuba diving in Hawaii and saw several sea turtles while exploring Kamilo Bay with Noni and Ron Sanford, but not since then. We swam while dolphin fish, otherwise known as Mahi Mahi, circled below down too deep to photograph. One night, we decided to flash lights over the ocean looking for Myctophids. When light hits them just right, their oversized eyes reflect a florescent red and they’re glowing photophor studded bodies make them look like fireflies of the sea. What we didn’t realize is our lights gave a school of Mahi Mahi the home court advantage and we found ourselves witnessing a feeding frenzy. The little five inch or so long Myctophids, twisted and contorted, zoomed and darted like kids playing dodge ball. I saw one jump over the head of a three foot Mahi Mahi. There were flashing fish and flashing flashlights going in all directions. Next thing we saw were squid getting into or getting out of the way of this dog eat dog world. Blotches of ink plumed the blue lit water.

Since we are on our way back to California with seas ranging from 5 to 7, cruising at 10 plus knots, weaving in and out of squalls, we haven’t had a chance to see much of anything. But today the sky turned blue, the captain put a line out, Bill threw the compost out and Jeff reeled in a Mahi Mahi (see picture above.) It was close to 30 inches long! Gwen examines the digestive tract for plastics and then Jeff took over. We’ll have it for lunch tomorrow. Good stuff!

To keep myself busy I decided to finish a project I started involving a poster using the inside of a shopping bag. We have a group of students from River Ridge High School, Florida who take part in AMRF’s Ship-to-Shore Educational Program that Holly Gray facilitates. Thanks Holly, you’ve recruited a great group of kids from all over the country and Canada!!! Well River Ridge High has a group of students known as the Reef Rascals soon to change there name to SPLASH (Students Protecting Land and Sea Habitats) who are getting some press and they asked for a photo from the gang out here. This was a little dicey since we all needed to be in it and with the boat bounces around so much self portraits are tough. We decided to use my video camera. So we all got in position in front of the camera and then just stared at it like “now what.” Without a “cheese” or “smile” or someone to say “Ready?” it left us all hanging until the captain, being the director of operations, began to sing M.I.C. K.E.Y. M.O.U.S.E. This was the most coherent picture I could extract from the footage. Great footage though.

CLICK HERE TO POST A COMMENT OR QUESTION TO THE CREW

ANSWERS TO STUDENT QUESTIONS
Q: Hay I am from river rige high school. I was just trying 2 figer out how the plastic has changed its figer from the last time you went out.Were do you do all of your testing is it on the boat our do u wait till u get 2 shower 2 do the testing. i am so happy that some one is trying 2 do some thing about it because if u did not do it how would. you guys put a smile one my face every time you all figer some thing new about the plastic.

A: Hay, hey! Good question! Gwen and the Captain were the only two who saw the results from the 1999 voyage that could comment on the comparison. They both agree that all the survey results they’ve done in the past including the 1999 voyage have been surpassed by this years trawling. We will have to take the samples back to the lab to accurately depict just how much more. You put a smile on our faces knowing that you are as much a part of solution as we are. Best,
Bonnie

Q: Hey! I'm Hannah from River Ridge High School and i'm a junior. I wanted to know, from all of you, what the mot memorable discovery was, and the most memorable part of your expedition. anything you didn't know going in that you know now? thanks!

A: Our most memorable discovery was how many big things there have been out in the ocean. Not only were the pieces that we found in our trawl much bigger this time around in the Garbage Patch, but also, the really big stuff that if our boat ran into them it could have potentially sunk our ship. For example, the big item on the pallet, a log 2’ by 10’, and a 6’ basin. Another huge problem we have had is with ropes, fishing line and ghost nets that have fowled up in our propeller and could have ruined damaged our engines. So plastic pollution can cause serious problems for marine vessels and proven to do so to the ORV Alguita.

Q:have you seen any sharks yet? A: No sharks, but if we do, we’ll be sure to get pictures!

Q: Hola, this is Dan, Garrett, Matt, Tyler, and Landan, better known as the SHARKS. We're from River Ridge High School. We were wondering what was your motive behind embarking on this journey to learn about the pollution in the oceans? When did you guys realize your love for marine life?

A:Sharks!!! I had some elementary students ask me if we’ve seen any sharks, I can at least tell them that I heard from a few! I think I can best answer this by answering the second part first. I never knew I cared so much for marine life until I read the magazine article in “Plastic Ocean” by Susan Casey in Best Life magazine. In it she describes interviewed Captain Moore and explained how sea mammals, birds, and turtles were getting entangled and ingesting our trash. She described “May West” the snapping turtle that is deformed by a plastic band (you can search for more info on the internet.) I was so saddened by the fact that our trash was maiming and killing the smallest birds to the largest mammals that I felt I had to do something. It inspired me to contact Algalita and for a year I hoped I would get to go to sea on the ORV Alguita. Just goes to show you if you put your passion first, anything can happen. Swim on Sharks! Bonnie

Q: Hi i am Claudia from River Ridge High School. My question to you guys
is, can you guys tell where the plastic comes from? is it only from
local waters or do you find plastic from across the globe?

