Day 11 S/V Kaisei: Launching Beach and Sweep

Friday, 14 August 200

9Lat: 34° 43’ N Lon: 143° 221’ W

Norton Lowering Beach into Sea from S/V Kaisei

Norton Smith, our consulting engineer, has been inventing several different types of trawling prototypes that he built onboard. Today, Norton launched two capture devices in the North Pacific Gyre; one of these capturing devices is an example of biomimicry called, “Beach”. The beach prototype is a wooden inclined plane with sides that begin one foot below the water level and extend three inches above the water level. On the back end, there is a large net with a cod end. Water comes over the lip of the incline and has to pass out through the net. Norton sees the natural environment as a way we can use and understand natural processes to benefit, instead of manipulate, nature. In creating the Beach and other trawling devices, Norton considered the potential problem of harming oceanic biota in efforts to clean up marine debris. Nets, for example, collect plankton and other organisms as well as plastic and other debris. The intention is to build a device that will catch plastic while minimizing collection of biota. Furthermore, this passive device does not expend energy. The fist launch of The Beach was a success—catching a surprising amount of marine debris and few oceanic organisms.

Norton and "The Sweep"

Norton’s second device, “Sweep,” consists of two panels of non-porous tarp with floats attached on the top and weights on the bottom. One end is connected to a plankton net and the other end is attached to plywood doors holding the mouth of the net open. The whole apparatus is attached to a sea anchor (75 meters below the surface) to keep the Sweep relatively stationary. Again, Norton’s intention was to use inexpensive known technologies, such as those used in oil-containment booms, to collect marine debris in the plankton net. The Sweep received its name to reflect its purpose to sweep marine debris off the surface of the water.

Norton and "The Beach"

Norton became involved with environmental issues back when he started a recycling company with his brother, Neill Smith, in 1972 in Marin County, California. At the time, plastics were not recyclable but were a cause for concern because they do not biodegrade. Norton’s passion for preservation originates from his yearning to explore through adventure travel and preserving the environment through his entrepreneurial career. Recently, Norton has been working for a start-up company in Talent, Oregon called “Straw Jet.” They build prototypes of a machine that will make construction material out of straw. Since Norton has always been an innovative builder and inventor, Project Kaisei was an opportunity to combine his creativity with environmental issues.

Being a sailor most of his life, Norton has been exposed to the worsening of marine debris in our oceans over the last five decades. He will continue testing capture methods throughout the trip and plans to continue environmental advocacy the rest of the his life. He is very concerned about plastics in our oceans and, more generally, the health of the oceans, including the loss of the fish and productivity in the oceans. “It is not just plastics,” he states, “it is a combination of things, from over-fishing to pollution of estuaries.”

One of Project Kaisei’s goals is to show the contamination of the ocean to the world, so people can see the destruction of our natural world caused by our waste and our failure to account for the responsibly. Norton believes it is essential to create public awareness of the issues in hopes of promoting changes in our habits and means of disposing waste, plastics included. The ocean has been seen as an infinite dumping ground, but we are seeing evidence that this is not the case.

Day 10 S/V Kaisei: In the Heart of the Gyre

Thursday, 13 August 2009

Lat: 34° 42’ N Lon: 143° 19’ W

Today’s early morning began with Kaisei crew capturing a ghost net full of fish, a Chinese weight for a 100-m net, package binding, and a large fishing lure.

A ghost net is a fishing net lost at sea, and it can be hazardous to the environment and to passing vessels. Dr. Neal, our principal investigator, believes ghost nets to be one of the most menacing types of marine debris for several reasons. Myriad organisms get caught in the tangled net as it spirals randomly on an oceanic path. These abandoned nets are no longer in use and as we witnessed fish get caught in the net and die. On top of that, they are a haven for invasive species, which get transported to other places.

Marine life also congregates around and under the net, which increases the likelihood they will ingest debris associated with the ghost nets. When ghost nets get snagged on coral reefs, the coral grows into the net. Often, with a big swell or storm, the coral breaks off the reef, taking new coral growth with it. These broken coral pieces caught up in ghost nets then become destructive, tumbling weeds that roll across the ocean floor destroying more coral. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) marine debris program includes a focus on derelict fishing gear and ghost nets and their recovery. In the Hawaiian Islands, NOAA supports federal, state, and local communities in surveying and collecting derelict fishing gear. NOAA is also working to produce energy sources from recovered ghost nets.

