It's the 13th of February. A windy day on Marrowstone Island with far too friendly eagles letting me walk past as they tear bits from a flounder left behind by otters. The otters sit on a rock and seem far too friendly too. They allow us to walk past within 40 feet. Monsoon (labrador leashed for the big birds and slippery mammals sake) is extremely curious.
Fred is in England, helping Maya and Niamh with Dolphin and Seal stranding workshop.
Here, the seals hang farther offshore, following us as we pick up an endless stream of plastic. There were no other people on the beach. Probably watching the Olympics? But then, when we approached the end of the beach walk, a woman with a warm smile helped us pick up styrofoam and plastic just before a rain squall hit from the south. Waves pounded the shore, tossing more debris from Seattle...........I asked her where she lived. Seattle. Okay, I can't be too harsh and won't go on too much about how they send plastic into the ocean, but here goes.
February is half complete. I will be joining Fred on an adventure in Ohio and so, will offer this February plastic report for Marrowstone before month's end since I won't be picking up Seattle leavings for another couple of weeks. I hope some of you listening might pick up where I left off, especially along the south shore from East Beach to Marrowstone Point.
In just two weeks of February Marrowstone beach cleanup, the results are:
171 Bottle caps under 3 inches
2 Bottle caps over 3 inches (Okay Seattle, it looks like you do well when you can recycle)
121 Shotgun shells and wadding/cups
19 Firework rocket tops
24 Straws
21 Lighters, mostly Bic generic (anyone have a connection at Bic?)
15 Fishing Tackle (mostly bobbers and small corkies, not commercial gear
13 Small cosmetic and other containers, mostly half or more full for some reason
12 Toys (includes a Rubber Duck with partial marker tag)
7 Plastic utensils
6 Pens or Markers
This is a tally of small debris and does not include the approximately 80-90 bottles, many flip flops, styrofoam blocks, computer ink cartridges, Penn Cove Mussel Hangers, Shoes, coat hangers, broken pieces of plastic, buckets, coolers, reusable drinking bottles, dog poop bags, baggies and other small plastic bags, and other unidentified plastic and styrofoam hauled to the landfill due to inability to recycle.
Once again, Seattle and all points South: Please contact wholesale recyclers who will accept one of the most deadly forms of plastic in the sea ---- Bottle Caps less than 3 inches in diameter. They are responsible for several thousand deaths by plastic each year in the Pacific and, no doubt in other world oceans.
13 February 2010
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X310 Plastic Ocean Activity
It's me, Fred, the Monkey.
If you look closely, you can see I wear X310's leg band around my neck. It's to remind me of her. She was a Laysan Albatross. She was born in March 2008 and lived on Pihemanu, one of the most remote atolls on earth, now part of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.
You can wonder about Pihemanu and about X310. She didn't live very long, dying in June 2008. Her parents flew thousands and thousands of miles finding food for her. But x310, like lots of baby albatrosses died before she got to soar the seas. Some albatrosses fly three million miles during their life. Like X310's parents, their sea is a new challenge in food finding because of our actions on land.
Adult albatrosses fly more than a thousand miles just to get a single meal for their babies. But the ocean is full of plastic. And if you read my buddy, Ron's blog and website, you learn about plastic in the sea. It is everywhere and babies like X310 die because they eat so much plastic, they can not get it out of their stomachs.
Where's all this plastic come from?
Where does it go?
Here is a simple activity:
Get up from your chair and walk around the classroom or wherever you are sitting.
Write down each thing around you that is made of plastic.
Everybody compare lists and make a total of the plastic products.
Now, the hard part of this activity:
Can you find alternatives for the things you use, alternatives not made of plastic?
Maybe start with drinking water from a fountain or glass or reuseable container?
Maybe start a really good recycling project?
Maybe make some art from recycled plastic?
Learn more on links here on this site and others.
Talk about times with no plastic.
X310 would have appreciated if people, just a few years ago had decided to make a plastic-free world for you....
You and X310.