A: Claudia, Now there is a question I can say I answer with certainty. Once plastic get in the water they are free to roam anywhere. (unlike cell phones minutes) Not often (because labels wash off) there would be something on them that we could tell where it was from. And even though we found labels written in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean it doesn’t mean it wasn’t from the US. Overall, most of the plastics are broken down into small fragments and are unidentifiable. Best, Bonnie

Q: Hey guys, its corinne and casie from river ridge high school and we just wanted to know if you guys had an thoughts on why there are less barnicles on large trash items now then there was ten years ago? also why it seems algae is replacing the barnicles in number?

A: Hi Corinne and Casie, We still don’t have a definitive answer to this question. We are hoping a marine biologist would email us the answer. I’ll let you know if I hear anything. Best, Bonnie

Q: Hi, I'm Christina from River Ridge High School in Florida. I was wondering why you think the barnacles attach themselves to the buoys. I also was wondering why you think there is such a difference from the trip in 1999 and the trip you are on now. :)

A: Hey there Christina, Barnacles attach to any solid surface that they come in contact with. For example, in marinas it is the bottom of boats and that is why we have special paint to try to minimize them attaching and slowing down the boat. As for buoys, it is just another surface. In this case they also are floating through new water all the time and thus the barnacles can get the nutrients they need to grow. We are still waiting on an answer as to why there seems to be less barnacles this time through the Garbage Patch. We’ll blog once we get an answer. Stay tuned. Bill

Q:This is Meghan a senior from River Ridge High School. I was wondering what fish you mostly encounter and what kind is your favorite to eat? Also what are you guys looking forward to most after you finish the voyage? September 29,2009.

A: Meghan, We put our fishing lines out almost everyday, but the only kind of fish we catch is Mahi Mahi. They taste good, but are so pretty . . .
I’m looking forward to wearing clean clothes. We washed our clothes once on the boat and it doesn’t seem as clean washing clothes by hand. On a more serious note, I look forward to presenting at workshops to share our findings to the general public. I will also be presenting my thesis for grad school on this topic in the spring. And last, but not least, seeing my grown children. Best, Bonnie

Q:hey guys, its corinne and casie from river ridge high school and we just wanted to know if you guys had an thoughts on why there are less barnicles on large trash items now then there was ten years ago? also why it seems algae is replacing the barnicles in number?

A:Hi Corine and Casie, We really do not know what the answer(s) are to your questions, but when we do, we’ll be sure to blog the answers! Best, Bonnie

Q: wow you guys are working hard, though you are encountering some troubles, you get done what is needed to get done. Im wondering how is it being away from home? And do you take any of the items to keep for yourself? ....Keep on keepin on. -Hannah H. RRHS-

A: Hi Hannah, Captain Moore is so kind, he let’s us take what we find. So I’ll be bringing home the toilet seat! (although he teases me that we have joint custody of it!)
We appreciate your asking about being away from home and I’d be glad to start. For me, having two children in their mid-twenties, it’s probably good for them that I’m away so I’m not coaching them all the time. All kidding aside, with only six crew members, we’re so busy there is little time to think about home. But this voyage has rekindled my sense of wonder and I’m trying to absorb the knowledge that Captain Moore, Dr. Cooper and Jeff Ernest so willingly share. I am a grad student in the Liberal Studies Program at UNC Wilmington and being a part of AMRF’s research is part of my final project. This has been a hands-on learning experience of a lifetime and one that I will never be able to recreate so I am enjoying every learning second of it.
Being away from home is different for each one of us. For myself, Bill Cooper, with a PhD in oceanography, I spent over the course of my studies 6 months at sea doing field work. The longest cruise I was on was 3 weeks and one gets use to extended periods of time away, particularly when you are conducting experiments around the clock like we are doing on this cruise. We are too busy to even think about home. Capt Moore says he feels the same way. He never tires of the sea, but when he gets close to home, he’s ready to return to his comforts and organic exotic garden. Lindsey Hoshaw misses her email, Twitter and corresponding with her bloggers. I also misses the smell of the desert, she is from Tucson AZ. Jeff misses his dog.

Q:I was wondering if your ship is almost full, and if so how are you going to store all these things when you just got to the Pacific Garbage Patch. Also, did you find anything that was from around the world? Zach and Richard New Port Richey, FL River Ridge High School 11th grade

A: Zach and Richard, You cannot believe the amount of trash we have on board. Hundreds of lbs of trash!!! But we have compartments as well as places on the deck to tie it all down. Some of it will go toward education, some will go to recycling.

Q: I was also wondering if you are going to test these materials/items you found when you get back or are you already experimenting on them? Zach River Ridge High School New Port Richey, FL

A: Hi, I’m Gwen Lattin a marine biologist on board the vessel. The debris we have collected will be mostly for outreach and education so people can see the material for themselves. We have also collected manta samples and samples of fish that have been associated with the debris. They will be analyzed once we return to the mainland. We will count and weigh the plastic particulates, then quantify it by calculating the number of pieces and weight of the plastic per square meter in the surface water and the number of pieces and weight of plastic per cubic meter for estimating the amount in the near surface water column. The fish will be analyzed for contaminants, mainly persistent organic pollutants (POPs). All analysis will take several months.

