The GIS Institute

We’re sampling the Tijuana River today. We board a group from the San Diego Chapter of SurfRider Foundation at 7:00am, and head out the channel. Right away, its a busy start – a nuclear submarine launches in front of us with a significant escort, and then close passes by two Navy hovercraft. Once we get outside the bay, we keep heading south, towards the US/Mexico border, where the Tijuana River flows in into the Pacific Ocean just north of the border. The Tijuana River watershed is heavily populated on both side of the border, and trash accumulates throughout the dry season. Once the fall rains come to the area, much of  this trash is sent out to sea, despite the efforts of many agencies and conservation groups.

We had a fast sail “down the hill” to San Diego yesterday – big bright sunshine filling the pilothouse as we passed Dana Point, San Clemente, Trestle’s, Oceanside, Black’s, and finally “home” to San Diego. I’ve sailed a lot in this area, and I appreciate the comfortable feeling of familiar waters… We tie-off at the San Diego Yacht Club, and make way to LaJolla for the San Diego SurfRider Foundation Chapter Meeting. Sixty people in attendance, many raising their hands when asked if they came specifically to gain new information about Plastic Marine Debris. We screened a 20 minute segment of the film “Strange Days on Planet Earth”, detailed the last few days of our voyage, complete with maps, and Dave Robinson took questions from the audience. We seem to be getting more effective at connecting with people as we get further into the expedition. Perhaps we seem more certain after traveling this far, and talking to so many people along the way – it seems our credibility is growing as we walk this walk….

Miriam Goldstein, a SCRIPPS researcher, and Science Director of the SEAPLAEX Expedition last summer joined our crew for dinner locally. Miriam studies not only the spatial distribution of the tiny plastic pieces in the Pacific Gyre, but the chemicals that are bonding to these bits of debris. Miriam is a scientist who rigorously follows the scientific method, so she is the perfect person to discuss the methodology we are using in our current debris work with SeaLife Conservation. We are both very interested in finding the means to accurately sample very large areas of the gyre for plastics densities, to determine the degrees of mixing and separation. I’ll discuss some of our ideas in the final post.

Happy GIS Day everyone! Today was a big one for us on the Baylis. We celebrated our official event Tuesday on the SRV Derek M. Baylis, off the coast of Newport Beach, CA. A crew from Prikett Films www.prickettfilms.com/portfolio flew in on the Billabong Seaplane to meet us and film while we conducted an at sea lesson for a group of students, parents and professional athletes. Mike Prikett’s current project is a documentary about marine debris, and what various groups of people are doing around the world to remedy the problem.  Nice to know we are showing up on that radar!

The plane landed close to us, and taxied right up to our stern – Capt Mark kept  us close while the seaplane crew tossed out an anchor off the nose of the plane. Port-side hatch opens on the plane, and out pops heads, and then a dinghy, an engine, and over came several people, including professional big-wave surfers Mike Parsons, Grant Baker “Twiggy”, Greg and Rusty Long. These guys ride REALLY big waves (60′ plus) and they are committed to learning about and sharing a message of responsibility and sustainability among the surfing community.

We had three main components to our GIS Day Celebration:

- a lesson on kelp forest from our naturalist, who explained how these unique communities thrive and evolve over their life-cycle

- a plankton-tow, to investigate the microspoic members of this ocean comminuty, and

- a major discussion and demonstration of the GIS and GPS work we are doing around marine debris mapping

The overall goal is advocate attention to the careful considerations we need to make as consumers of plastic. Hard to believe how much technology and time goes into making products that some of us only use for a few minutes, or maybe even seconds… The film team will provide footage to us for use on the website later…

We also had a long and calm visit from a large pod of Risso’s Dolphins, which was a great teaching opportunity

Getting late over here, so I’ll sign off with a video of the plane landing and taking off….

The Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS.org) has a great LISTSERVE – for those of you in the GIS world, a $35 membership is worth its weight in support and interesting information from the list… I sent out a note asking for volunteers in the area to come help us out for our morning survey, and Jenni Gomez, an SCGS member from Long Beach answered the call. Jenni works as a GIS specialist for the The City of Loong Beach, and she brought Rob Earle with her, who works for the Storm Water department. One of my primary interests in the marine debris work I am doing revolves around what happens when single use plastic and polystyrene leave human hands as waste, so it was a treat having Rob aboard to educate us about storms drains, and the efforts to minimize trash from flowing into the ocean through storm water system.

The Ocean Gyres, in particular the North Pacific Gyre, have gotten much attention this summer. I am certain that people need to know these giant vortexes are filing with 50 years of industrial waste, yet I am quite convinced that the “human – gyre interface” is where we need to be focusing our attention. We can’t (yet) follow all of our trash from the point of manufacture to the ocean or the landfill, but we can speculate that much of the stuff that ends up in the oceans either blows out of trash cans, or carelessly leaves human hands… either way, we are creating quite a mess, and threatening many species at all aspects of the food chain….

The bottom line is:

- plastic does not break down, it only breaks apart (into smaller ans smaller pieces),

- no matter what size, shape or material it is, plastic look like some living creature when it is in the water, which means,

- some other creature will eat it, or attempt to eat it, and die of entanglement or starvation.

We spent two hours surveying the east side of  San Pedro Bay, which is inside the breakwater of The Port of Los Angles, and we picked up almost 400 pieces of debris… hard work, very satisfying, yet I wish it did not need to be done…

Kudos and thanks to Rob and Jenni from The City of Long Beach for helping us out!

