School Mascots in Hilo, Hawaii

After a voyage of several thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean, the school mascots are relaxing on lava rock at a beach, and getting a chance to meet the locals...

Green Sea TurtleNene (The Hawaiian Goose, an endemic endangered species)
Ornate Butterflyfish and Coral
Unfortunately, even here on the remote beaches of Hawaii we find plastic marine debris...... but hopefully this won't always be the case.

Thank you for your participation in this important research voyage!

The Vessel Has Arrived!!!

September 30, 2007

ORV Alguita has arrived safely in Hilo, Hawaii after a very successful voyage!

More Answers to Student Questions

Here are answers to a few of the excellent questions that have been sent in. Keep checking back if your question hasn't been answered yet- more answers will be posted throughout this week, and questions that have already been answers might receive more comments. If you asked an important question that didn't get answered- go ahead and send it in again with a note that you are sending it for a second time. It is possible that your question didn't go through the first time- this is a new system and we are just getting used to it! Thank you all for your participation and fascinating questions!!

Questions and Answers

Hi my name is Cristina Toves and I am an 11th grade Marine Biology student at George Washington High School in Guam. I have a question regarding your current expedition.
Our class watched a video entitled "Our Synthetic Sea" which was based on one of your previous expeditions. At the time, the amount of zooplankton was 1 pound for every 6 pounds of plastic.
My question is has this statistic improved or has it got worse?
I would really appreciate an answer.
Thanks, Cristina

Cristina,
We would also like to know the answer to your question! It will take many hours back in the lab to analyze the samples collected on this voyage before we know how the numbers compare. Judging by Captain Moore's qualitative observations of the samples it unfortunately it does not look like the problem has improved at all. We will let you know how the results turn out after the lab work is done!

Hi my name is Shaelene, I go to George Washington high school on Guam.
And about the blog basically what is a ghost net used for because I never heard of it? And how long does it usually take you to get to where you want to go by boat?
I think the things that you are doing and experiencing is really neat and I would like to learn more about your experience....

Shaelene,
A "ghost net" is the name used for a fishing net that was either discarded or lost at sea. The net continues to catch and kill marine life as it floats through the water. Here is a website where you can learn more about ghost nets

http://www.ghostnets.com.au/

How long it takes to get somewhere in a sailboat is very dependant on the wind. Yesterday ORV Alguita was scheduled to arrive in Hilo on the 1^st of October. Then the wind picked up from a more favorable angle- now the scheduled arrival time is the afternoon of September 30^th.

Hi my name is Nico from George Washington High School and currently studying marine biology.
I was wondering what was the most interesting finding since your expedition began?

Nico,
I will ask the crew tomorrow when they arrive in Hilo what the most interesting finding was on the entire trip. I would also like to ask that of you- of all of the experiences and findings that the crew shared what did you find to be the most interesting?

You can *smell* red tide??? I've seen these algal blooms along British Columbia's coastline at times, one summer being remarkable for such a widespread shellfish closure...every anchorage was rose-coloured... but I've never smelled it. Perhaps this is late in the bloom and there are a lot of dead cells decomposing on the surface??

Yes, at times red tides can be quite stinky (ask Florida residents they know.) Often the really strong odors are due to eutrophication caused by the red tide that leads to depletion of oxygen in the water and subsequently to the death and decay of many fish and other species.

Hello from Griffin, GA. We are wondering if most of the plastic found in the ocean is from large trash barges that dump their load miles off shore OR from manufacturers OR from the litter generated by everyday people that gets into the watersheds and eventually the ocean? Thanks!

Great question from Griffin Georgia. The answer is yes to all of the above! Researchers are asking the same question and are trying to determine the sources of debris in the ocean. One way to determine the origin of the debris is by identifying what it is. Plastic pellets (“Nurdles”) found in the ocean in horrible quantities have almost certainly escaped from the manufacturing and shipping process. And yes, a very significant quantity of the garbage found in the water is post consumer- much of which likely washed down the watershed as litter.

It's interesting to know that there are many plastics and jelly fishes that look alike. Which of the two did you find more often?

Kia,
Great question. We may not have kept a count of plastic vs. jellyfish but after we analyze the samples we will know if we found more plastic than zooplankton by weight.

