Monday, June 15, 2009

Day 6- First manta trawl!

Noon position: 24°52'40.80"N 128° 9'57.60"W

It’s Day six and we are officially 2/5 of the way to Hawai’i. Day six has been a day of firsts-- the first plastic trawl of the trip, and our first fish catch (a Mahi Mahi!).

Let’s start with the trawls. While the winds have been against us in terms of maintaining our original course, they have put us in an area of the Pacific which had never been sampled……until today! See the map below or Click here, to view more maps of our previous sampling areas. We deployed the first Manta trawl, a device that captures surface debris in a fine mesh net, at 9am. This process was akin to riding a bike for the Captain and veteran crew Drew, Joel and Jeff, and a learning experience for the newbies (Christiana and myself).

After an hour of towing the trawl we pulled it in to find a strikingly low amount of plastic. Among the plastic identified was some line, a few hard plastic fragments, and a piece of a clear plastic label on which we could decipher the letter “d”. Among the life identified in the sample was a button valella, some copepods, a juvenile Pacific saury, and tiny gastropods with gorgeous purple shells. (See image of sample at the top of this message.)

The evening brought on trawl number two. This trawl gave us the opportunity to experiment with a tethered underwater camera, which Joel was able to rig to record the underwater flow into the Manta trawl. This was a significant in that it confirmed the integrity of our surface sampling methods. We ran the evening trawl for an hour as well, finding results similar to the morning trawl--very little plastic.

Obviously the low quantity of plastic present in samples is good news, but it does highlight a key point. Throughout fifteen years of sampling, we have yet to bring in a trawl completely void of plastic. While standing on the foredeck today, the Captain was able to identify plastic fragments flowing past the vessel. We also spotted some larger debris, a 5 gallon bucket which managed to evade our collection efforts. The point is, even in this new sample area in which our trawls our producing comparatively low amounts of plastic-there is still enough debris present for us to visually register and in our trawls. The relatively low amount of plastic also points to the possible delineation of the boundaries of an accumulation zone, although it is far too early in the data collection process to make any definitive conclusions. Joel noted that during the JUNKraft expedition last summer he and Marcus Eriksen noted a similar trend in abrupt transitions in plastic accumulation as they skirted the south edge of the accumulation area.

And finally, after five days of rigging fishing poles and hand lines, we had our first catch. Christiana kept the liver and other organs and tissue for future analysis.

Best wishes from the Capt. and Crew

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Were you scared when you began the voyage?
State Street Elem., CA, USA, 4th grade

Anonymous said...

How does it feel to be out in the ocean for six days!

State Street Elem. CA, USA

Anonymous said...

Thanks for researching this important stuff to help our world!!
State Street Elem.; CA, USA; 4th gradee

Anonymous said...

state street elmentry usa ca how do you put plastic in the sea...

Anonymous said...

What has been the most interesting thing you have seen?
State Street Elem. Ca usa

Anonymous said...

Are you having fun at the voyage?State Street Elem.; CA, USA 4th grade

Anonymous said...

Hi our

names are Jeanette,Miguel,Steven we are from CA, USA our school is State Street Elementry and we want to know howfar are you guys in the ocean?

Anonymous said...

Hi, how are you? You are doing a GREAT job!! State St. School CA,USA 4TH grade SERGIO

Anonymous said...

Hi, what are you doing? Our school is State Street School. My name is Ana from South Gate, California. And my friend name is Dariela.

ME and my friend wish we could be in the Crew. What is your name?

Anonymous said...

ca,usa Our school is named State Street School. We are in 4th grade. Well, we are about to go to 5th grade. This field trip was really cool and I learned alot about the work that you do. Come to South Gate sometimes. What kinds of things do you find?

Anonymous said...

HI MY CLASS AND I LIKE HOW YOU GET TO SEE THE ANIMALS.I REALLY LIKE ANIMALS. I LIKE HOW YOU DO YOUR JOB. HELLO OUR NAME IS MADELIN,JANET,AND AARON. STATE STREET ELEMENTARY

Anonymous said...

How do you work boats in water?
CA,U.S.A
State St.School
4th grade

Anonymous said...

Hello our name is Emmanuel, Desiree,and Andres.We heard that you collect plastic. State Street Elementry

Anonymous said...

ca,u.s.a state st.elementry school
Joel how did you get the idea of making a ship of bottles ?

Do u know that many fishing can not only effect fishes but it can also birds.

Do you get seasick when you are traveling by boat ?

Anonymous said...

How are you, I want to ask you something how much have you been on the ocean? 4th grade state st. elem school usa, ca

Anonymous said...

State Street Elementary Schhol
Ca, U.S.A.
How do you save the animals?and how do you help them to survive in the water and in the ocean?Then we will or not them but me, I hope to save the animals.

Anonymous said...

Hi, my school is State Street Elementary School in California U.S.A. I'm a fourth grade student named Pancho. I want to know what you guys are researching. I want to save the environment, I will always recycle. What else can I do to save the environment? I also play soccer.Have a great voyage.

Anonymous said...

State Street Elementry CA,USA
Nataly
how do you catch the fish?
wendy

Marcus E. said...

Hi Everyone! Marcus here. How's the Mahi Mahi? Try making jerky out of it. Joel's an expert at it. I read you were able to film the trawl in action. Is the aperture staying under water at all times? Did you add any weight to the back end to keep it down? Anna and I are now in Santa Monica with 150 miles to Tijuana left. We're wishing all of you plenty of wind and hope you've got enough SCOP patches. So, who got sick first?