Gyres and Marine Debris

mont_2008Much of our work focuses on applying GIS to the marine debris challenges, particularly the plastic debris in harbors and in ocean gyres. The “Pacific Garbage Patch” has frequently made the news this year, and it has almost reached celebrity status – as I told a friend, “if Opra Winfrey is talking about plastics in the gyres, it must be big”. The marine debris issue is attracting the world’s attention, and we have a few compelling reasons why GIS professionals are among those particularly enabled to participate in the community of solutions;

- debris in the gyres connect climate to GIS – these great circulations are climate’s maritime conveyor belts, transferring energy poleward.
- most debris is undetectable in remotely sensed data – a challenge for “field” data collection, as most study areas are in motion, and can be bigger than North America.
- plastic is a fundamental ecosystem threat, as micro-plastics are beginning to “displace” plankton in certain ecosystems -a food chain challenge.
- chemicals are bonding to plastics, and those chemicals are being consumed by organisms hosted by the debris – another food chain challenge.
- misplacing plastic is a truly global process, that almost all humanity participates in.

waterGpsOur opinion and interest lies in the “The Human-Gyre Interface.” Drew coined the phrase to describe where we can take action – in the knowledge interface; the harbors, bays, beaches, and rivers. We know this space, we can clean-up this space, map this space, and prevent additional material from entering the gyres through this space. This is where we can build community. I’ve attached a draft map for you to get an idea of what we are starting to analyze in Monterey – imagine communities worldwide adding to this dataset. My longer-term interest in gyre research is to gather information on the way we consume and discard our trash worldwide, and create models that illustrate how debris enters and moves into the gyres from this interface.

We are stewarding the creation of a data-model for debris collection, and a series of downloadable templates for use by any organization. We are discussing this with other researchers who are developing debris data structures already, and we wish to refine the data standards for use in both scientific AND community mapping programs.We are working on the plastics issue in two main areas, the Pacific, and in the Eastern Caribbean.

sm_boat_gearPacific Projects. Drew has been involved with the GIS and mapping aspect of the marine debris issue, primarily in the Monterey Bay area, working withSeaLife Conservation, a team dedicated to marine conservation through research and education, who operate a 65′ ketch-rigged research sailboat in that area. In partnership with The Monterey Bay Aquarium, SeaLife Conservation staff have been collecting debris from Monterey Bay since 2006, along with GPS positions and descriptive information (type, age, date, time, sea-state, winds, etc) for every point. Drew met this team ’07, by chance at the dock one day, and learned that they were not yet entering it into a GIS for analysis and map production. Now they are running the analysis on the data in ArcGIS, and together we are refining data collection methodology, to suit the sometimes harsh field conditions and analysis needs, and to;

- standardize and simplify the field data that are collected (specifically what attributes are collected for each debris item)
- make these data simple to collect with a variety of GPS hardware / software devices (we are using Trimble Nomads, with ArcPad)
- streamline the data/workflow of getting the debris information off the GPS and into a GIS for mapping
- recommend projections and provide resources for any willing participants to collect marine debris data
- create similar methods and templates for communities and students to map river, harbor and beach clean-ups in a scientific manner
- collect and share these data in a way that serves and celebrates community

Gyre Links:

NOAA – What is Marine Debris? http://oceantoday.noaa.gov/marinedebris/welcome.html

SEAPLEX: Scripps Expedition to the “Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch” 7 min http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2ntyTMpCnw

Charles Moore

-at TED – quite good! 7 min http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7K-nq0xkWY

-on Good Morning America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLrVCI4N67M

Fabian Cousteau on Oprah http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090422-tows-ocean-pollution

Kure Atoll – Plastic and Albatross – Teachers & Volunteers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVjue0R5tHQ&feature=player_embedded

Project Kaisei – with Scripps http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8QpPUQzgcI

Kaisei Journey Report http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J65YE9hRgN8&feature=player_embedded

Advocacy and Legislation http://www.cleanseascoalition.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=60