“Don’t touch the tentacles!” Joel warned everyone. We’ve got a Portuguese Man of War in the net. It has beautiful colors in shades of blue, a translucent balloon with a pink stripe across the top. We’re seeing plenty of wildlife. Just an hour ago two crew members spotted three whales. Both whales and jellyfish are susceptible to ingestion and entanglement by plastic. Baleen whales are filter feeders, and the tentacles of jellies tangle anything in their way. Anna just saw the fluke of another whale. We’ve now been at sea for 24 hours. A third of the crew has been sick. We’ve completed three trawls. And at this moment there’s still daylight while we travel 8 knots under sail power alone.
Q: Hello from Burbank Middle School-6th grade-since you're so close to Bermuda, the kids want to know if the legends about the Bermuda Triangle are true? Will you cross the Bermuda Triangle? What types of animals have you found? Are the waters safe to be touching with the bare hand? Burbank Middle School- Houston, Texas
A: Hi Burbank Middle School, Marcus here. Yes, you can touch the water with your bare hands. In fact, you can jump into it and swim around. You can even put it through a reverse osmosis filter to remove the salt, then drink it. It’s quite an amazing place to be. We haven’t seen land for a week. About the Bermuda Triangle, I don’t get it. I think it’s a popular urban legend that people talk about because it’s a good story filled with mystery and danger. The only dangers in the waters here might be sharks, which we haven’t seen yet. Unfortunately, we are seeing fewer and fewer sharks around the world. The other danger might be the swirling currents. The Gulf Stream brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida, and along the coast of North America. This current is like a giant river in an ocean. Sometimes the Gulf Stream creates giant swirling currents. You can’t feel them, but they can move your boat to places you don’t want to go, like backwards! Thank you for keeping in touch with us.
Q: The East Hills 4H Green Teens (aka Plastic Eliminators) are wishing you a safe voyage. We have become quite educated on the Pacific Gyre so we look forward to expanding our knowledge about these other gyres. Two of our members have made a short educational about the North Pacific Gyre which they will be showing at a 4H County Presentation Day On Jan. 30th. Maybe they will mention your new voyage as a footnote in their introduction?
A: Feel free to mention this Atlantic Voyage during your 4H County Presentation. We’re finding similar concentrations of plastic in the Atlantic Gyre, as we have found in the North Pacific Gyre. We’re catching a few fish as well. We’ll look in their stomachs for plastic. Please feel free to ask more questions.
Q: Ahoy captain and crew! My students and I are excited to join your voyage! We learned about your quest to from our special education newspaper called "News 2 U" and all about Plastiki. We have non-readers, but were able to enjoy the video footage online. As your voyage begins, if you can please provide as much video footage as possible that would be great. I'll be teaching a unit about "reduce, reuse, recycle" and reducing our carbon footprint on the environment as your voyage continues! God Speed! Mrs. H (BOCES classroom teacher) BOCES, Binghamton, NY, USA
A: Hi Mrs. H, Marcus here. I’m glad you’re giving some attention to reducing, reusing and recycling. There’s another “R” that is also important. That is “Recover”. There is so much plastic in the North Atlantic. It’s similar to what we’ve found in the North Pacific. You can’t go into the ocean and get it. It’s too small, too spread out, and too many living things that would get in the way of recovery. Recovery must begin on land. Unfortunately, plastic has no post-consumer value. Voluntary recycling programs recover less than 5% of what we create. One solution might be to create a monetary incentive, like a dollar for each pound of plastic recovered from the environment. What do you and your students think?
With regard to Plastiki, that’s a different boat. Two years ago we build JUNK, a raft floating on 15,000 plastic bottles. You can see all the photos, videos and journal entries at http://www.junkraft.com/home.html. It was quite an adventure to be at sea for 88 days as we drifted from Los Angeles to Hawaii. We may be building another boat made from plastic pollution to sail in the Atlantic. Stay tuned for that adventure.
And please send us more questions!
Click here to send a comment or question to the crew!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plastic Ingestion in Marine Organisms
Q: Hello from Burbank Middle School-6th grade-since you're so close to Bermuda, the kids want to know if the legends about the Bermuda Triangle are true? Will you cross the Bermuda Triangle? What types of animals have you found? Are the waters safe to be touching with the bare hand? Burbank Middle School- Houston, Texas
A: Hi Burbank Middle School, Marcus here. Yes, you can touch the water with your bare hands. In fact, you can jump into it and swim around. You can even put it through a reverse osmosis filter to remove the salt, then drink it. It’s quite an amazing place to be. We haven’t seen land for a week. About the Bermuda Triangle, I don’t get it. I think it’s a popular urban legend that people talk about because it’s a good story filled with mystery and danger. The only dangers in the waters here might be sharks, which we haven’t seen yet. Unfortunately, we are seeing fewer and fewer sharks around the world. The other danger might be the swirling currents. The Gulf Stream brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida, and along the coast of North America. This current is like a giant river in an ocean. Sometimes the Gulf Stream creates giant swirling currents. You can’t feel them, but they can move your boat to places you don’t want to go, like backwards! Thank you for keeping in touch with us.