Ms. Rivenbark (in North Carolina),
I’m so happy to here from you. Hi students, thanks for your awesome questions. I’m having fun answering them. I will have a picture in the blog just for your class. It’s called a dolphin fish and it is the biggest sea animal we’ve seen out here.

Have you seen any sharks? We have not seen any sharks, but I would like to see one. In the Garbage Patch, there are not a lot of fish because it is not a good environment for them to feed on. But if I do, I’ll let the class know!
Have you seen any seals? We have not seen any seals. They are found on island areas and do not go far from land. I will be going to port in California and I might see one there. I’ll let the class know if I see one (and get a picture!)
How are you doing on the ship? We are doing great on the ship. We have a lot of food and the captain likes to cook so tonight we are having enchiladas! The boat bumps around a lot so we look funny when we walk. And at night, we can hear the water swishing around under our beds. It’s a lot of fun.
How do manatees live? Good question, but no manatees in this part of the world. They like to live where there is a lot of marsh and there isn’t any in the open ocean. I sure do like them, they look really nice.
How much trash have you seen? We have seen a lot of trash. We have seen more trash than we could pull out of the ocean. We have tried taking as much as we can and right now have close to 400 pounds worth.
Have you seen any turtles? I did see a lot of sea turtles when I was in Hawaii. Here is a picture of a baby one swimming in broken pieces of plastic. We took it out and put it in a cleaner part of the ocean so it wouldn’t try to eat it. Isn’t it cutes?
Have you seen any dolphins jump out of the water? Yes, we’ve seen dolphins jump out of the water when I was scuba diving they were only a few feet away. They were too fast to get there picture. If we see them again, we’ll send you a picture!!
How cold is the water there? The ocean water is in the low 70s. It is so much fun getting to the water that we don’t even think about being cold. When I get in, the water is so clear, I can look down and see my feet dangling in the pretty blue water below. This ocean never gets as warm as the Atlantic Ocean. (We want to compare the temp to our ocean water.)

Keep the questions rolling.
Bonnie, Lindsey, Bill, Jeff, Gwen and the captain

Day 22

2009-09-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

Noon Position 30° 0'31.50"N, 140° 6'2.46"W

Day 22 Monday 9/28/09
In the darkness of the morning, we completed our last trawl of the re-sampling surveys. Yet another large item caught in our trawl, a rope 16 cm long accompanied a large quantity of plastic particulates. There isn’t any fishing going n out here due to its oligotrophic state and yet we find fishing gear daily. A notable difference in the trawls of 2009 compared to trawls of 1999 is the number of large items caught in the manta trawl.

We pulled the manta in at 0500 and let the sails out at 0800 after battening down the hatches, securing our collected items from the sea, removing bathing suits from the line, and repositioning the last of our fresh fruits and vegetables. The sky was blue long enough for the genoa and main sails to bloat with fall cool air and pull us down a few miles toward home and into a perpetual squall. When we started we were 1035 nm away from Long Beach, California, but because of the 30 knot winds we’re making good time traveling 120 nm by 2000 on free fuel.

This is the first day that I have spent the entire time inside. The bad part was not being able to survey the ocean from the deck and collect plastic items. Yesterday the captain pulled in a crate that looked like it a grocery store bread crate. A perfect example of how we are finding things in one piece out here more than other areas of the Pacific we have surveyed. With the sea state pushing seven, water fanning over the bow as we careened 10 foot slopes, it was too dangerous. Sitting on the back deck had its own host of hazards. Water would sometimes hit us from behind and lap over the sides of the ship. Lindsey was sitting out on the aft with Jeff when we heard her let out a little yelp. A wave so powerful rocked the ship hard, knocking her off her seat. So they moved back into the galley where we sat all together sharing stories and sipped tea. It’s the first time since the voyage started that we have had little to do but to hang out.

The ship has its’ own way of communicating. It lets out blasts of noises from underneath with whining lines and jerking booms on top. I mentioned how I like to listen to sounds and name them. The captain laughed when I called one “the office” - it sounds like a slamming file cabinet drawer. Then there are the “after burner” noise that rocket out of the back. Like an oversize wave squished between the two pontoons, when it reaches the back of the ship it explodes its way free. There is also the “rollercoaster” noise that sounds like the chain pulling cars up a huge incline. The captain had one too, he calls the Mike Tyson punch. They’re all going off right now as we fishtail around across the other side of the Garbage Patch heading east via the north east tradewinds. More later, Bonnie

Day 21

2009-09-28T10:08:00.001-07:00

Noon Position 30° 0'31.50"N, 140° 6'2.46"W

Day 21 Sunday 9/27/09
Is this yours? I spied this from the galley window as it slid down a nine foot wave that dwarfed the size of this package. If you look closely, you can see it is strapped to a pallet which gives you an idea just how big it is. I’ve become keenly aware of debris floating after my 10 games of “How Long Can I Go without Seeing Plastic?” I had been outside most of the daylight hours even though a series of squalls kept me dodging for cover. One in particular, I watched as the silver veil of rain drew an exaggerated stiff line just after the horizon and then marched like locusts looming toward a cornfield (not that I’ve ever seen what that looks like.) I stood there for a good seven minutes watching it close in until I felt it on my face. Squalls rolled in and out throughout the day, but I was determined to stay out there in the cool damp air so that I could report my unscientific yet revealing results. I became so hyper-aware of the stuff that didn’t belong in the ocean that I couldn’t pass a window without looking out and shouting. “I see something!”

