WHY SOAR?

SOAR has a serious side in its missions to help kids find ways of helping the ocean and watersheds throughout the world. I started on having seen hundreds of albatrosses killed by plastic debris at Pihemanu (Midway Atoll). I was inspired by the questions of young people in Ohio and by USFWS biologists working hard to protect endangered species and damaged habitats.



SOAR has a very fun and tough to define side.....thanks to FRED AND FRIENDS, Project SOAR helps with watershed and ocean workshops throughout the world, and generally makes people smile while they learn some tough stuff about how we treat our rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and the one ocean on planet earth..........

INVITING SOAR INTO YOUR SCHOOL, ORGANIZATION, AND COMMUNITY

SOAR introduces young people to ways they can make a difference in their local community and the wider world.



Take advantage by:



1) Invite a SOAR learning kit or bring Ron Hirschi to your school as a guest author or speaker for your organization. Ron has many years experience as an author and as a biologist. SOAR adds another dimension to his list of hands on projects he shares in writing, art, and ecology workshops.



Many schools invite Ron for his work as author of more than 50 nonfiction books, including many with ocean themes. Others bring him to school as a scientist or artist, but the best fit is always when schools use Ron to help them integrate curriculum.



Tom Bates, Principal at Tremont Elementary in Ohio recently said in an interview following Ron's visit, "What stood out to me was how Ron was able to gear his activities and discussion and information so it was meaningful to the students, whether they were in kindergarten or fifth grade."



Be in touch at whalemail@waypoint.com for visit information.



2) SOAR now has a new kit circling the globe along with a Laysan Albatross "Friend of Fred". This duo is packaged with a box full of ideas, activities, information about Papahanaumokuakea, ocean debris, and other materials aimed at sparking new projects related to the sea. Also included is a journal chronicling Fred's adventures, all of which began when kids at Columbus School for Girls (CSG) learned how they could take action to help the ocean.



Currently, this treasured package is in the hands of The Bush School in Seattle.


NOTE: You might also be lucky to receive one of the earlier packages with a FRED and Friend, already traveling. To date, Fred has visited Australia, Switzerland, Israel, England, The Dominican Republic, and many corners of the United States.

10 December 2010

ALL MY FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS OF FRED........FOR IWA, WHEREVER SHE MAY SOAR!!!

FRED THE HAPPY EYE MONKEY

With Thanks to Peter Paul and Mary
for enchanting so many through the years
and introducing the magic of Hanalei Bay to the world.

In Memory of Andy Irons


Fred the Happy Eye Monkey was born by the sea
and surfed out of Black Pot
at a Bay called Hanalei

All the little Keiki smiled whenever he came.....
and Navy Ships would hoist their flags
When Fred called out their names

Fred the Happy Monkey
Loved all the SEAS
He helped out the Albatross,
Iwa
and
BOOBIES (redfooted especially but ya don't have to sing that part)

then one day it happened......
Fred created SOAR
Now all the Keiki go down to their own shore!

They pick out all the plastic
and put it in its place
Fred smiles his Monkey smile
Knowing he helped save the Human Race!

Oh, Fred the Happy Eye Monkey
Loves all the Seas
and surfs and boogie boards all day
at a place 
CALLED
HANALEI................not lee, it be Lei!


Happy Holidays for all Keiki and their moms, dads, teachers, aunties, uncles, kupuna
and most especially........for you, little Eva!


FredX168


Note:


Whoever sends me a photo of a group of postable kids singing
Fred the Happy Eye

WINS
Aloha Hanalei FredX168
who now wears a genuine Albatross Leg Band,
courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service/Midway/
Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument
Battle of Midway National Historic Site

FredX168 comes 
with a journal, a sand sample collected at Hanalei
AND, get this,,,,,,,,,a small container of ocean water from Hanalei Bay!
A few other treasures, like shells and a Friend of Fred to be decided.... 

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07 December 2010

DO SHARKS MATTER?


Terry Lilley just posted this photo along with a heartfelt talk story......

See: http://terrylilley.wordpress.com/ for full story about this Gray Reef Shark
they tried, unsuccessfully to revive after it was caught up in a net......

This story comes the week of the death by propellers of a Bryde's Whale
here in Washington State Waters. I imagine a hospital ship maybe trying
best they can to patch up a torn up back of a huge whale someday, or,
as my wife, Brenda suggested in all sincerity......That Raw Honey that patches
human scars and healed our Labrador Retriever recently.....you know the
Treatment?

She suggested dripping from a helicopter,
Huge drops of Honey on the Whale.
Right smack dab on its back where you can actually see
at Orca Network's website,
the brutality of ship props that slashed that whale, not once,
but several times........

I told Susan Berta at Orca Network that her followers would be
a bit overshelmed to truly know......to see........to comprehend,
the millions of seabirds and
Marine Mammals killed each year by human intervention in the sea.

Seals wash up dead on Marrowstone all the time. Eagles, seabirds, and whales
are dying due to ships running into the largest of our marine mammals
as tiny pieces of plastic fill the throats of our "smaller" mammals and birds.

Fish. Does anyone care about Sharks?
Do sharks matter.........read Terry's beautifully written story.

I know it is the season of hope and kindness, but hey, let's be kind to the sea.
malama i ke kai
protect the ocean as you would your grandchildren

Big Thanks to Terry for his incredible educational work!
Go out with him on Kauai........and do check his work with surfing for anybody
who thinks they might not be able....out at Black Pot. hanalei. magic water.
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06 December 2010

SERIOUS SAND UPDATED AND REVISED


Barb Mayer took this photo the other day on a beach near her home on the windward side of Oahu. The scene could be along any accretion beach on any windward side of any island on earth.......Look closely along the drift line - the point at which high tide decided to go landward no more....

The blues and whites especially - Those are microplastics and Barb said it was as if a foam of plastic had washed ashore. But then, Barb sees this all the time. I do too, here on Marrowstone Island in Washington State, along the outer coast of Washington, and on the windward side of Kauai.

Barb is sending me samples of this sand and I am now working with high school teachers who will share the samples with interested students. I will keep you posted on results.

In the meantime, if any of you walk beaches or riverbanks or lakeshores, please take samples under a new protocol:

Walk along until you locate an accretion area. This is where sand and other materials settle along the shoreline. Typically, this is at a point, along a sand bar, or barrier type island - basically, where sand accumulates instead of eroding away all the time.

Grab a hand sized amount of sand along with the chunks of small plastic you see. This study is not meant to chronicle if, but where and why plastic enters the sea. We already know way too much about the "facts" of plastic in the ocean. We need to start doing serious sand study and more to alert people about possible solutions to this global crisis. 

Micro Plastics are here to stay and can not be removed from the ocean effectively. 

Micro Plastics can be prevented from entering the ocean and waste stream if 
people follow practical reduce, reuse, restore, recycle, repurpose principals 
discussed in many educational circles.

Please send samples to :

Project Serious Sand
PO Box 899
Hadlock, Washington USA 98339

Here are some links to sites with more information on plastic debris and ocean issues related to the ever increasing deaths by plastic, deaths of albatross, shearwaters, gulls, puffins, seals, whales, and pretty much all life forms..........

FOAM  http://foam-friends-of-albatross-on-midway.blogspot.com/ 

Terry Lilley   http://terrylilley.wordpress.com/ 

NOAA  http://marinedebrisblog.wordpress.com/ 

Ron Hirschi
Marrow Stone Island 
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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.