My name is Brianne and I am a student at George Washington High School. My Marine Biology teacher, Ms. Tatreau, has informed us that if we wished to ask a question, we may email it to you. We are currently studying the effects of plastic in our ocean, and how it affects us. My question would be, "After all the research your team has been doing, do you think we can ever find a safer way to dispose of all the plastic in the world? And what do you think will work as a substitute that is enviromentally safe?"

yours truly,
Brianne

Brianne, your question is a tough one. In the face of such an immense problem it can be hard to feel optimistic about solutions can't it? At the same time I don’t think any of us would be working so hard on the research if we didn’t have some hope that what we are doing can make a difference and that things can change for the better. Certainly it would be very challenging to find a safer way to dispose of all the plastic if we continue manufacturing so much of it. Much of the plastic that is being produced is being used for disposable products. There are companies that are making some of these disposable products such as cups and packaging materials out of plant based materials that are biodegradable. Of course, the most obvious environmentally safe alternative is giving up disposables. Much of the plastic waste that we generate is completely unnecessary. Why buy a new plastic bottle every time you want to drink water and unless you are in a hospital bed do you really need to drink out of a straw? Humans have survived just fine without plastic for the majority of their existence on this planet. If we were clever enough to invent plastic hopefully we can use our inventiveness to find a better alternative. That alternative may include inventing new products to replace plastic or it may be as simple as turning to old technologies that didn’t require the use of so much plastic. I think the answer may be both- what do you think?

Hi my name is Nico from George Washington High School and currently studying marine biology. I was wondering how will your research change peoples perspectives on plastics that are in the ocean?

Nico, we hope to change people’s perspectives on plastics in the ocean by sharing our discoveries about the quantities of plastic marine debris along with a better understanding of the problems caused by plastics in the marine environment. We will have to wait and see whether this strategy of sharing knowledge works to change perspectives. Probably the quickest answer will be to ask yourself “ did what I learned about ORV Alguita’s research change my perspectives on plastics in the ocean?”

The Chelmsford lions have asked many excellent questions. Here are a few answers with more to come!!!

The Chelmsford lions wanted to know if the crew can already differentiate between the different types of plastics they're finding. We know in our town recycling we sort by the number in the triangle. Are the plastics still in such shape that items that were given these numbers can still be seen on them?

Sometimes large enough pieces are found that we can still recognize the numbers indicating the type of plastic. It is also possible to run tests to differentiate plastic type. In many of our experiments we sort the plastic fragments by size and color and we are interested in what size and color of fragments tend to get eaten by sea creatures.

Does the crew have a hypothesis already on what numbers deteriorate fastest? Are you taking water samples with the plastic because a faster deteriorating plastic might give off chemicals into the water that might be toxic to some life?

Very close, actually the plastic tends to absorb the toxic chemicals from the water. Many of the persistent organic pollutants are molecules that are “hydrophobic” and not soluble in water. These hydrophobic compounds pass from the water into the plastic leading to much higher concentration of these pollutants in the plastic. This could be a problem when the plastic is eaten by marine animals. Some kinds of plastics do absorb pollutants more readily than others. Dr Rios will be comparing the quantity of pollutants in the water with the plastic to see how much the plastic concentrates the toxins.

Who decides what research projects your ship will undertake? Does the crew change with the assignment?

The boat does research on plastic debris through the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. The boat is also chartered out to different institutions to do various research projects. Last spring the boat was involved in a research project studying nesting seabirds in Mexico. The crew does change with the assignments but the captain is always the same!

Will any of the crew follow the plastic and do some of the testing on the plastic?

Absolutely! The plastic that is collected will analyzed back in the lab. Dr. Rios will take some of the plastic back to her laboratory at the University of the Pacific to analyze the Persistent Organic Pollutants that have absorbed into the plastic from the ocean water. Other samples will be sorted and weighed to come up with the ratio of the mass of plastic to zooplankton in a given volume of water.

Hi! I'm Keishia from George Washington High School in Guam. I waswondering if you had a reply for my previous question:"What has been the most interesting or strangest thing you have found thus far? And what measures are you taking to either promote it or solve it?"

Keisha,

The strangest animal seen was the Mola Mola- large creatures such as this in the Garbage Patch are unusual, and this was the first Mola Mola the Captain has seen in this region. The strangest piece of debris seen was a hockey stick!!

I would also like to ask you another question, I've heard from my Marine Biology teacher that your research journey is coming to an end. I would like to know is there any conclusion you have come up with on your findings? Thanks!

Keisha, analysis of the samples will take a long time! It will take months of hard work to separate the plastic from the zooplankton and for Dr. Rios to analyze the pollutants attached to the plastic. We will let you know what we find! Our qualitative observations of the samples lead us to believe that the problem of plastic debris has gotten much worse.

Question from Radford College Canberra, Australia. Does the Plastic Dust affect plants like the Giant Kelp?

Excellent Question, and the answer is that we don’t know. A high school student in San Diego did an excellent experiment looking at how plastic debris effected zooplankton and phytoplankton. She found that the plastic had a negative effect on the zooplankton but not the phytoplankton. Of course giant kelp is not planktonic for much of its life cycle. Do you have any ideas for an experiment that could be used to answer this question?