The 20 minute games took two people to play - one as an extra set of eyes to confirm the sightings and one to write down the time, dimensions, and color. We did not count anything we saw under an inch in size. After reviewing all 10 games, the longest we went without seeing a piece of plastic was . . . . . .7 minutes and 20 seconds. The average number of plastic pieces per 20 minutes was 15.9 pieces. The smallest pieces we saw were bottle caps (of which we saw a lot of and according to Big Sweep, bottle caps are the # 2 item found on the beach outside of cigarette butts.) The largest was a six foot trough with a rim like an old bathtub. One of the unique items was a blue man shaped bottle. Sorry Perry, it would have been a good one for you, but we couldn’t take anything out of the ocean because we were trawling.

Our trawls have been coming in with Texas-sized plastic fragments. Twice just today, we had to feed items back through the trawl because they were too big to fit through the codend. The captain said it was a rare occurrence to have large items end up in the trawls in previous years, it would happen, but very rarely. It has happened 9 out of the 11 trawls we’ve done for the re-sampling in the North Pacific Gyre. Items like a detergent bottle, a banana float, a handle and part of the top to a five gallon bucket, a good portion of a broken buoy, an Oral-B toothbrush, oyster spacers, and an umbrella handle just to name a few.

We have our 12th trawl tonight at 0130 and that will complete our 10 year anniversary re-sampling of the North Pacific Garbage Patch. We’ve had unusually rough seas throughout our sampling. The high pressure system that helps facilitate the accumulation has not been able to ward off the storms that have continued to hang around. The sea state has waned between four and six. These conditions usually don’t provide the best representation due to the fact that rough seas submerge many of the plastics. Yet, the captain and Gwen feel the quantities we are getting will surpass the samples of 1999. More later, Bonnie

Day 20- Oh Buoy!

2009-09-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

Noon Position 33°29'47.58"N, 141° 0'2.58"W

Day 20 Saturday 9/26/09
Oh Buoy! A day doesn’t go by that we don’t see several plastic buoys and rope roll past the ship. Today was no exception. But a morning reflection about the 1999 voyage got the captain talking about his general observation of not only the mere number of buoys we are seeing since his 1999 voyage, but the changes he’s observed this time more so than any of the previous voyages. The change has been in the number of barnacles he is NOT seeing on the buoys and the amount of algae that is on them instead. The number in buoy count doesn’t surprise us. With the amount of fishing competing in our deep waters, commercial vessels that are floating factories able to go to far reaches of the ocean bringing with them fishing gear that local fisheries can’t afford to lose. What he doesn’t know the answer to is where are the barnacles going?

To further his point, the captain sat us down and showed us slide after slide of fouled buoys with strands of barnacles like this one that are several feet long. We haven’t found anything even close to the examples he showed us - a time lapse up until the winter of 2008. And it wasn’t just the buoys, bottles too! We haven’t found one fouled bottle with barnacles and we have a repository of bottles. Is it a natural occurrence that their abundance reduces during certain seasons? Are they knocked off in rough seas? We’re a curious bunch way out here 1050 miles from Google and we’d like to use one of our life lines and phone a friend. Anyone?

Day two of our re-sampling brought in a collectors item. The captain has been collecting umbrella handles over the past 2 or 3 years. His collection has grown to a whopping 50 +. All of them have come from various beaches, but most of them have come from Kamilo Bay, Hawaii. Today was a first. While emptying the codend of the manta trawl at 0400, out plopped an odd shaped, dark brown umbrella handle, along with half of a flex-handle tooth brush, two bottle caps, and two oyster spacers. The captain is confident the tooth brush and umbrella are from land-based sources because it’s futile to bring an umbrella out at sea and there are too many uses for a toothbrush on a boat. The other interesting finds with these trawls is that there have been a higher concentration of identifiable objects as well as items too big to put in our sample jars. That is not to say that there aren’t a lot of plastic particulates and loads of them. Other odd finds today were a children’s toy cup (olive green/Tupperware?), Popsicle stick, and a travel size detergent bottle.

I have a new game, it’s called, “How long can I go without seeing plastic” I’ll share with you more about it tomorrow. My goal is to have played it 10 times before I reveal my average.

More later.

Bonnie

Day 19

2009-09-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

Noon Position 34°45'35.10"N, 142° 2'49.56"W

Day 19 Friday September 25, 2009
Today we reached our destination into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and began our 10 year anniversary sampling. The day started with a sea state of two/three which was doable for sampling. At 1155 the captain came over the loadspeaker announcing this monumental event and then had us hustle to the stern. Under gray skies and comfortable seas, the manta trawls went into the water at 1205 for an one hour and five minute swim.

