ORV Alguita Set to Leave July 23, 2005 for Gyre
July 14, 2005 - Long Beach, CA
Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) announced today that Captain Charles Moore, founder of AMRF and Captain of the AMRF chartered research vessel, the ORV Alguita, will leave Long Beach on July 23, 2005 aboard Alguita for AMRF's fourth research trip to the North Pacific Central Gyre. The gyre, an area in the mid-Pacific Ocean approximately the size of Texas, is a repository for ocean trash and debris carried into it by various ocean currents. AMRF scientists collect samples of sea water in the gyre on the surface and at different depths, which are sent to the AMRF laboratory in Redondo Beach where they are analyzed for the amount of plastic found in each sample in comparison to the amount of zooplankton, or sea life.
On this voyage Alguita will be carrying four satellite tracking tags from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that will be attached to large balls of drifting fishnets (sometimes called "ghost nets") capable of breaking coral and killing monk seals, sea turtles, fish and other sea creatures that become entangled in them. NOAA will track the migration pattern of the nets.
Accompanying Captain Moore aboard Alguita will be Dr. Marcus Eriksen, AMRF Education Specialist; a seabird ecologist, Laurie Harvey, who will also collect plastic debris of various kinds for Aveda Cosmetics Company to be used in Aveda's groundbreaking research on recycling; and Ian Connacher of the Canadian Discovery Channel as well as underwater videographer and Long Beach lifeguard Jody Lemmon, both of whom will be filming the voyage. The crew will be looking for opportunities to film the actual ingestion of ocean plastic by creatures in the sea.
Alguita will return to Long Beach August 17, after a voyage of three weeks.
Past voyages to the North Pacific Central Gyre have produced laboratory results showing that in 30 areas, separated by over 1,800 nautical miles, plastic outweighed zooplankton by greater than a 6 to 1 ratio and got as high as 112 to 1 plastic to plankton. AMRF is working to establish a baseline database showing the current levels of plastic in various parts of the world's oceans.
Posted: 7/19/05