Deepest Plastic Trawl Ever

September 20, 2007
Today we conducted the deepest trawl ever looking for plastic debris. We used paired bongo nets, and let out enough cable for them to reach a depth of 100 meters. The bongo net looks like a pair of bongo drums, one meter in diameter each, but instead of a skin stretched over the mouth, a net extends behind each drum.

In order to close the choke collar on the bongo nets at that depth, we used our heaviest fishing poles and attached the end of the line to the closure. The monofilament fishing line exerted less drag on the closure, so that it would not close before the end of the trawl. After one-half hour, the fisherman pulled in like they had a marlin and closed the choke collar on the bongo nets and we pulled in the cable with the winch. There appeared to be a couple of small plastic pieces in the collection bag, along with the zooplankton. Because the bongo collects down deep, we are able to run the Manta Trawl at the same time. While we were trawling, a black footed albatross flew over the Manta, a beautiful soaring scavenger of the deep ocean.

Our noon position today was 38 41 N, 142 02 W. A question for you, how many meters of cable did we have to let out at an angle of 45 degrees with the surface to reach a depth of 100 meters?

Aloha from ORV Alguita

Hoy hicimos la draga mas profunda para plastico que aun se ha hecho. Usamos una draga que se llama bongo. Parece al instrumento, pero con un diametro de un metro cada lado y una red atras de cada cilindro. Usamos canas de pesca para cerar el collar, porque la linea delgada no jalo demaciado, y no cerro el collar antes de la media hora que la jalamos. Despues de una media hora, regresamos la red con la grua y las canas de pesca, y encontramos un pedacito chiquito de plastico intermezclado con el zooplankton que atrapamos. Al mismo tiempo estabamos dragando con la manta, porque esa red trabaja la superficie, y volo encima un albatros negro. Nuestro posicion medio dia, 38 41 N, 142 02 W. Estamos en el centro del giro, con una prescion atmosferica de 1030 milibars. Una pregunta, cuanto cabo tuvimos que soltar a un angulo de la superficie de 45 grados para llegar a una profundidad de cien metros?

Saludos desde ORV Alguita

Sample Analysis back at the Lab

Algalita Marine Research Foundation Biologist Gwen Lattin explains some of the equipment that will be used to analyze samples gathered by the research crew aboard ORV Alguita. This shows the equipment used in the lab to measure the ratio of plastic to zooplankton in a known volume of water and then sort the different types of plastic by size and color.



A message from Dr. Marcus Eriksen, Director of Research and Education at Algalita Marine Research Foundation.

Septermber 19, 2007

September 19, 2007
Last night's dive was begun in calm conditions, but before it was over the wind was blowing 15-20 knots. The sea anchor held us on position very well and it was no problem to dive with the boat nearby. We saw lantern fish, miniature squid, ctenophores, and colonial creatures that looked like transparent worms. In general though, there was very little visible life in the water. The creatures were few and far between, reminding us that the Gyre is the oceanic equivalent of a terrrestrial desert. After we finished our dive around 2300, we had bright lights on deck to organize our dive gear and we were visited by a storm petrel attracted by the lights. It landed on deck and even came inside the cabin before we picked it up and released it. We believe it was a Madeiran Storm Petrel, Oceanodroma castro, but we are
sending along two photos for the experts to make a positive identification. We then set sail with main and genoa jib and have been making an average of 6 knots for the last 24 hours. Our noon position on 9-18 was 38 12 N, 137 22 W. Our noon position on 9-19 was 38 13 N, 139 15 W.
Aloha from ORV Alguita

Los cuatro busos anoche empezaron en calma, pero cuando terminaron con el buceo, el viento venia del noreste a 15-20 knots. Tenemos una paracaida para ancla de 6 metros diam. que sirvio muy bien para mantener nuestro posicion con relacion a los busos. Durante el buceo, vimos calamar chico, peces con lanternas y ctenophora, pero en realidad hubo poco que ver,
recordandonos que esta zona corresponde a los desiertos terrestres. Las luces del barco trajeron un ave y mandamos dos fotos para ver si ustedes pueden identificarlo. Saludos de Alguita, y gracias por sus preguntas.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1)Hola, soy Javiera de 6º basico de la Escuela Villa Centinela Sur que trabaja con el profesor Luis Pinto. Mi pregunta es para que necesita filtrar agua la profesora Lorena Rios? y si es agua solo de la superficie del mar. Gracias. Centro AquaSendas, CHILE

Hola Javiera, Necesito filtrar el agua de mar para retener en un filtro especial llamado GF/F, los solidos total suspedidos en el agua de mar y de esa manera analizarlos y ver si en estos solidos tenemos retencion de contaminantes organicos. A su vez, analizare el agua de mar para ver si es
posible la deteccion de estos mismos contaminantes organicos en el agua de mar o en las particulas que se hayan pasado del filtro. El agua que estamos muestreando es superficial. Tambien estamos atrapando microplastico con una red a la vez que tomamos muestra de agua y poder correlacionar la contaminacion si la encontramos en alguna de las fases, solidos, agua o
microplastico.

