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The Garbage Patch

Leaving the Marine Debris Behind

Thursday, 10 December 2009

Leaving the North Pacific Gyre was dramatic. It seemed like only yesterday we arrived in the gyre, and now we had to turn around and cruise more than 1000 miles northeast to deliver the vessel to Oregon for another scientific expedition. In this moment I wanted to stay forever on the sea because I felt as if there were so many questions unanswered. It seemed as if the entire scientific crew disappeared for 24 hours as we were off station and through with our intensives. Pete was still processing his collections, which you will learn more about next week, while Miriam, Meg and Darcy were still doing Mantas and CTDS. I found myself wanting to work harder to complete the documentation of this expedition more than ever.

Surprising Marine Debris

Tuesday, 24 November 2009

August 15, 2009
Annie Crawley�s Journal

WILSON! It is amazing what lack of sleep makes one do and how important entertainment can be in the middle of the night on a floating lab in the middle of the North Pacific Gyre. There were often half a dozen people gathered around a computer watching the childhood star from Doogie Howser in his new role as Dr. Horrible singing on itunes. If you have not seen Dr. Horrible videos, you might want to check them out, they are GREAT especially when you are sleep deprived floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. If Dr. Horrible only knew what a fan base he had in the great pacific garbage patch, I am sure he would create a sing-a-long just for these scientists out in the North Pacific Gyre and perhaps he might even call it Wilson! We had extra excitement tonight because we found WILSON, or perhaps his cousin! At 4 AM, Jesse and Timbo pulled up a buoy covered with hundreds of gooseneck barnacles.

Marine Mammals in The Garbage Patch

Wednesday, 04 November 2009

Josh Jones was invited to join the SEAPLEX cruise aboard the New Horizon as the marine mammal specialist. As very few people have been out to this area of the Ocean, Chief Scientist Miriam Goldstein wanted to have a well-rounded group of scientists aboard. It was a few days before his acoustic array was deployed on the expedition, yet from the beginning, Josh was a team player. Although he would be studying marine mammals, he was there to lend assistance to everyone who needed it, including me. He was responsible for shooting some footage for Scripps Institution of Oceanography and understood the importance of my role aboard the New Horizon. Project Kaisei wanted to fully document both the SEAPLEX expedition and the tall ship Kaisei. During the first days at sea we had both visual and acoustic sightings of dolphins, but throughout the journey we had very little visual activity of marine mammals. There was a pod of sperm whales but they were too far in the distance for me to photograph. The video is from one of our first days aboard the Scripps vessel and the entry was from the wee hours of the morning from my journal.

An Ocean of Light in the North Pacific Gyre

Tuesday, 03 November 2009

We passed the half way point of the SEAPLEX expedition with Project Kaisei on this day and it was almost as if there was a silence on the boat that did not exist the day before. Even when we were not on station doing an intensive 24 hour sample, the manta trawls were still being done every few hours. We all knew when the tow was about to happen as the engines would slow down and we would reduce speed from about ten knots to one knot. The team would assemble in their safety vests, safety officer Matt Durham would come onto the scene, hands slipping into orange work gloves and everyone standing by to launch the manta. Anyone who was not resting would usually come out to use the dip nets and recover marine debris and floating bits from over the side. Doug Woodring was nicknamed Dr. Dip Net because he netted the first fouling community that came onboard the ship. The teamwork was strong, but the atmosphere changed a bit as we continually pulled up small marine debris and plastic more than 1,000 miles from shore. After the fifteen minute manta trawl, Team Manta brought the net back aboard. They washed down the inside with a sea water hose on deck to get anything that was hanging on the sides down to the cod end which is where all the samples are taken.

Skimming the Surface of the Gyre

Saturday, 10 October 2009

August 12, 2009
Annie Crawley's Journal

I had not slept much and at 4:13 in the morning I found myself wide awake. I tried to go back to sleep, but it was almost as if I had an angel telling me to get up and take a walk around the deck. So I slipped on my shoes and did not even change out of my pajamas. I left my cabin and walked down to the wet lab where Meg and Darcy were processing the last CTD samples. It was then I realized why I was drawn out of bed. In Meg�s flow-through system there was a foreign object pulled up from a couple hundred meters below the surface and it looked as if it was a piece of plastic. She will not know for certain until her research is funded and she can run samples, but I was able to photograph it before she put it into the freezer. I never want to sleep because everything interesting seems to happen on the night shift.

Microscopic Plastic in the Ocean

Thursday, 08 October 2009

August 11, 2009
Annie Crawley's Journal

It passed over from day to night and day again. I had been awake for nearly 24 hours. It was extraordinary working with some really amazing people. I find the entire experience hard to explain because I do not want my emotions to get in the way of my work. The 24 hour intensive ended around 3:00 PM on August 11. After a full day the day before, I stayed up to photograph and film the crazy, bizarre animals that were coming up in Pete�s Oozeki net trawls.

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