More Questions from the Chelmsford Lions;
We, also wanted to know how you knew this garbage field was there. Can it be seen be satellites? How would you know if you are in the middle of it or still heading in?

NOAA has used low flying aircraft with sophisticated camera gear to find larger debris such as ghost nets but the small fragments we study would be very difficult to detect from space.

We are studying the main ocean gyres and we were wondering if there is a garbage field within each ocean gyre. We were wondering if the Atlantic Ocean had this too!

Yes there are and they are connected by great debris highways. The gyres are like compressors that receive debris then spin it out. The “garbage patch” in the Atlantic is called the Sargasso Sea. To our knowledge no one has been following the debris amounts there since the 70’s- let us know if you can find any more information out!

Nearing Hilo

September 28-29, 2007

We hadn't seen another ship for four days, the radar had objects that looked like ships at a distance, but on closer approach were rain squalls. This morning we passed the freighter Pacific Logger, heading northeast. The wind shifts about 20 degrees around these squalls and the wind velocity rises and falls, so the helsman must be alert. Now we have finised getting all the samples we could and are relaxing, enjoying our sailboat. The climate is becomming tropical. We are sailing good and fast and getting pounded and sprayed by the seas like we were in a carwash. Some of the crew members have been enjoying letting themselves get sprayed by breaking waves. The more we look at and enjoy this part of the ocean, the sadder we feel about the damage we are doing to her and her creatures, which, at the end of the day, will have consequences for us humans. We have just gotten a visit from our first Brown booby, which flies around Alguita diving on flying fish scared up by her wake. Tomorrow we will arrive in Hilo with a mind set completely different than the day we embarked on this mission. Just seeing how much waste plastic is floating in these waters had awakened a desire to try to do something for our planet and for ourselves as well. I'm Sure each one of us will change our habits in our use and discarding of non-biodfegradable plastics.

Lorena M. Rios Mendoza, PhD.

Septiembre 28-29 del 2007.

No hemos visto ningun barco en los ultimos cuatro dias, el radar nos marca objetos a la distancia que parecieran barcos pero no, solamente son lluvias. Sin embargo, esta manana vimos un carguero el "Pacific Logger" llendo hacia el noreste. El viento cambia unos 20 grados alrededor de las lluvias y la velocidad del viento esta aumentando y disminuyendo, asi que la persona que esta a cargo del piloto, debe estar muy alerta. Por ahora, ya terminamos de hacer todas las tomas de muestras que pudimos, por lo que todos nos encontramos en un estado de relaxacion disfruntando del velero. El clima empieza a sentirse caluroso. La velociadad a la que estamos veleando en bastante buena y rapida, con lo que tambien estamos teniendo chapusones de agua de mar. Es como si el Alguita estuviera en un lavadero de carros. Algunos miembros de la tripulacion ya ha sentido este agradable salpicon de agua. Mientras mas observamos y disfrutamos esta porcion de oceano, mas nos sentimos culpables por el dano que le estamos haciendo al oceano y a sus habitantes, que al final de cuentas todo va a recaer en nosostros, los humanos. Algunas veces tenemos visitas por parte de las aves marinas, que vuelan alrededor de la Alguita como investigando que somos o quienes somos. Manana arribaremos a HIlo, Hawaii, con una mentalidad totalmente diferente al dia que nos embarcamos a esta mision. Tan solo el ver cuanto desperdicio plastico hay flotando dentro de estas aguas nos ha despertado un claro sentimiento de tratar de hacer algo por la naturaleza en general y por nosotros mismos. Estoy segura de que cada uno de nosotros cambiara sus habitos con relacion al uso y desuso del plastico no biodegradable.

Lorena M. Rios Mendoza, PhD

A turn to the left speeds things up...

