I get to work with a lot of people and recent commentary on national marine education networks actually suggest that the military does great harm to the ocean world.........Hmmmmm. My experiences and knowledge of history tell me the Navy and Marines are responsible for protecting the ocean, our coasts, and the well being of our country as well as most of the rest of the planet. Of course, the Coast Guard is very devoted to protecting the shores too, but the Department of the Navy is where I spend time, volunteering as opportunities arise. I am proud of my time spent out on Midway learning about that battle area and of my time volunteering at Mokapu, Marine Corps Base Hawaii............That said, I also get to spend time closer to home, working with some great people in western Washington at local Navy bases.
NOVEMBER 13th, try to get over to the NAVAL UNDERSEA MUSEUM in Keyport Washington! That day, you can meet and greet military experts with incredible stories to tell about submariners rescuing downed bomber pilots toward the end of WWII; take a tour of a fascinating worldclass museum; and meet and greet 20 Pacific Northwest authors including the great chef, Greg Atkinson!
Okay, I'll be there with copies of the hard to find and out of print but not out of mind, SEYA'S SONG. This book is available normally from the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe or at used book sources. But, I will bring along copies and they will be available for sale with ALL proceeds going to restore salmon habitats on Marrowstone Island, Washington State.
You can order copies from me and I'll sign them on the 13th and ship for free. In the meantime, check out the museum website, or check them out on Facebook where you can discover more about this, one of my favorite local spots to hang out. Last time I was there, a docent showed me a torpedo that my Grandmother may well have helped construct during WWII when she was employed at Keyport. Gramma Daisy had two sons overseas in the Navy, one of whom was my Dad.........and so, she went to work as "Rosie the Riveter".......well, Daisy the Igniter Maker, and was very proud of her service to her country at a time of war.
I have a replica torpedo she made......or rather, our daughter now has the little silver undersea weapon that was one of the means used to end the war, including out at Midway Atoll, aka Pihemanu........a most incredible place now safe for nesting seabirds because of the US Navy.
See you on the 13th of November at Keyport. See http://www.navalunderseamuseum.org/ for more information about the event as well as much more about their fascinating history collections and ongoing lectures, family fun days, and more. Their gift shop is where I recently got my Dad a great Navy Vet hat and they also have cool ocean toys!
Ron Hirschi
whalemail@waypoint.com
19 October 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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