2)Hola, soy Escarlet, estoy en 4º basico de la Escuela Caleta Lenga. El profesor Luis me conto que un grupo de cientificos estan en un pequeño barco en el mar. Mi pregunta es donde duermen? y que comen? De donde sacan agua para beber?. Gracias AquaSendas, CHILE

Hola Escarlet, el Alguita es un catamaran que tiene un tamano de 25 toneladas, 16 m de largo con un mastil de 21 m. Podemos acomodarnos comodamente 6 personas en total, incluyendo al Capitan Moore. Cada uno tenemos una cama, el espacio es reducido pero aceptable, contamos con dos banos y dos regaderas, una cocineta y un pequeno comedor. En la popa, se
pueden tomar las muestras. el espacio es de unos 7 m de ancho y 4 m de largo. Se pueden tomar a la vez muestras con una manta y una red mediana de 28 cm por 45 cm. y el sistema de filtracion de agua de mar. La comida es deliciosa, ya que nuestro Capitan es totalmente internacional y con muy buen gusto para la cocina. El conoce mucho de la cocina mexicana, asi que por mi parte estoy encantada. Se que los demas participantes tambien estan
contentos con la comida. El Alguita tiene su propio sistema de filtracion osmotica y produce agua dulce con el agua de mar, dado que este sistema permite el paso del agua pero retiene las sales.

Steve Vogel at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium wants to know the approximate size of the squid so he can help us identify it.
The squid was about 16cm in length.

Second Day in the Eastern Garbage Patch

September 18, 2007

It is after nightfall and we are preparing for a night dive in misty rain and 1026 millibars of atmospheric pressure. During the day we collected debris, like a hard hat and a jar with food inside (very unappetizing). We also trawled for debris and along with disturbing amounts of plastic fragments and line, got an interesting squid, whose identity is a mystery. Maybe you know what species it is. We have successfully replaced the malfunctioning hydraulic pump on the auto- pilot, which is the cause for much rejoicing.

We took the dingy out and cruised around looking for things. We found jellyfish that looked like plastic and plastic that looked like jellyfish. It gets harder and harder to tell the difference between the two.

The Garbage Patch

September 17, 2007

Today was our first day sampling inside the Eastern Garbage Patch. We sampled the area around 37 33N, 136 W. Our neuston (surface) trawls pulled up great quantities of plastic fragments, a small fishing float, a toy tire, and Japanese oyster farm spacers, along with several pre-production plastic pellets. The film crew took the dingy and filmed under water. They picked up a life jacket encrusted with barnacles. We have had an autopilot failure, so we are having to steer by hand until we get it fixed. That takes a crew member away from the research, but at least everyone will learn how to handle the ship.

Aloha from ORV Alguita

First Manta Trawl

September 16, 2007
Today we took our first water samples with the Manta Trawl, which is dragged along the surface behind the boat and feeds seawater through a mesh tube roughly the size of a can of tennis balls. The mesh filters out whatever is greater than a third of a millimeter in size. The results were shocking. Mixed in with lantern fish and small jellyfish were hundreds of pieces of plastic and various balls of fishing line and other debris. There were even pre-production plastic pellets, sometimes called nurdles that are used to make all the plastic objects we are familiar with. The weight of the plastic pieces was far greater than the sea life itself. We have not gotten to the area of highest concentration of debris, the so called "Eastern Garbage Patch," but the quantities of plastic we are finding rivals what we found there in 1999. We believe the debris quantity is increasing rapidly. Tomorrow we will take more samples, as we will be in the general area of the EGB we sampled in 1999 and 2005. After dark, when we finished sampling a weather front with wind and rain blew down on us and we quickly set the genoa jib and turned off the motor, sailing to our destination at 8 knots, the fastest speed on the trip so far.