September 27, 2007

This afternoon we sampled the second phytoplankton bloom area for NOAA. While filtering water through a microfilter, and simultaneously manta trawling, we noticed a ghost net floating by. 'we immediately through our red marker buoy, hauled in the manta and turned around to try to relocate the ghost net. Although we were only a few hundred yards away from the buoy when we turned around, with the wind blowing 15-20 knots, we were unable to relocate the net. After finishing the plankton sampling, we made sail and are now close reaching under mainsail and genoa jib, bound for Hilo Hawaii, where we plan to arrive on the morning of October 1. We have turned left from our westward route and are now heading south. This affords an angle to the steady, strong northeast trade winds that our hybrid reasearch vessel finds particularly favorable. Before we made this course change, we were broad reaching downwind, and a particularly violent swell caused our mast to lurch and snap off the masthead light tower. We had to take the bosuns chair up to the top and cut it free. The sound of the engines are a distant memory as we sail along at 8-9 knots and charge our battery banks with a kilowatt of BP solar panels. We are making our own drinking water with a 12 volt reverse osmosis desalinization system using solar energy. The view of ORV Alguita attached to this log was taken before the panels were added to a roof built above the after deck. Alguita is now the only hybrid research vessel doing major studies on the high seas. Hopefully, more vessels will eventually follow suit and become more energy efficient. We look forward to the day when we pull into port and call for the vegetable oil tanker truck to come down to the dock and top off our fuel tanks.
Our noon position was 29 36 N, 153 24 W. Given the favorable winds and point of sail that keep us making between 8-9 knots, we believe our ETA Hilo will be the morning of Oct. 1.

Aloha from ORV Alguita

Septiembre 27 del 2007.

Esta tarde muestreamos la segunda muestra dentro del area de crecimietno acelerado (bloom) de fitoplancton para la NOAA. Mientras estabamos filtrando el agua atraves de un microfiltro y al mismo tiempo teniamos la manta filtrando dentro del mar, cuando nos dimos cuentra de una red fantasma (ghost net) que estaba flotando a un lado de nosotros. Inmediatamente marcamos el area enviando nuestra boya roja, tomamos la manta de regreso al barco y regresamos a localizar la red fantasma. Aunque estuvimos a solo unos cuantos metros de la boya, cuando dimos la vuelta con un viento soplando de 15-20 nudos, increiblemente fuimos incapaces de relocalizar la red. Despues de terminar la coleccion de muestra de placton, comenzamos a velear, usando la vela principal y foque genovesa y ahora estamos mas cerca de nuestro punto final, Hilo Hawaii. Nuestro plan de arrivo es en la manana de octubre primero. Dimos una vuelta a la izquierda de nuestra ruta hacia el oeste y ahora navegamos hacia el sur. Esto soporta un angulo estacionario, con vientos fuertes al norte que para nuestro barco hibrido de investigacion es bastante favorable. Antes de hacer este cambio de curso, estuvimos bajo fuertes vientos y sobre todo un fuerte oleaje que provoco que nuestro mastil perdiera la luz de su torre al desprenderse el bulbo. Tube que ponerme la silla para escalar, subir y cortar el bulbo para su total desprendimiento. El sonido de las maquinas son una recuerdo pasado ya que vamos veleando entre 8 y 9 nudos y con la carga de nuestro banco de baterias con un kilowatage de BP paneles solares. Estamos produciendo nuestra agua para tomar usando la energia solar alamacenada en una pila de 12 voltios y un sistema desalinizador usando osmosis reversa. Una fotografia de una vista desde lo alto del mastil , antes de poner los paneles solares en la parte de arriva sobre la popa, del del ORV Alguita se esta anexando a este correo. El Alguita es el unico barco hybrido de investigacion que por ahora, estra haciendo grandes estudios en alta mar. Esperamos que mas barcos eventualmente sigan nuestro camino de usar mas eficientemente la enegia. Ahora, miramos hacia el pasado, a el dia en que llenamos nuestros tanques de combustible de aceite vegetal, en el puerto.

Aloha desde el ORV Alguita.

Nuestra posicion fue 29 36 N, 153 24 W. Con vientos favorables y las velas en tal punto que permiten una velociada de 8 a 9 nudos, por lo que creemos que nuestra ETA Hilo sera en la manana del primero de octubre.

NOTA: este mensaje fue escrito sin acentos.

A Chart of ORV Alguita's Voyage

For those of you who have not had a chance to chart ORV Alguita's research voyage, Brooksbank Elementary School in Vancouver, Canada, has been kind enough to share a Google Earth image of the ships voyage. Click on the image in order to get a close-up view. If you want to learn how to chart the voyage in Google Earth visit;
http://orvalguita.googlepages.com/oceanographicresearch

Thank you Brooksbank Elementary- WELL DONE!!!!

Get Involved in Plastic Debris Research! International Pellet Watch

Dear Students and Teachers,
I have just attended a lecture by Dr. Hideshige Takada from Tokyo, Japan. He studies persistent organic pollutants using beached pre-production plastic pellets or "nurdles" collected from the beaches by volunteers for "International Pellet Watch." You can contribute by going to your local beach and collecting at least 50 "nurdles"(plastic pellets) to send to him for analysis! All the information you need in order to participate is located on the International Pellet Watch Website;
http://www.tuat.ac.jp/~gaia/ipw/index.html

Holly Gray
ORV Alguita Vessel Support Coordinator