Q: The East Hills 4H Green Teens (aka Plastic Eliminators) are wishing you a safe voyage. We have become quite educated on the Pacific Gyre so we look forward to expanding our knowledge about these other gyres. Two of our members have made a short educational about the North Pacific Gyre which they will be showing at a 4H County Presentation Day On Jan. 30th. Maybe they will mention your new voyage as a footnote in their introduction?
A: Feel free to mention this Atlantic Voyage during your 4H County Presentation. We’re finding similar concentrations of plastic in the Atlantic Gyre, as we have found in the North Pacific Gyre. We’re catching a few fish as well. We’ll look in their stomachs for plastic. Please feel free to ask more questions.
Q: Ahoy captain and crew! My students and I are excited to join your voyage! We learned about your quest to from our special education newspaper called "News 2 U" and all about Plastiki. We have non-readers, but were able to enjoy the video footage online. As your voyage begins, if you can please provide as much video footage as possible that would be great. I'll be teaching a unit about "reduce, reuse, recycle" and reducing our carbon footprint on the environment as your voyage continues! God Speed! Mrs. H (BOCES classroom teacher) BOCES, Binghamton, NY, USA
A: Hi Mrs. H, Marcus here. I’m glad you’re giving some attention to reducing, reusing and recycling. There’s another “R” that is also important. That is “Recover”. There is so much plastic in the North Atlantic. It’s similar to what we’ve found in the North Pacific. You can’t go into the ocean and get it. It’s too small, too spread out, and too many living things that would get in the way of recovery. Recovery must begin on land. Unfortunately, plastic has no post-consumer value. Voluntary recycling programs recover less than 5% of what we create. One solution might be to create a monetary incentive, like a dollar for each pound of plastic recovered from the environment. What do you and your students think?
With regard to Plastiki, that’s a different boat. Two years ago we build JUNK, a raft floating on 15,000 plastic bottles. You can see all the photos, videos and journal entries at http://www.junkraft.com/home.html. It was quite an adventure to be at sea for 88 days as we drifted from Los Angeles to Hawaii. We may be building another boat made from plastic pollution to sail in the Atlantic. Stay tuned for that adventure.
And please send us more questions!
Click here to send a comment or question to the crew!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lesson Extensions
Teachers- Here is a link to more activities and lessons relating to the topic ofPlastic Ingestion in Marine Organisms
13 comments:
my name is corey, my question is have you guys came up with a conclusion with the fact that if the plastic would have killed the fish or not?
Hi,
This is Clay from East Hills 4H.
Would the prevalence of hurricanes in the Atlantic (vs. the Pacific) alter the overall way plastic is distributed in that Gyre? You wrote earlier that it would put the plastic deeper and out of trawl distance but would it also cause the plastic to spread out more?
Hi my name is Rolani and I am a senior here at George Washington High School, Guam. I would just like to find out how much daily do you find fishes in a plastic obstacle and what is the most common fish to get stuck? Thank you!
Hello, we are Ms. Walker's 6th grade students. We were wondering if you could tell us how many pounds of plastic waste you have collected so far? We are also wondering how do you detect were the plastic waste is in the water? Please answer us as soon as you can
Sincerly,
Giselle and Valerie
Ms.Walker's 6TH grade students
Hello ,we are Ms.walker's 6th grade students and we were wondering if you could tell us how many pounds of plastic you have collected so far? We were also wondering how you know were to look for the plastic waste? what do you use to detect it?
Sincerly,
Giselle and Valerie
Ms.Walker's 6th grade students
My name is Jay from University high school, California. I just wanted to ask why the water that goes from the streets to the ocean is not being filtered in some way.
Hello, I am Pedro and in the 11th grade at University Senior High, and I was wondering if the sharks life style is affected by all the plastic and debrees? Also, in the California region have thier numbers have decreased as well?
Hello, I am Pedro, I am in the 11th grade at university Senior High and i have a question regarding the sharks; has the pollution, plastic and other debrees has affected their life styles and numbers in the California region?
Hello, I am Pedro, I am in the 11th grade at university Senior High and i have a question regarding the sharks; has the pollution, plastic and other debrees has affected their life styles and numbers in the California region?
Hello, I am Pedro, I am in the 11th grade at university Senior High and i have a question regarding the sharks; has the pollution, plastic and other debrees has affected their life styles and numbers in the California region?
Hi!My name is Daniela and i have a question.How would you guys cure a person from a jellyfish sting? And have any of you guys ever gotten stung by one?
University High School
Los Angeles, California
9th Grade
i'm a student from University high school located in santa monica california.I'm wondering, Is the portugese man of war rare?
Hi I'm here in Livermore, CA at Christensen Middle School and I was wondering what or who got you intersested in doing the things you are doing today? Have you always wanted to do the things you are doing today?
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