Later in the afternoon, the crew spotted a glass buoy and captured it as a keepsake of this epic sojourn. A small colony of gooseneck barnacles and crabs were living on the buoy and all of the buoys we have collected share this phenomenon. As we slow down to gather other large marine debris, we have seen that these pieces have become homes to an array of living organisms, most commonly barnacles and crabs. We also saw the lower half of a tree with an abundance of creatures on it.

Our afternoon trawl exposed more pre-production pellets and one flying fish.We spotted another ghost net, and Dr. Neal and Heather Coleman dove into the ocean to investigate. Underneath the net was a habitat for a sch

ool of pilot fish and other species of fish. On board Kaisei, Dr. Gonsior seized the opportunity to go fishing and caught a dozen of these small fish from the jack family for future analysis of stomach contents and persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

In the evening, we reached our second CalCOFI sampling site where

further samples were collected. We are looking at CalCOFI sites throughout our mission because they obtain archived data PKST can use for current analysis but also compare dat

a to what oceanic health was in the past. We plan to hit several CalCOFI sites along our research route and compare these sets of data to uncover the progression of our marine debris pollution from past to present.

Day 09 S/V Kaisei: Welcome Scientist

Wednesday, 12 August 2009

Lat: 34° 28’ N Lon: 141° 43′ W

Our midnight trawl revealed five more myctophids, one flying fish, and four pre-production pellets. Recently our night trawls have been showing less plastic marine debris than our daytime trawls. Since we are in the heart of the gyre and the apex of our sampling scheme, we have been working around the clock collecting data. At minimum, we have been trawling each afternoon and at midnight. Our crew has been on watch either aloft in the crow’s nest or on the bowsprit watching for debris fields. This extra help has been useful in gathering large pieces of marine debris that will later be used for educational outreach or analysis of surface properties. In our afternoon trawl, we found nine by-the-wind-sailors (Vellela vellela), part of a plastic bottle, one pre-production pellet, and numerous marine insects. The contents of our trawls reveal different items with each location, providing new insight into the nature of the North Pacific Gyre.

Dr. Heather Coleman

Today, one of our scientists, Heather Coleman, celebrated her 30th birthday. When Heather was a child, her brother, a UCLA marine biology major, used to take her tide pooling in Palos Verdes, California. An early introduction to marine life inspired her to start scuba diving in the eighth grade. She could not unglue herself from oceanic environments, never wanting to return to land. Thus was the birth of her muse, diving, and studying oceanic environments throughout high school and college. Heather received her undergraduate degree in marine biology from UCLA and through Northeastern University’s East/West Marine Biology Program. The program’s first stop was at the Friday Harbor Marine Laboratory in Washington. With only four students that year, Heather received an intensive research-oriented education. Her passion stayed strong for oceanic discovery, and despite the inability of her drysuit to keep out water, Heather could not contain herself from the bounty of the sea. The next venture in the East/West Program occurred in Discovery Bay, Jamaica. Heather started her first independent research project on behavioral interactions in invertebrate communities. The East/West Program continued in Nahant, Massachusetts, focusing on community ecology at the Marine Science Center. Heather continued her research in Jamaica the next year as a teaching assistant in

oceanography.

After another year at UCLA, Heather went to Akumal, Mexico to study nutrient input in coral reef systems. After graduating, she worked at Santa Monica Baykeeper leading the volunteer brigade in kelp restoration. To continue doing research, Heather began a doctoral program at the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Along the path of earning her Ph.D., she acquired a master’s degree in environmental economics. Heather was introduced to

Dr. Coleman Free Diving Around A Derelict Net

Dr. Andrea Neal, and together they have been on many dive adventures including a plethora of research dives to study the effects of oil pollution on sea urchins. Heather aspires to become involved with non-profit work in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, and to continue her new research focus on marine debris in our oceans.