Shortly after the manta launch, Gwen noticed a Japanese glass float drifting by. It was a gorgeous emerald green (not a color one sees a lot of out here, not even in plastic.) It looked to be about the size of a volleyball. These are a rare find and worth chasing after. Within minutes Jeff and Lindsey were heading off in the dinghy to find it with a hand held radio and GPS in hand. Within minutes they were completely out of sight and with every minute the sea state started to turn advancing to a sea state of four and looked like a giant washing machine on the "heavily soiled" wash cycle. It was a long 25 minutes before we could see them in the distance bouncing toward us. The emerald glass buoy lost its luster as the minutes passed. So when they returned without it, no one seemed to care.

The ocean has not calmed down since early afternoon and has progressed to a sea state of five. With 6-8 foot swells, 19 knot winds combined with the ship going at 6.5 knots, it’s much like driving fast down a hilly road. Sometimes the car catches some air and you can feel it in your stomach. My stomach has been flying around all day - one perpetual rollercoaster. Sometimes when we bounce low, water washes over the bow, up over my bed’s porthole window, rips passed the hatch and then back down again. It’s such a trip bouncing around in this capsule as the ocean does its thing out there.

Jeff’s dad has emailed a list of questions and I decided to incorporate them since there might be a few others who have similar questions. Now these are some questions in need of some answers.

1. Will you begin surveying Friday 9/25/09? Yes, we started at 1205 today at the coordinates set from the 1999 survey. The sea state was about a two at the time, but has jumped up to a five due to some squalls that seem to be following us.

2. How many days will you need to complete the survey? We are looking at four days to complete the 12 stations, but it is weather dependent. The forecast does look in our favor after today.

3. Are the winds still giving you free power or are you motor sailing? It’s been very patchy with the wind. We sailed three nights ago, but took them down in the morning. Charlie and I put up the Stay Sail yesterday at 0500, then put up the main at 0900 and then took them down in the late afternoon. With the tight survey schedule, we’ve been motoring at about 6.5 knots which is eating up some fuel. We did get to sail for a few hours while we trawled our first repeat sample survey though! But to truly answer your question, most of our sailing has been accompanied with a motor. Except for Tuesday night it was beautiful to sail through the silence of the night.

4. Your position report said you were back down to 33 degrees north. Is that a typo or did you swing south? Yes, we did some jockeying around trying to hit some algal bloom patches that Dave Foley had asked us to try to survey.

5. The January 2008 crossing from Hawaii was a little dicey regarding fuel consumption. How are you doing with your fuel consumption? Our fuel situation is still looking good, but being in the dull drums and having to hit locations at certain times may have us riding home on fumes.

6. I am getting the impression that the ORV Alguita is finding more trash with every mile over previous voyages. Is this the case? Today, I videoed the captain as he gave us his impression of this voyage, and he said this is nothing like what he witnessed in 1999, it is far worse. For one reason, every time we stop for a swim (and one time while we were in transit) our props and/or the ruder are fouled with derelict fishing/boating gear. Just this morning, the captain went under the boat after we retrieved a 3’x18”buoy, and found both props had rope around them. This was the second day in a row! Also, Jeff had to go under the boat two nights ago because the engine died and it was because of a huge ghost net. The captain fears that this area is becoming a navigational nightmare. Here’s another example, every time we put our fishing polls out, if they are out for more than an hour, one of them brings in a wad of rope. Another thing that is really concerning the captain is the quantity of stuff we are seeing float by. The trawls have been heavy with plastic, but to truly determine if it is more, we have to get the samples back to the lab.

7. Do you see evidence that the plastic pollution has increased in density on a per day at sea basis? I asked your son this question and he felt that the plastics are so patchy, it is difficult to say. I asked the same question to the captain and since he has been looking at this for 10 years, he felt that over the past 10 years this is the worst he’s seen it. Thanks Chief, keep’em coming.
More later.
Bonnie

Day 18

2009-09-25T09:37:00.001-07:00

Noon Position 31°54'51.46"N, 144°31'35.82"W

Day 18 Wednesday 9/24/09

I got “schooled” on anemones today. As sad as it may sound, I knew nothing of them other than what I saw in the animation “Finding Nemo.” With my childlike preoccupation, Jeff had to ask, “Haven’t you ever been in a tide pool before?” And then urged I go spend some time in one. You may wonder how the topic of anemones came up while out in the deep ocean, 100s, if not a 1000, miles from any tide pools or reef lines where anemones live. It has to do with yet another game I made up while trying to quantify or if nothing else, wrap my head around all this plastic I see daily floating by in all different shapes and sizes. Since the sea state was a two, it was good enough to get out on the bow and start hunting for plastics.

I made a hand drawn spreadsheet with categories of: color, item description, and then a series of columns for size increments i.e. 0-1 cm, 2-10 cm, and so forth. We started exactly at 1400 and intended to go for 30 minutes. Bill shouted out what he saw; I would write it down. Occasionally, he would try to pull them out. To keep it simple, we only counted and collected from the starboard side. If it were a competition between the white fragments and any other color/size, white fragments 0-1 cm would win hands down. With only nine minutes to go the captain pointed to a white piece roughly 3x5 inches small. Bill scooped it out of the water and when I pulled it out of the net, the white piece of plastic was covered with anemones which were covered with plastic. The captain was equally taken aback. An array of plastic particulates stuck to the anemones with a duck tape grip on the front and back of the plastic piece. Here we were with a total of 98 pieces that we counted in 26 minutes and this one piece of plastic looked to have an equal amount. So after a photo shoot, I started counting the number of pieces on each clumped mat of anemones. There were 14 clumps with a total of 131 pieces of plastic particulates attached to them, all clinging to a larger piece of plastic - 132!

