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.
2 comments:
HEY GUYS!! JUST WANT TO WISH YOU GOOD LUCK! AND I HOPE THAT EVERYTHING GOES WELL!! THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU'RE DOING FOR THE MARINE ENVIROMENT. HOPE TO LEARN ABOUT MORE THINGS YOU GUYS DISCOVER OUT THERE IN THE OCEAN.
Carlos F.
Period:2 University High School
West Los Angeles!
Kids are anxious to see more pictures of what you have discovered. They're common question, Where did the plastic come from? and I answer, You, Me, Us, all the people all over the world. What research has been done in the Indian Ocean? Is there just as much pollution there? Is the majority of the plastic pollution non-point source or are you able to track something back to its origin? How receptive to your research were the students at the University of Azores? Burbank Middle School
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