Day 08 S/V Kaisei: Meeting R/V New Horizon in the North Pacific Gyre

Tuesday, 11 August 2009

Lat: 33° 53’ N Lon: 139° 33’ W

Today’s early morning trawl revealed three more myctophids, good news for our ichthyologist (fish specialist) Dr. Margy Gassel. We also found six flying fish and nine pre-production pellets. These pellets are the raw materials used to make plastic products and are usually transported by trains and container ships. After another late night, the Project Kaisei Science Team (PKST) rushed to catch some sleep before another set of trawls and filtration experiments later in the afternoon.

Flying Fish

The day started with a cloudless morning, and the overhead sun gave a clear vision of marine debris continuously floating by the ship. Even though we are on the outer rim of the gyre, there is still a large amount of marine debris in the ocean. Our afternoon trawl revealed an abundance of live ctenophores (comb jellies) and fish from the Carangidae (jacks) family in the trawl. Before releasing the ctenophores into their natural habitat, we placed them in a bucket of water with the small plastic particles, and discovered they were engulfing the marine debris. This is not surprising because they are considered voracious predators that indiscriminately consume anything of the appropriate size that they encounter. This gave PKST a direct visual example of how organisms in the ocean are affected by the small polymer particulates.

Environmental Pre-Production Resin Pellet

Later in the evening, the Brigantine Kaisei met with the Scripps Institute of Oceanography vessel R/V New Horizon in the middle of the North Pacific Gyre. Our first mate Adrian Thibeault-Stone brought a tender and welcomed Doug Woodring (one of the main founders of Project Kaisei), Professor James Leichter (from Scripps Institute of Oceanography), and Annie Crawley (a film producer and creator of the organization “Dive Into Your Imagination”). The three visitors from R/V New Horizon received a tour of Kaisei, and we discussed the progress of our research. As the night sky set in, we said our final farewells and the New Horizon visitors returned safely to their ship.

A year ago, when the idea for Project Kaisei was budding, it was hard to imagine this meeting in the gyre, testing strategies to sort out this insidious, environmental catastrophe. Although Project Kaisei started with a small group of concerned people, it took the collaboration of several different fields banding together to make these studies a reality. PKST and the rest of the Kaisei crew are starting to realize how calamitous this issue truly is and that it will take many more collaborative efforts to even skim the surface of the problem. We are proud to be a part of the first of many Kaisei missions and hope that our efforts will inspire further action.

R/V New Horizon as seen from S/V Kaisei

Day 07 S/V Kaisei: Reports From Inside the Gyre

Monday, 10 August 2009

Lat: 33° 51’ N Lon: 137° 24’ W

1100 miles due

west of Santa Monica, CA

Dr.Neal and Corinne Hume Taking Pre Production Resin Pellet Samples

The amount of debris collected in the manta trawl today was enormous compared to the planktonic biota. Dr. Andrea Neal, the principal investigator for the Project Kaisei mission, expressed her reflection about the marine debris in the gyre:

Dr. Margy Gassel and Trawl Sample

“I think the worst thing about what we are seeing is that you have to perform capturing methods, such as trawling, with a super fine net in the planktonic size range to really see the danger lurking beneath. Our trawl net today came up with at least an order of magnitude more debris than plankton; a majority of this debris was post-production polymers. It’s hard, as a scientist, to look at samples like this and not immediately start to extrapolate what the implications of this tremendous amount of debris mean to the environment as well as ourselves. Most of our samples will not be identified until we get back to shore, but the visual interpretations are astounding. It is vitally important that we make a huge change in our habits. It is imperative that we start managing all of our resources wisely. What we are seeing out here are some larger post-production polymer pieces, but the majority is fine to ultrafine postproduction polymer pieces.”

At a young age, Andrea Neal, Ph.D. was always experimenting in the scientific world, and she knew she wanted to be some kind of “-oligist.” While on the family ranch in Wyoming, she often used her grandmother’s travel beauty case as a portable laboratory. (She would also like to give a great shout-out and hug to her family doing the annual ranch maintenance while she is on this expedition.) In the ninth grade, her science teacher Mr. Shotland gave her a book called “Shaman’s Apprentice” by Mark J. Plotkin, which created an insatiable appetite for her to become an ethnobotanist. The rest of her high school studies and collegiate interests were then directed in this field.