Jeff told me that these critters cover themselves with rocks and shells to protect their soft jelly tissue against predators or from being scrubbed against rocky surfaces near shore. I found a book that described yet another detail, it said, “To prevent the fatal loss of water from body tissues during low tide, they [anemones] retract their tentacles and cover themselves with light-colored rocks and shells that tend to reflect, rather than absorb heat. Studies have shown that anemones have trouble maintaining fluids above 55 F. Gwen explained that the anemones use nematocysts as a way of attaching plastic to themselves and also added that they could be trying to feed on it, as well. So it was plastic that swept them out to sea and it was plastic in the ocean environment they found to cover themselves with.

Speaking of feeding, the captain treated us to yet another fanciful meal - a Chinese dish of Sweet and Sour Mahi Mahi - a 30” Mahi Mahi he and Bill wrestled in at 0900 this morning. Just in time before the seas jumped to a three and rock and rolled us until noon. The sails have been going up and down the past two days, but with less than 60 miles to the Garbage Patch, we’ll try anything to get there before our first scheduled 10 year anniversary trawl tomorrow at 1600.

More Later,
Bonnie

Day 17

2009-09-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

Noon Position 33°48'20.22"N, 146°56'6.06"W

Day 17 Wednesday 9/23/09
The moment my shift ended the clock had to be moved one hour forward leaving Bill with only one hour on watch. Our easterly travels led us into a different time zone. Not only has the clock moved fast forward but so has the volume of plastic pollution we are finding. We are 220 nm outside of the first sample sight inside the Garbage Patch and from what we’ve seen today, one has to wonder if the leviathan patch is growing at an alarming rate. Windrow after windrow of plastics strung across the water like strings of Christmas lights. Spaced just so far apart, the plastics rarely travel in tight packs, but in these conditions they’re strung along invisible lines. I know, we need to send a picture. It isn’t trivial to take a picture of this, but Jeff vows to get one that will illustrate just what we’re seeing. None of us have the equipment it will take to get a good shot, especially when it has to be reduced to 20 percent to send it from here. But we’re going to try.

Just from the port side this morning, I caught 13 good size objects within an hour and a half. That doesn’t include the stuff I missed and those just outside my reach (I counted 139 total). The smallest was a travel size aspirin bottle and my largest was . . .I’ll get to that later. First I want to tell you about the captain’s big find that rivaled mine. Yes, another 55 gallon drum with a square window cut out of the side of it (photo to left by Gwen Lattin) . Lindsey, Jeff, the captain and I snorkeled out to it to see what might be swimming under it. It was pretty barren compared to the last one that had tiers of fish teaming beneath it. After lugging it on board, the window worked well for the captain to catch the fish that swam inside.

The captain also caught a Mai Mai! Gwen preformed a necropsy and found a nice square piece of yellow plastic in its digestive system. Bill caught it all on video for the non-believers and a picture is being sent to AMRF if anyone wants to see it. It’s a bit gruesome for the blog. Gwen is also taking samples on fish that are associated with the plastics like a few that lived in the barrel. They will be analyzed for Persistant Organic Pollutants (POPs) when we return to the mainland.

We also collected two “super-size me” trawls. We rarely collect big items in our trawls, but today was an exception. Both the manta trawl and the folding manta had several large objects like a foot long wad of rope, roughly 4”x4” pieces of broken fragments, bottle caps, and one even had the entire bottle! The captain said these samples rival the most he’d ever seen in one trawl. It makes me fearful what it’s going to be like in the patch!

Now for my catch of the day - On the bow I made a little game for myself, to collect 10 things in an hour. (Remember my fiasco with the two corner piece. I was out to redeem myself.) Well I got stuck on number nine. There was a dry spell, not atypical of how plastic comes and goes in waves. I called on the ocean gods to send me something big and something soon because time was running out. It must have heard because it arrived shortly after. When I pulled it out, I thought to myself I'm glad the ocean has a sense of humor (see top photo by Jeff Ernst). The captain loved the find and proclaimed it to be one of the most unusual items pulled aboard Alguita! He explained to me that this particular seat is a Japanese invention. The seat is actually wired to serve as both a toilet seat and a bidet. More later, Bonnie

ANSWERS TO STUDENT QUESTIONS
Q: Hello this is Bryan and Ashley, juniors from RIver Ridge High School, in Florida. We were both very shocked to see this problem you have encountered with your sail. we were wondering what kind of precautions do you take for inclement weather like this? Do you have extra parts and supplies set aside for problems you my encounter?

A: Bryan and Ashley, Thanks for asking! I kind of left a cliff hanger there didn’t I. The bad news is, we do not have another spinnaker, the good news is we have three other sails - the genoa, stay, and main sails. And if wind permits, we can arrange them so that they somewhat emulate the spinnaker. We do miss the spinnaker though, unlike the others that are white, it was bright red and green. So not only was it a great sailing tool, it was beautiful to look at. Lastly, we also have plenty of fuel as a backup plan.