Aloha from ORV Alguita

Day 6

September 15, 2007
Today we were able to sail without the engines for the first time. We used the genoa jib and the mainsail. The wind held steady at about 15 knots for four hours, and we were able to make about 6 knots over the ground. We are a day late, so we didn't stop to pick up any debris, but we saw a bottle and several pieces of broken plastic floating by. One of the questions that we have been discussing, is the significance of the habitat provided by plastic for sessile organisms and pelagic fish and crabs. You can see that there are lots of creatures, including fish in the attached photos of the derelict fishing buoy we pulled up. According to Dr David. Barnes, in his 2005 paper Remote Islands Reveal Rapid Rise of Southern Hemisphere, Sea Debris, "rubbish of human origin in the sea has roughly doubled the propagation of fauna in the subtropics and more than tripled it at high (>50o) latitudes." So what's wrong with the "propagation of fauna" on our trash in the ocean?
Aren't we just providing places for things to live? There are at least two problems with this. One is that plastic trash travels slowly on ocean currents, which allows the organisms attached to adjust to changes in climate and water temperature. They may end up colonizing areas where they were never known before and out compete local species. This leads to a loss in what is called "biodiversity." The second problem we have been
discussing onboard Alguita, is the limit on the ocean's primary productivity far from shore. Primary productivity refers to the fact that food in the ocean, like on land, starts with photosynthesis, the process of plants turning solar energy into food for other creatures. There is a limit to the amount of solar energy impacting the ocean surface each day. Filter feeding organisms come up from the depths each night to feast on this plant
bounty -- the eat it practically all up. If we are making habitat for billions of creatures that wouldn't have survived in the open ocean otherwise, are they robbing the filter feeders of the food they have come to expect each night over millions of years? Will our trash mean less zooplankton in the ocean? Not to mention the fact that the plastic actually has chemicals that can kill zooplankton directly.
Tomorrow, we will do our first trawls and associated water sampling.
Aloha from ORV Alguita

El reporte para el dia de hoy es el siguiente:
Por fin hoy pudimos velear sin necesidad de motores! Usamos la vela principal y una vela secundaria, el viento se mantuvo a unos 15 nudos por cuatro horas, con eso fuimos capaces de navegar a 6 nudos sobre la tierra. Estamos atrazados un dia, asi que no recogimos ninguna basura, pero vimos una botella y algunas piezas de plastico flotando. Una de las preguntas que estamos discutiendo es acerca del significado del tipo de habitat que el plastico provee a organismos sesiles, peces pelagicos y cangrejos. Como
ustedes pueden observar hay muchas creaturas, incluyendo peces en la boya que atrapamos, ustedes pueden ver la foto. De acuerdo con el Dr. David Barnes en su articulo del 2005 "Remote Islands Reveal Rapid Rise of Southern Hemisphere, Sea Debris". La basura de origen humano en los mares ha permitido al doble la propagacion de fauna en los subtropicos y mas de tres veces a altas latitudes (>50o)". Asi que la pregunta obvia es, ?cual es el error en la propagacion de la fauna en nuestra basura en el oceano?, ?Acaso
no les estamos provechendo de un lugar para vivir a los organismos? Hay al menos dos problemas con esto, uno es que la basura plastica viaja lentamente en las corrientes oceanicas por lo cual permite a los organismos pegarsele y aclimatarse a los cambios de temperatura del agua. Al final terminan colonizando areas donde ellos nunca estuvieron y compite con las especies locales. Como consecuencia esto lleva a la perdida de lo que llamamos "biodiversidad". El segundo problema que hemos discutido abordo de la
Alguita, es el limite de la productividad primaria en los oceanos lejos de las costas. Productividad primaria se refiere al hecho de que la comida , al igual que en la tierra, empieza con la fotosintesis, el proceso por el cual las plantas convierten la luz solar en comida para otras creaturas. Existen limites para la cantidad solar que impacta la superficie del oceano cada dia. Los organismos filtroalimentadores vienen de grandes profundidades cada noche para darse un festin de estas plantas y se comen practicamente todas. Si estamos haciendo habitats para billones de creaturas que no podrian
sobrevivir en el oceano abierto y si ellos toman la comida de los filtroalimentadores que ellos han venido consumiendo cada noche desde hace millones de anos? ?Estara nuestra basura creando menos zooplancton in nuestro oceano?. Sin mencionar el hecho de que los plasticos actualmente tienen quimicos que pueden matar al zooplancton directamente.
Bueno, manana sera nuestro primer dia que usaremos la malla llamada "trawls" y tomaremos al mismo tiempo una muestra de agua de mar para asociar ambos resultados.
Aloha desde el ORV Alguita.