Dr. Neal chose Purdue University, which has one of the top botany programs in the world, and she worked in a medicinal and aromatics lab with Professor James Simon for four years. There she discovered that very little was understood about how plants produce specific types and quantities of oil. Dr. Neal felt a strong need to understand plant oil synthesis in an attempt to efficiently use them for bio-fuel production. She continued her education in plant biology at the Swedish Life Sciences University (SLU) in Uppsala, Sweden, with Professor Hans Ronne, Professor Sten Stymne, and Professor Ulf Stahl, studying lipid biosynthesis in eukaryotic organisms. After five years of intensive studies, Dr. Neal became interested in the unusual fatty acid production in coastal sea sponges and their important role in oceanic health.

After getting her doctorate degree, Dr. Neal began a post-doctoral appointment at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. There she worked with Professor Patricia Holden on nano-particle toxicity on bacterial organisms. Afterwards, she revisited the importance of coastal sea sponges and the environmental implications that waste has on fragile coastal marine habitats. During these studies, she realized that scientists tend not to be taught effective communication with government agencies and the general public. She felt that in order for proper legislation to be passed and action taken on environmental issues, there must be a quorum of communication between science, government, industry, and the general public. To learn to be a more effective communicator, she participated in a post-doctoral enrichment study at Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society focusing on outreach. There, she put together the Santa Barbara component of the “Day Without a Bag” campaign. The campaign passed out 6,000 reusable bags at 18 educational outreach sites, focusing on the importance of reusable bags and recycling. Dr. Neal also worked with school groups such as Don’s Net Café from Santa Barbara High School and Jean-Michel Cousteau’s “Ambassadors of the Environment Program,” empowering kids to become pro-active environmental advocates.

This past spring, Dr. Neal worked on an environmental toxins campaign, bringing to light the detrimental impacts of brominated and chlorinated compounds used as flame retardants in household products on environmental and human health. It was during this time that Dr. Neal met Doug Wooding and Mary Crowley, and was invited to lead the science team on the S/V Kaisei. Using her broad scientific background and research experience, she put together a notable team. The intention of this international scientific group is to analyze and quantify the environmental impact of marine debris at representative sites the North Pacific Gyre. The Kaisei science team’s hope is to develop standardized methodologies that can be used for future marine debris studies. Dr. Neal’s hope is that, as a global scientific community, we will work together proactively to find innovative solutions to what could be the largest environmental disaster of our human history. Dr. Neal wants everyone to know how thrilled she is to work with such an amazing group of people that are on the S/V Kaisei. She is also very proud of her team who are working around the clock on this incredibly important mission to improve our understanding of marine debris in the North Pacific Gyre.

Day Six S/V Kaisei: Catching the First Myctophid

Sunday, 9 August 2009

Lat: 33° 33.7’ N Lon: 133°30’ W

The science team was unable to conduct the midnight manta trawl due to rough seas. After much needed rest, they gathered in the morning to discuss the fish collection protocol. Dr. Margy Gassel is interested in studying fish species from the myctophid family because they are common mid-water fish that migrate to the surface at night for feeding. This means they have a high probability of ingesting small plastic debris. Myctophids represent an important trophic connection between zooplankton and other pelagic fish including species that we consume.

Dr. Gassel’s initial interest in marine biology began in high school when

she was inspired by a documentary port

raying research on right whales (Eubalaena australis) in Patagonia by Dr. Roger Payne. Many years later, she decided to pursue this interest by participating in a sail study program aboard the R/V Regina Maris on the breeding grounds of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeanglea). Following that, Dr. Gassel studied humpback whales and other marine mammals while working as a naturalist on whale-watching boats in New England. After working as a registered nurse in women’s health and as a graphic designer, Dr. Gassel returned to school to study biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. While there, she had the opportunity to conduct research with an international team of scientists on the R/V Polarstern in the Arctic Ocean. Dr. Gassel is also a shareholder in the cooperatively operated S/V Alvei. Dr. Gassel completed her doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley, Department of Integrative Biology, where she studied crustacean behavior and ecology in Hawaii.