Captain Moore has been sailing most his life so believe me we want for nothing on this ship. Just yesterday I asked him if he had something to reinforce the net I was using to scoop plastics out of the ocean (it bent from the weight of the objects we have pulled out). He went into a cubby with spare/random stuff and pulled out the perfect piece of wood to use. It’s the same way with food. We have on board from the very exotic mole sauce to peanut butter and jelly. Keep the questions coming! Best, Bonnie Over the Ocean

Q: Hello this is Cleo and Sally from Maine. We were wondering if there are garbage patches in the Atlantic and would they be in the Sargasso Sea? I am starting a science/art/garbage project. A piece of art made entirely out of garbage found at various beaches in Southern Maine. And why aren't more people using corn based products? Love the Tracking Trash book!

A: Cleo and Sally, am I glad you asked! Just this summer I went to the Sargasso Sea with a small team of scientists to ask that very question. We did the same protocol AMRF uses which involves using a manta trawl to skim the surface of the ocean. Sure enough, every trawl we did had plastic in it. This was just a preliminary study, and will continue to our study this winter, but there is evidence that the breakdown of plastics in there as well. But we are not sure if there is the same type of accumulation as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch due to the differences characteristics of each ocean. You can check out <http://www.theplasticocean.blogspot.com> archives (7/18/09-7/28/09) to see some of the fascinating stuff we found out there. Dr. Marcus Erikson with AMRF will be doing extensive research this winter on the North Atlantic so keep checking back with www.Algalita.org <http://www.Algalita.org>.
I love the Tracking Trash book too! Good luck with your project and if you want to send pictures when it’s done, I’ll post them on The Plastic Ocean Blog. Best, Bonnie

Day 16

2009-09-23T08:57:00.001-07:00

Noon Position 33 41.703N 149 36.926W

Day 16 Tuesday 9/22/09
Today is yet another travel day. It’s hard to believe that the latitudinal line we started from stretched across the Pacific and slid beneath the Baja Peninsula, nearly 1000 miles down from the US/Mexican border. The ocean temperature had been in the high seventies/low eighties, the air hot and slightly breezy. Over the past 1,440 nautical miles we’ve felt the hot air fade away as the winds picked up and the water cooled. Most of us are wearing long sleeves and pants. Jeff sports a cap when it gets below 80.o I’ll be breaking mine out that Danielle Andre made for me just before the cruise. Thanks Danielle, I’m going to need it! After we leave the Garbage Patch it’s going to be much cooler as we head back to Long Beach, California.

We have 414 more nautical miles to go to begin our sampling in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. We should be there in two days allowing us to start sampling on Friday September 26th. We will be re-sampling the precise locations AMRF sampled 10 years ago that led to Captain Moore’s first publication on plastic pollution. The sampling will take three solid days or more depending on conditions. The captain explained that it should be warmer in the Garbage Patch as the winds will die down along with the sea state due to this area typically being monopolized by a high pressure system. We look forward to getting back in the water to video and take some stills underwater as well as what we find on the surface.

In the meantime, the captain continues to entertain us with crazy awesome connoisseur concoctions. We had homemade limeade with lunch and since he was cleaning out the fridge, he decided to make smoothies out of random fruits on the verge of going to the dark-side. He added some soymilk for good measure and BAM, it shamed Smoothie King. Tonight he’s preparing Chicken Mole which I guess is chicken with a chocolate sauce along with a side of sweet candied squash dusted with cinnamon. I never had it, but he hasn’t let me down yet!

Since we are catching some perfect winds at 16 knots over a sea state of four, we don’t have the ability to maneuver to pick up plastics that float by so we’ve been counting. Just in buoys today alone, Jeff has seen a dozen and Gwen five. As I was asking her how many she counted she looked over my shoulder and said, “There’s one now!” And sure enough, there was a black one floating by our ship. I’m a neophyte yet and have only counted seven floating by in two days. Bill, the captain, and Lindsey say they lost count. On board, we’ve collected 17 so far. We could make our own totem pole of buoys with the number we have seen. Not that these are the only things we see out here, 100s of random things float by daily and that is just what we see.

“Corners,” I said in a trance-like state as I stared at the white corner of a crate or something similar that floated by. We see a lot of corners of objects. We guess it’s because corners are likely to be sturdier than the other parts. The captain pulled one out yesterday and entered on our data sheet along with many others that we’ve collected. Two days ago, I had a huge piece with two corners intact making a “U” shape. We were traveling at about five knots so when it came rapidly floating toward me, I squared myself to the bow. I concentrated on my timing watching it as it decided to float on the starboard side. It was coming around the pontoon when I made my move. Half of it went into the net, the other have wrapped around the pontoon - clung to it like a child around its mother’s leg. It was ridiculous. I had the net on one end of it, but was afraid to pull for fear it would go down the other side of the pontoon. I yelled to Bill who was filming at the time to come help. Just as he got there, it let go. I clawed at it as it floated past me and on it went. I hung my head. “Don’t worry,” Bill said, “there’ll be plenty more opportunities.”

