OFF TO WORK

School is back in session and the morning commute might be your best time to think about the day ahead. Maybe it takes you half an hour or even an hour each way. Think of the time you would have if you were able to commute with an Albatross.

The photo above is a Laysan Albatross, just leaving Sand Island at Midway Atoll.

During the nesting season, both albatross parents feed their young. Each parent will leave once a week, communting to Bering Sea fishing grounds for a few days before returning to feed their chick. Each flight might take them 800 miles or more away from Midway. Trips of more than a thousand miles to get one meal for the little one are common.

Now that summer is about over, all the Albatross leave Midway. Adults will not return until the next nesting season. In the time away, they search for food while covering thousands of miles of open ocean. Some Albatross will reach the west coast of the United States. Most will fly as many as a million or even three million miles in their lifetime.

Like salmon returning to the stream of their birth, Laysan Albatross adults come back to the same location to nest year after year. On Sand Island, these nesting spots are littered with the past remains of lighters, toys, and other pieces of the 5 tons of plastic the birds bring back every year. Five tons of plastic fed to young ones by the adults.

To grasp the numbers more clearly, I've been turning to the art of Chris Jordan. His imagery helps to envision just how much plastic is entering the sea each day. Makes it easier to imagine how an Albatross can find so much of it bobbing around on the waves, looking like something good to eat. Click on the "In Your Consumer Face Art" link above to see some of Chris Jordan's work and look forward to what he comes up with after visiting Midway Atoll.....

I seem to be spending more and more time the past couple of weeks picking up fishing line, bottles, empty sun screen containers, and other debris along the beach here on Marrowstone Island. Lots of summer visitors are still around and they leave a lot on our beaches. The endless stream of plastic drifts away from the beach just as the Albatrosses are leaving Midway and heading to our shore.

I'm told that the plastic industry poured enough money into a campaign to stop the City of Seattle from limiting the use of plastic bags in retail stores. Maybe it went down to defeat because the city wanted to impose a tax on each bag used. The vote was just yesterday. Maybe some of you will come up with a better way than taxation to stop the use of plastics. Think on it on your morning commute.

POSTCARDS FROM PAPAHANAUMOKUAKEA

Why is Papahanaumokuakea important to Native Hawaiians?

How much garbage do you think is in the Eastern and Western garbage patches and does this affect people?

Has global warming affected the migration of humpback whales?

Did some of the plastic get into the ocean on purpose and if so, why?

How much plastic is accidentally fed to the average albatross chick?

Is there a safe amount of plastic for an albatross to eat? In other words, is there a limit to how much they can safely eat?

What kinds of trash do people most commonly find in dead albatross chicks?

Does the plastic endanger parrot fish?

Can we help organize a research club to help the albatross and the environment?


These are some of the many questions sent to me by kids after they learned I was visiting Midway Atoll this summer. Several teachers told their students about my journey and helped them with research into Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument and the issues of ocean health we might encounter at Midway. As you can easily see, the questions above reflect some serious thought. What you might be surprised to learn is that ALL of the above questions are not from high school or college students, they are from Kindergarteners............

The first question was thoughtfully answered by Walterbea Aldeguer in this way: "Aloha, The answer lies in the question, How much do you love your Grandparents?"

Other PAA participants were kind enough to reply to some of the other questions and all of the dozens of questions were answered with hand written and illustrated postcards from Papahanaumokuakea. Biologists on Midway also helped as did whale and seal biologists.

Finding answers was not so easy and no so complete. That is why the last question helped set SOAR in motion as a way to seek solutions to ocean plastic problems and other watershed and ocean issues. SOAR fills a need for young people to find a way to help the ocean and the world around them. The kids want to know answers to our toughest, most difficult questions.

The cousin of one of the participants at Midway wrote a very powerful song that speaks to much of what we feel as we start out with SOAR. Mickey's song, Hawai'i 78, was made popular by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole and it asks us to wonder what our ancestors would think if they came back to see what we have done to their beautiful island home. Check out the song on Iz's Facing Future CD.

Likewise, Jane Siberry implores us to think deeply to make sure we act in ways that malama i ke kai ame ka aina (proect the ocean and land). She looks forward in her beautiful song, Bound by the Beauty. The lyrics demand we do right when she says she's coming back in 500 years and the forests better still be here!!!!! Jane has kindly allowed me to use the lyrics in a book I've been working on for a while about women who have helped the environment. I'm glad I've not submitted the book, knowing now that I must add some of my kindergarten friends in its pages. Young women with great minds, great hearts.

If you are a teacher, by all means ask your kids to ask tough questions and send them to me. I will pass the questions around to knowledgeable scientists or try to answer myself. And, you'll get back hand written and illustrated postcards much like those we sent from Papahanaumokuakea.