The Captain and Crew aboard ORV Alguita are ready to answer your questions about the research voyage underway via a satellite connection from the ship. Let's start by posting ONE QUESTION PER CLASS here under the comments section of this "Student Questions" Post or email your class question to me at:
vesselsupport@algalita.org
Please include your School's name with your question!
Holly Gray
ORV Alguita Vessel Support Coordinator
ANSWERS
Question 1: T-Birds asked "Can you show us your navigation route online?"
Answer :Absolutely, but I want to give you the opportunity to try plotting the route first.
Go to http://orvalguita.googlepages.com/oceanographicresearch and scroll down to Part 1 "Charting ORV Alguita's Voyage." You can either chart ORV Alguitas Voyage on a paper chart or in the 3-D satellite imagery program "Google Earth." Use the coordinates that the crew has been providing in their messages from the vessel!
10 comments:
Can you show us your navigation route online?
Questions from Radford College Canberra, Australia
1.How fast does the vessel go and how much fuel do you need to keep it running?
2. Does the Plastic Dust effect plants like the Giant Kelp?
3.What sort of data do you expect to collect and how will you collect the data?
What happens if an animal is using the plastic for its home? Do you take it anyway?
Kea'au Middle School
Kea'au, Hawaii
Kea'au Middle School,
In answer to your question about whether or not we take the plastic that animals are living on out of the ocean.
The answer is yes, we take everything that we catch in a sample back to the lab to determine the amount of plastic vs. the amount of zooplankton. We are also very interested in how often different kinds of animals eat plastic. It is possible that some animals eat the plastic because of the other animals (like fish eggs) attached to the plastic. Some researchers study how different kinds of animals move around the world on floating pieces of plastic and the problems that can cause.
See the captains answer to your question in the update on Day 6;
http://ship2shore.blogspot.com/2007/09/day-6.html
George Washington High School
1.) What do you expect to accomplish through your efforts in studying
plastic in the ocean?
2.) How would the information you discover help contribute to future
studies?
Check out the answers to your questions on the "Ghost Net" post http://ship2shore.blogspot.com
/2007/09/ghost-net.html
hi! my name is tiara sanagustin && i am one of ms.tatreau`s students at gw.i would like to know a couple of stuff...
-is debri in the ocean really contributing to global warming?
-is there any law that says that you should dispose of plastics properly?if so,why isn`t it being enforced powerfully?
thank you!
Hello from Griffin, GA. We are wondering if most of the plastic found in the ocean is from large trash barges that dump their load miles off shore OR from manufacturers OR from the litter generated by everyday people that gets into the watersheds and eventually the ocean?
Thanks!
Hi my name is Cristina Toves and I am an 11th grade Marine Biology student at George Washington High School in Guam. I have a question regarding your current expedition.
Our class watched a video entitled "Our Synthetic Sea" which was based on one of your previous expeditions. At the time, the amount of zooplankton was 1 pound for every 6 pounds of plastic.
My question is has this statistic improved or has it got worse?
I would really appreciate an answer.
Thanks, Cristina
Keishia from George Washington High School--
What has been the most interesting or strangest thing you have found thus
far? And what measures are you taking to either promote it, or solve it?
My name is Brianne and I am a student at George Washington High School. My Marine Biology teacher, Ms. Tatreau, has informed us that if we wished to ask a question, we may email it to you. We are currently studying the effects of plastic in our ocean, and how it affects us. My question would be, "After all the research your team has been doing, do you think we can ever find a safer way to dispose of all the plastic in the world? And what do you think will work as a substitute that is enviromentally safe?"
yours truly,
Brianne
The Chelmsford lions wanted to know if the crew can already differentiate between the different types of plastics they're finding . We know in our town recycling we sort by the number in the triangle. Are the plastics still in such shape that items that were given these numbers can still be seen on them? Does the crew have a hypothesis already on what numbers deteriorate fastest? Are you taking water samples with the plastic because a faster deteriorating plastic might give off chemicals into the water that might be toxic to some life?
We, also wanted to know how you knew this garbage field was there. Can it be seen be satellites? How would you know if you are in the middle of it or still heading in?
We are studying the main ocean gyres and we were wondering if there is a garbage field within each ocean gyre. We were wondering if the Atlantic Ocean had this too!
Who decides what research projects your ship will undertake? Does the crew change with the assignment?
Will any of the crew follow the plastic and do some of the testing on the plastic?
Hi my name is Nico from George Washington High School and currently studying marine biology.
I was wondering how will your research change peoples perspectives on plastics that are in the ocean?
Hi my name is Nico Evarola from George Washington High School and currently studying marine biology.
I was wondering what was the most interesting finding since your expedition began?
Hi my name is Shaelene Guerrero I go to George Washington high school on Guam.
And about the blog basically what is a ghost net used for because I never heard of it? And how long does it usually take you to get to where you want to go by boat?
I think the things that you are doing and experiencing is really neat and I would like to learn more about your experience....
Hi my name is Nico from George Washington High School and currently studying marine biology.
I was wondering how will your research change peoples perspectives on plastics that are in the ocean?
Brooksbank Elementary
You can *smell* red tide??? I've seen these algal blooms along British Columbia's coastline at times, one summer being remarkable for such a widespread shellfish closure...every anchorage was rose-coloured... but I've never smelled it. Perhaps this is late in the bloom and there are a lot of dead cells decomposing on the surface??
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