More later.
Bonnie

Day 15

2009-09-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

Noon Position 33°37'42.84"N, 152°28'43.80"W

Day 15 Monday 9/21/09
At the stroke of midnight last night, Lindsey was finishing up her 2200 to 2400 watch when all halyard broke loose. Actually, it was the spinnaker. Lindsey ran to Jeff’s berth, but he was already on it. He knew what it was just by the sound. “The sail tore!” The three of us in the other cabin were aroused by the commotion and the captain confirmed the urgency by chiming a bell. While Gwen took the helm, we all clambered in different directions grabbing clothes and slipping on life jackets then pressed on into the cool night air. The wind howled just like in the movies. The captain, Bill and I worked the lines down from the winch table on the aft while Lindsey and Jeff finished pulling the remains of the spinnaker on to the bow. The captain, Bill and I worked our way to the bow to find Lindsey and Jeff sitting on the spinnaker so it wouldn’t take off into the 30 knot winds. While Bill collected the lines from around the sides of the ship, I unlatched the head of the sail and secured the spinnaker halyard. I then took Jeff’s place so he could finish bringing in the lines. The boat rocked over large swells and dipped into cavernous water trenches. Water slammed from all directions in a confused state as the spinnaker laid wounded on the bow The beautiful and enormous sail that has carried us 300 miles just on the last run, blew out on one side and tore a 30’ hole down one side. We all worked in tandem to get the Main and the Stay Sails up and by 1 a.m. the drama was over.

We’ve average 8.5 knots since changing the sails. Alguita climbs over and rips through some 10’ plus swells without hesitation. The ocean sounds angry beneath us as if challenging the unfettered stability of this catamaran. The bumping and banging take turns every few seconds, some sounding like a Giant trying to fist holes in the bottom. Most the time we can block out the sounds, but the punchy ones usually get this novice sailor’s attention.
Inside the ship everything expresses itself. The dishes clank, the spices rattle, hanging towels pendulum, while the water bangs below. Even the sink has something to say, it gurgles and sometimes geysers. Lindsey laughed straight out loud the first time she saw it. A foot and a half geyser shot straight up out of the drain then straight back down. I didn’t dare tell her how I found out it did that. I discovered this unique phenomenon while standing over the sink. Later the captain said it was mostly sea water since the drain connects directly to the sea. It made me feel a little better than thinking last nights dishwater ended up on my face.

Traveling this fast via wind has such a different sensation. It’s like front wheel drive instead of rear wheel with the engines. The cat seems to flatten out over the water better. Even though we are traveling this fast, the squall that has been tailing us finally took the lead creating some fussy winds that forced us to add the genoa. Jeff, Lindsey and the captain managed to “get’er done,” while I videoed. Nice work crew!
More later.
Bonne

ANSWERS TO STUDENT QUESTIONS
Q:Clay F. Grade 9 East Hills 4H San Leandro, CA How is the Pacific Garbage Patch ever going to get cleaned up? Who will pay for it? Will it be a joint effort or a single country? What methods can be used to collect the plastic and not marine life?

A: Hello Clay, You pose some very good questions that don’t have easy answers. The first thing we HAVE to do is stop the flow of trash getting out here. Plastic pollution that makes its way out here is mostly from land-based sources such as litter and poor trash disposal. It’s like an overflowing tub because of a running faucet. You wouldn’t clean the water up before shutting the faucet would you? No, because you would just have to keep mopping. The same with the Garbage Patch. If we keep cleaning it, but we don’t stop the flow to it, we’ll have to keep “mopping” it up continuously. We need to all work together, all countries and every citizen needs to help stop the flow of plastic pollution by using less, reusing what we can and use non-plastic materials. Lastly, we all need to be proactive in picking up litter whether we did it or not. It’s the only way to prevent it from getting into our waterways and washed out to sea. We have to change our habits of using plastic and maybe you could be the one that figures out a way to do that. It’s going to take young inquisitive people like you to help solve this puzzle.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to pick out the plastic without harming marine life. Almost everything we hand-pick out of the ocean has marine organisms living in it, on it, or both. There are people working on technology to attempt to clean it up, but nothing has been implemented yet. Thanks for the questions. And keep in touch. Bonnie

Q: Hello, my name is Sean Peterson and I am currently attending Las Positas Community College in Alameda, Ca. First I would like to thank you for your research and the creation of this blog; I feel it can be used to help bring public attention to the plastics pollution problem we face. I was hoping you might be able to expand on the divergent-convergent wave forms and why plastics travels specifically in the convergent zones. I was suprised to learn that the plastic was not simply scattered but rather traveled in packs. Thank you again for your research!

A: Hi Sean, Thank you for contacting us with this question. Like many oceanic phenomena, it is not uncommon to find patchiness, that is, to find areas of higher concentration from place to place. Under calm or relatively calm conditions windrows are set up and these windrows can be areas of surface convergence which act to concentrate materials in the surface layer and in our case, plastics. On a recent cruise I took into the Sargasso Sea, the same phenomenon occurred with windrows of Sargassum. In some cases the Sargassum trapped the plastics and carried them into the windrow, but as we’re finding out here, the plastics float like Sargassum and form areas of higher concentration. As the seas get choppier, the plastics float by at a much more random rate. Best, Bonnie

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Fish and Paint Chips Part I: The Science of Trash

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