Welcome Aboard!!!ORV Alguita is back in port and preparing for departure for the big September research voyage! The education packet should be online by early this week!
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The Algalita Marine Research Foundation is dedicated to the protection of the marine environment and its watersheds through research, education, and restoration.
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.
11 comments:
Paul said...
Busy days for us all, Labour Day Weekend or not! Prepping the vessel for an extended voyage for you, getting started with a new school year for me.
Glad to be here!
-Paul Clarke
Grade 4 Teacher
Brooksbank Elementary School
North Vancouver, BC
N49 W123
September 2, 2007 6:43 PM
ORV Alguita said...
Welcome Paul!!
Glad to have you on board! Thank you for testing this out! You're the first!!! Let's see who else signs in!
September 2, 2007 8:29 PM
Andrea said...
Aloha from the Big Island :-)
What an exciting way for my students to learn! I am very happy to be a part of this voyage.
Andrea Medrano
Earth and Space Science, 8th grade
Kea'au Middle School
Kea'au, HI 96749
September 2, 2007 10:22 PM
Lucy in the Skies said...
This is quite exciting for me since ship travel leaves me in tears, can't get over the up and down and back and forth motion of the seas! Now I can enjoy without taking my first seasick pill. Your photos are great! Good luck to all! The moon is gorgeous out tonight, bright, orange and half way covered, esp. with the clouds.
Lucy, Houston, Texas
September 2, 2007 10:39 PM
HI, I'm Peter from Radford College Canberra. Myself and my class of Year 5 students are looking forward to the experience.
I spent 7 weeks as a teacher at sea 2 years ago. I'm excited to bring a group of students on board with this program!
Jackson Middle School
Grade 8 Environmental Science
Champlin, MN
Hello from Coral Springs, Florida. My 11-12th grade Marine Science II Students are looking forward to the voyage!
Didn't quite introduce the group that I will bring with me, 6th graders, mostly from Mexico, Central and South America, plus an assortment of 7th and 8th graders that come to my class for visits. I'm going to have a bulletin board for this. This is great.
Lucy
Great to be part of this exciting voyage. Hi! I am Luis Pinto from Chile. I am an oceanographer and marine educator. We work mostly with Middle & H.S. students in the area of Concepcion (lat 36.5º South).
Thank you for the invitation to be with our students on board!
Hello from Maine,
I hope you all can find space for my Mascot Picture on board. We home school here and visit the ocean just about every day. We have done some phyto plankton monitoring but only from the shore. We look forward to seeing how the research develops from the blue water. Will you be monitoring things like phytoplankton and zooplankton? Will you be monitoring other animals?
Home scooling in Maine
Cleo,
Check out your picture in the new post!
Yes we definitely do monitor plankton, but we are mostly looking at zooplankton. The two main questions we are trying to answer about zooplankton are:
QUESTION 1)What is the ratio of plastic debris to zooplankton in different areas of the ocean? The ratio looks like this
plastic debris/plankton=?
(measured by mass.) We have found the ratio in the area we will be sailing through to be as high as: 6/1= 6 times as much plastic as plankton.
Very frightening! But, we have to learn about the problem in order to come up with a solution!
QUESTION 2)Does zooplankton ingest (eat) the plastic? We know that some kinds do. We are asking this question because we are interested to find out how much plastic is entering the food chain.
As far as monitoring other animals- we are always fascinated to see what shows up on a long ocean voyage- I’m sure the crew will let us know what they find!!
Don’t worry I have not forgotten the questions you asked earlier- I am saving them!
Holly Gray
ORV Vessel Support Coordinator
Holly, where is the catamaran located in port? I've placed a map of the Pacific Ocean next to the Mascots photo and I want to track the voyage from beginning to end. Thank you!
Hello from West Anchorage High School. Thank you for the opportunity to join you in this very important research cruise! This will be a memorable experience for my students.
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