Learn how you can SOAR with FRED by arranging a visit with Fred and his ocean teaching kit by emailing his banana provider at whalemail@waypoint.com
FEEDING A BABY ALBATROSS OCEAN ACTIVITY
What you need:
Pint size plastic beverage container with wide mouth (about 1.5 inches) ---This approximates the size of a baby albatross stomach and esophagus.
Important to have the lid too.
Enough plastic items (bottle caps, toothbrush, legos, fishing line, small chunks of nylon rope, markers, pens, more bottle caps and even a few more bottle caps since they are pretty much the most common marine debris.
Talk with your audience of kids of any age about ocean debris and the way adult albatrosses fly out a few hundred or even a thousand miles to find flying fish eggs and squid for the little ones. They return to Pihe Manu or up on the Northeast shore of Kauai, find their young one among thousands of others and begin to feed by regurgitating "food".......
As you talk about this, have the kids place one or two pieces of the plastic into the bottle.
Replace cap with each addition of plastic. Shake gently to mimic bird moving around the nesting area a bit.
Remove cap. Shake gently to mimic the bird trying to dislodge "food" that can not be digested. In a perfect ocean, this would be squid beaks, fish bones, or other natural pieces of food.
Add more plastic, repeating above until no plastic falls out of the bottle when cap is removed (bill is opened) and the bird tries and tries, but can not toss up the mass of debris. See how much and how many different kinds of plastic can be added. Does the rope tangle with the legos and bottle caps. Do five bottle caps cause a blockage in the esophagus???
In nature, the upchucked mass is like an owl pellet and is known as a bolus. Natural foods slip freely through the esophagus and more feeding can continue. Most times, a baby albatross will toss up one bolus before leaving the nesting island. Unfortunately, thousands die because plastic blocks the stomach completely.
Your feeding the baby albatross activity can lead to a lot of discussion of plastics we use, discard, then find their way into the ocean and into the mouth of a baby albatross.
If you want to have a Baby Albatross Feeding Kit, complete with some plastic items that actually came from once living albatross at Pihe Manu, Papahanaumokuakea, be in touch.
Pint size plastic beverage container with wide mouth (about 1.5 inches) ---This approximates the size of a baby albatross stomach and esophagus.
Important to have the lid too.
Enough plastic items (bottle caps, toothbrush, legos, fishing line, small chunks of nylon rope, markers, pens, more bottle caps and even a few more bottle caps since they are pretty much the most common marine debris.
Talk with your audience of kids of any age about ocean debris and the way adult albatrosses fly out a few hundred or even a thousand miles to find flying fish eggs and squid for the little ones. They return to Pihe Manu or up on the Northeast shore of Kauai, find their young one among thousands of others and begin to feed by regurgitating "food".......
As you talk about this, have the kids place one or two pieces of the plastic into the bottle.
Replace cap with each addition of plastic. Shake gently to mimic bird moving around the nesting area a bit.
Remove cap. Shake gently to mimic the bird trying to dislodge "food" that can not be digested. In a perfect ocean, this would be squid beaks, fish bones, or other natural pieces of food.
Add more plastic, repeating above until no plastic falls out of the bottle when cap is removed (bill is opened) and the bird tries and tries, but can not toss up the mass of debris. See how much and how many different kinds of plastic can be added. Does the rope tangle with the legos and bottle caps. Do five bottle caps cause a blockage in the esophagus???
In nature, the upchucked mass is like an owl pellet and is known as a bolus. Natural foods slip freely through the esophagus and more feeding can continue. Most times, a baby albatross will toss up one bolus before leaving the nesting island. Unfortunately, thousands die because plastic blocks the stomach completely.
Your feeding the baby albatross activity can lead to a lot of discussion of plastics we use, discard, then find their way into the ocean and into the mouth of a baby albatross.
If you want to have a Baby Albatross Feeding Kit, complete with some plastic items that actually came from once living albatross at Pihe Manu, Papahanaumokuakea, be in touch.
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