Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Research voyage across the South Pacific - sign up now!

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

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Research voyage across the South Atlantic - sign up now!

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

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Nearshore Sampling in the Pacific Aboard ORV Alguita

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.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

We've arrived in Mauritius!

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!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

April 2: Unidentified Swimming Objects

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!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

April 1: Pufferfish & Java

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?


Monday, March 29, 2010

Cheers to successful research!


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?