Stormy Weather!

Photo by: MaartenVandenEynde.com

Dear Ship2Shore students,
Wonderful to have you all on board! We’re thrilled to hear from you all - River Ridge High in Florida, Santa Monica High in California, George Washington High in Guam, Alcaparros School in
Bogota, Colombia – what an amazing range! For the last few days, the seas have been wild – wind 40 knots per hour, huge waves washing over us on deck, and our boat heaving from side to side like a dizzy, 3 legged elephant. This photo above of Joel trying to throw some orange peels overboard, while strapped into the boat with his lifeline gives an idea of what its like - a bit rough, but your messages put a smile on our faces. And the winds are just now starting to die down!

Many of you had similar questions, we thought we’d try to answer some of them together. It might take a few days to get to them all, so bear with us. We ask just one thing in return: many of you asked what you can do to stop this problem. We want to throw this right back to you - you are the next generation, bright, and full of great ideas. Discuss this as a class, and better yet – start getting active in your communities – we have no time to lose! And next year we’re going to hold a big international gathering called “Plastics Are Forever” for students around the world to share, learn, and have fun with each other, so start thinking now, we’d love to have you join us. Stay tuned for more info.

Answers to Student Questions

Q: SHOULD WE STILL EAT FISH? Leilah, Sandi, John, Christina, Erin, Anna Lisa, and several others had questions about whether or not eating fish is healthy – this one comes up a lot!

A: You may have heard our discussion on Good Morning America – we talked about the fish we’ve seen in the North Pacific Gyre with Captain Moore: we collected 671 lantern fish and found that at least 35% of them had plastic particles in their stomach. Marcus also caught a fish called a Rainbow Runner, with 17 pieces of plastic in its stomach (see pic below).

Now, does this mean you should stop eating fish? Not necessarily in fact we all ate fresh tuna just the other day, fished straight from the Atlantic. Fish are a wonderful protein source, full of many nutrients that are important for our development. But we need to do a much better job keeping plastic out of the oceans. We’re facing a few major problems globally with fish - overfishing, pollution, and climate change to name a few. See what you can find out on line about these issues.
We’re only just beginning to look at the impacts plastic may have on our health through fish eating plastic. This is really a newly documented problem, and will require much, much more study. We do know that plastic particles can absorb certain chemicals like PCBs, flame retardants, and pesticides that wash into our oceans. And we know that some fish are eating plastic particles. But we have no idea yet how common this is, or what happens to these particles after ingestion.

Are there chemicals on the plastic pieces that fish eat, and if so, are these chemicals getting into their tissue? Are there trace levels of these chemicals in some fish tissues, and if so, how will this affect us? Only further research will help us answer these questions – we don’t yet know for sure. Still, you’re probably better off eating fresh, wild caught fish than many of the processed foods we buy in markets. If you’re concerned about eating healthy, clean foods, your best bet is to try and buy organic, whole foods – or even grow your own! Make sure you eat lots of fruits, veggies, and whole grains, and avoid anything with ingredients you can’t pronounce. This is also a great way to reduce plastic packaging, since processed foods always come wrapped in throwaway plastic.

Q: MARINE ANIMALS AND PLASTIC ENTANGLEMENT Evan from Florida, Tayllor from Santa Monica HS, California and others were concerned about how plastic impacts animals, and what we can do about this.


A: All over the world, animals are affected by our wasteful ways on land. 44% of all seabird species, 22% of cetaceans (whales, dolphins), ALL sea turtles, and hundreds of fish have been found with plastic in or around their bodies. They may mistake it for food, get tangled in it, or sometimes even be living in it, like the trigger fish we found the other day. Unfortunately, we can’t find all of these animals to help them – the oceans are so vast, and these creatures generally try to avoid us.

The BEST thing we can do to help them is to get active in our schools and communities to stop the flow of plastic trash into our oceans. What plastic packaging do you see on campus? Is there a lot of wasteful plastic in your cafeteria? How about at home – can you encourage your family to reduce the waste you generate? Or can you find out when your local city council meets and go talk to them? We have to stop this problem at the source.

Q: LIFE AT SEA: Many of you (including a student from Santa Mornica High, CA and Mike from Florida) wanted to know what life is like on board.

A: Perhaps some of you might want to embark on an adventure like this some day? We actually have a young man on board, 19 years old, who decided to sail around the world for a year instead of going straight to college. Here’s a photo of Stephen, hoisted up in the boatswains chair to shoot some video from higher up. He’s going to share a bit with you about his experiences.

STEPHEN: Hi everyone. Last June I graduated from high school in California. Instead of going straight to college or work, like most of my friends, I decided I would take a few months to adventure and experience the world. I had no experience sailing before, but now it’s been nearly six months since I started on this journey in England, and I am loving every minute of it! Life on a boat is very different from what I was used to back home. Being at sea requires a lot of hard work, and the ability to adapt to many situations. The sleep schedule is strange. Sometimes you have to wake up at odd hours, sometimes you go to sleep in the afternoon. Everybody has to do a watch, which means spending a few hours on deck to run the ship. Before I came aboard, I was worried that I would have to eat only canned food for months. Luckily we have a full galley, meaning we get to eat well. Living on a boat is quite an experience. We get to experience many different cultures and places, and travel in a way most people aren’t able to experience. In a month I’ve gone from SCUBA diving in tropical waters to sailing in a gale over 30foot waves. Everything is always changing, which means life is always interesting. If you ever get the chance to go sailing, or even traveling, I strongly suggest you take it!

Q: WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO? Teresa, Stephanie, Josiliyah, Anastasia, Shannon, Sandii and many others wanted to know what we can do to solve this problem.

A: Unfortunately, we can’t clean up the gyres, the oceans are bigger than you can imagine – vast, endless expanses of water. The plastic we see here is so spread out, it would be impossible to remove it all. And until we stop the problem on land, plastic will just keep flowing out to sea..

Solutions have to start on land. Marcus and I have many ideas about things we can do to help solve this problem, from simple, everyday actions people can take, to larger approaches from our governments and businesses. Rather than tell you all of our ideas right now, I’m going to suggest that you guys first do some brainstorming on your own. Use the internet, talk as a class, and see what you can come up with – we’d love to hear YOUR ideas! Then maybe you can share your ideas with us at our “Plastics Are Forever” youth summit next year! Check out Team Marine in Santa Monica and the Green Ambassadors in Lawndale for some interesting ideas – see what young people like you are doing already.

Thanks again guys, we’ll try to answer more of your questions tomorrow!