Dr.Gassel currently works as a research scientist with the California Environmental Protection Agency, whose mission is to protect public and environmental health. Never losing her passion for protecting the oceanic environment, she accepted the invitation to sail as a member of the Project Kaisei science team.

All members of the S/V Kaisei crew have been using innovative strategies to capture marine debris. Our onboard engineer Norton Smith handcrafted another trawling device onboard S/V Kaisei.

http://www.whole-systems.org/

Using a flowmeter to measure the volume of water passing through the net, this trawl will be used to catch marine debris at a depth of approximately three meters. Appropriately titled the “Norton Trawl,” it will be used throughout the research route to collect additional samples and compare to surface collections.The midnight trawl produced the first myctophid sample, which was preserved in the lab freezer aboard Kaisei for future research at the California Environmental Protection Agency. In our night trawl samples we also found nine Pacific sauries, six flying fish, two comb jellies, and four sea slugs. In addition, the science team found two pre-production plastic pellets and numerous amounts of polymer particulates. The Project Kaisei team has been astounded by the large quantity of marine debris floating by the ship, and the crew has become inspired to scoop large pieces of marine debris with hand nets for future use in educational outreach.

Day 05 S/V Kaisei: Bioluminescent Sea Jellies

Saturday, 8 August 2009

Lat: 33° 32’N Lon: 132° 43’ W

August eighth started with bioluminescent sea jellies glowing neon aqua-blue illuminated by the presence of the full moon. The limpid waters and moonlight allowed the jellies to glow as deep as two meters, giving the science team an underwater electric light show. Some of the bioluminescent jellies were caught in the jaws of “Manny”, the manta trawler. We found 22 small silver fish, three small sea jellies, and an astonishing amount of marine debris given our distance from the Northwest Pacific gyre. The collected debris included two pre-production plastic pellets,

also known as “nurdles.” After tedious work picking out the copious amount of fine and micro-sized particles, we decided to call it a night at 1:30 AM, to wake up again at 6 AM to prepare for our experiments at our first CalCOFI site.

Dr. Neal and Nicole Argyropoulos prepared the multitiered filtration system to analyze different sizes of fine-particulate marine debris and phytoplankton. Dr. Michael Gonsior, Dr. Margy Gassel, Heather Coleman, and Corinne Hume prepared Dr. Gonsior’s dissolved organic matter (DOM) analysis, gathering water samples from approximately 200 meters and also from the surface. By gathering water at these two depths, Michael believes that he will be able to analyze the dissolved carbon pool in that general region. He plans to gather the samples in this methodology at all the CalCOFI sites on our research route in order to understand DOM cycling in that area. This is the first attempt to analyze marine DOM in the Pacific Ocean using ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry and to compare it to the Atlantic Ocean. DOM samples from the Atlantic gyre located in the Sargasso Sea are currently being processed and will be compared to the Pacific gyre after this research cruise.

After lunch we pulled in the manta trawl and noted a decrease in the quantity of marine debris. We also collected more small fish and jellies in the cod end of the trawl. After seeing incorporation of fine particle polymers in the innards of the jellies, the Science Team considered jelly and fish collections for persistent organic pollutant (POP) analysis. Later in the day the wind picked up again, and we scampered aloft to unfurl the sails. By using wind energy, we are once again able to conserve fuel, continue along our research route, and make our trip as environmentally sound as possible. This ethic continues in the way we dispose of our waste, recycling plastic and other co-mingled containers and only discarding organic waste.

The Science Team started to notice an increase in large-sized marine debris floating in the ocean (e.g., buoys, plastic bottles, crate) as we approach closer to the gyre. When possible, the Science Team has tried to catch the large pieces of marine debris or slow the ship in order to scoop the samples. Unfortunately, were we to stop to retrieve every piece of debris, we would sacrifice precious time at the gyre. Later in the evening, we had a fantastic birthday feast and Dr. Margy Gassel prepared an incredible butternut squash soup as per request of Nicole Argyropoulos. With the good company of our on-board shipmates, we finished the lovely evening with a screening of the film “Life Aquatic.”