Monday, August 17, 2009

SEAPLEX: Scripps Research Cruise

Scientists in the Pacific Gyre studying ocean debris; will recount their expedition in Aug. 27 press conference

Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego

On Aug. 11, Scripps Institution of Oceanography SEAPLEX researchers encountered a large ghost net with tangled rope, net, plastic, and various biological organisms.

Scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego are in the midst of an unprecedented research journey into the vast and little-explored "Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch." Called the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX), this research mission has gotten its first close-up and detailed looks during its 20-day voyage to survey and sample plastic debris in this remote ocean region.

The Scripps research vessel (R/V) New Horizon left its San Diego homeport on Aug. 2 for the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, roughly a thousand miles off California's coast. With collaborators from Project Kaisei, the team is surveying plastic distribution and abundance, collecting samples for analysis in the lab and assessing the impacts of debris on marine life.

The scientists and research volunteers onboard are seeking scientific data on just how much influence the accumulation of human-produced plastic and other debris has on this ocean area. Prior to this cruise, very little was known about the size of the "garbage patch" and threats to marine life and the gyre's biological environment.

This cruise will continue through Aug. 21 and is led by a team of Scripps Oceanography graduate students, with support from UC Ship Funds, the National Science Foundation and Project Kaisei,

A piece of plastic grating, with a pelagic crab, algae, and masses of flying fish eggs. This piece was floating at the surface and collected with a dip net off the side of Scripps Institution of Oceanography's R/V New Horizon.

"During the SEAPLEX cruise, we are going to try to target the highest plastic areas we see to begin to understand the scope of the problem," said Miriam Goldstein, chief scientist of the expedition, before the team embarked for the North Pacific Gyre. "The team of graduate students will be studying everything from phytoplankton to zooplankton to small midwater fish."

On Thursday, Aug. 6, as SEAPLEX scientists continued towards the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, a large piece of plastic with crabs and fish larvae was retrieved from the water using a hand net.

After transiting for six days aboard R/V New Horizon, the SEAPLEX research team reached its first intensive sampling site on Aug. 9, where team members began 24-hour sampling periods using a variety of tow nets to collect samples at several ocean depths. The following day, a manta tow retrieved during sampling included small jellyfish-like organisms called by-the-wind sailors (Velella velella" target="_new">http://www.projectkaisei.org.

A piece of plastic grating, with a pelagic crab, algae, and masses of flying fish eggs. This piece was floating at the surface and collected with a dip net off the side of Scripps Institution of Oceanography's R/V New Horizon.

"During the SEAPLEX cruise, we are going to try to target the highest plastic areas we see to begin to understand the scope of the problem," said Miriam Goldstein, chief scientist of the expedition, before the team embarked for the North Pacific Gyre. "The team of graduate students will be studying everything from phytoplankton to zooplankton to small midwater fish."

On Thursday, Aug. 6, as SEAPLEX scientists continued towards the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, a large piece of plastic with crabs and fish larvae was retrieved from the water using a hand net.

After transiting for six days aboard R/V New Horizon, the SEAPLEX research team reached its first intensive sampling site on Aug. 9, where team members began 24-hour sampling periods using a variety of tow nets to collect samples at several ocean depths. The following day, a manta tow retrieved during sampling included small jellyfish-like organisms called by-the-wind sailors (Velella velella

On Aug. 10, Scripps Institution of Oceanography SEAPLEX researchers dispatched a small boat off R/V New Horizon for two hours to capture plastic debris in the gyre. Among the assortment of items retrieved were three plastic bottles with a variety of biological inhabitants.

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Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at University of California, San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest and most important centers for global science research and education in the world. The National Research Council has ranked Scripps first in faculty quality among oceanography programs nationwide Now in its second century of discovery, the scientific scope of the institution has grown to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical and atmospheric studies of the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide range of scientific areas are under way today in 65 countries. The institution has a staff of about 1,300, and annual expenditures of approximately $155 million from federal, state and private sources. Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration.

Project Kaisei
Project Kaisei consists of a team of innovators, scientists, environmentalists, ocean lovers, sailors, and sports enthusiasts who have come together with a common purpose. To study the North Pacific Gyre and the marine debris that has collected in this oceanic region, to determine how to capture the debris and to study the possible retrieval and processing techniques that could be potentially employed to detoxify and recycle these materials into diesel fuel.
Project Kaisei is organized under the Ocean Voyages Institute, which is a non-profit organization devoted to the preservation of the Maritime Arts and Arts and Sciences and the Ocean Environment. Ocean Voyages Institute is a "501 C 3" California Registered non-profit organization.