After Rob and Jenni left, we had a regularly scheduled boat program with the staff of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium www.cabrillomarineaquarium.org/ – What a great and fun group of people! We were sort of preaching to the choir, though there was plenty of new information exchanged, and we all had a fine time sharing and creating community.

Off before sunrise with a skeleton crew – even without much sleep, I love getting up and off the dock early like this… We put all the dock lines and fenders away quickly whenever we are moving on the Baylis. Once they are stowed, I go up to the bow and enjoy first light as we leave the harbor for San Pedro.

Our first debris recovery this morning was a styrofoam coffee cup that we spotted from a long way off… we were not too far offshore, and the wind had blown the cup into our path… as we approached, a seagull landed next to it, and began taking bites out of it. We scared the bird away, retrieved the cup, and took a GPS point, as we do on all of our retrievals… It’s tough to think that may happening all over the world everyday…

The expedition will have  a big change from here on out – more boat traffic, the night sky not so dark, and the air and water close to shore has the color of the industrialized world. We pass Ventura, Point Dume, and take a line straight across Santa Monica Bay to Palo Verdes, keeping L.A. well of the port side… We round the peninsula to San Pedro doing 9Kts, and enter the breakwater of the Port of Los Angeles. Big day on the water, we tied-up, eat, and hunkered-down for the night. Here’s a short video of the main sail coming down at the lighthouse…

Our first full day here in Santa Barbara was full of errands, cleaning the boat, and for me, processing the GPS data we collected while recovering debris from the waters off Santa Cruz Island (see yesterdays post). We partnered with the local Surfrider Foundation chapter to take a group of volunteers from a variety of local conservation organizations out on the Baylis for a sail, so we could show them what we are doing, and to hear about their work. In attendance were people from Surfrider Foundation, Santa Barbara Harbor Keepers, Heal our Oceans Together, Project Kaisei, and several others.

Sharing the experience is one of the most satisfying aspects of this work. So there we are, doing 6 Kts with 30 people aboard, and I see plastic in the water… “DEBRIS OFF THE PORT BOW!” I yell, and Martijn grabs the pole net – we are past it too quickly… He marks the spot for the Captain by pointing the net at it, and we do a man-overboard drill, turning the 65′ boat under-sail around. We can see our wake, and Martijn has the spot correct, and we retrieve the 4 sq.cm. piece of plastic. Yes, it is a lot of effort for a little piece of debris, nut it provides a credible image to all who witness and participate, that plastics in the ocean is a big problem, and that there are people willing to do extra-ordinary things to clean it up. I heard someone on the boat comment that “these guys are hardcore” – I look forward to the time when we don’t have to be. More photos at the bottom of this post…

We got in just at sunset, and we went straight over to The Santa Barbara Yacht Club building, where our evening program taking place with a slightly larger crowd from the local community. SeaStudios Foundation screened a 20 minute clip from their National Geographic / PBS Film “Strange Days on Planet Earth”, with Edward Norton. The piece was mainly about plastics in the ocean, and it really hits home for me after the week I’ve had living and breathing this issue. Click here for more info on the film.

The evening program continued with several short presentations from representatives of the local groups, like SurfRider Foundation and Project Kaisei – then the former Mayor of Pacific Grove, CA, Dan Court spoke to the audience. Dan successfully stewarded a polystyrene ban in Pacific Grove, and was quite active in supporting a similar ban in Monterey, CA. He has been a crew-member on the Derek Baylis with us for the last week, onboard to see this work firsthand, and to support other communities along our route. Dan is quite an amazing speaker, he is encouraging without saying ‘you should’, and he is uplifting and motivating  while still reminding you of how hard some of this work can be. My favorite quote from Dan tonight “Vision without action is a daydream and action without vision is a nightmare”. One ironic twist turned teaching tool for Dan, and later Dave Robinson, as one of the sponsors donated bottled water to the event. I couldn’t help take this picture, and think about the dark humor, and sad irony this positive intention set into motion – it does help illustrate just how embedded plastic is in our choices as consumers…

Dave Robinson then closed the night with a discussion of what we are doing on the Think Beyond Plastics Expedition, and what we can do as individuals to remedy marine debris and fisheries. He stood in front of the map I made, with data collected the day before off  Santa Cruz Island, a national park. Very rewarding for me to see that map in front of all those people, with ‘the ink’ still drying…

Dave also reminded us of the constant election being held in the choices that show up for us in restaurants and stores. Dave asks us to think about the vote we cast with our wallets everyday as consumers. Specifically, he reminds us to think about the alternatives to single use plastic bags, cups, straws etc, and polystyrene cups and take-out containers. Some of these alternatives include using a seafood watch card at your restaurant when ordering fish, and carrying your own stainless steel water bottles.

Other photos from the day – click for full size image:

Waking up off Santa Cruz Island, in Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary was a real treat. We had a nice breakfast, and then everybody got busy with a variety of chores, Capt Mark and Dave workng on the boat in the engine room, Martijn outside with a mask and snorkel cleaning the hull and making sure all the intakes were clear. Dan and Shauna went off for a paddle in the kayakes to see what they could find, and I worked on the blogs and GPS usint for a while.

We pulled-up the hook at about noon, and set a course for Santa Barbara, about 25 miles due north… Within five minutes, Martijn sees debris, and we all spring to various posts… he keeps an eye on the trash as if it’s a man overboard… I grad a net, and Mike grabs the GPS. We get that piece, then see another and another… in all we spend 45 minutes “on the way” to Santa Barbara, picking up trash in the Marine Sanctuary… kind of sad to see all that debris out in such an otherwise pristine area. Most of the trash we collected was candy wrappers and chips bags, with one Walmart shopping bag, the closest point to Santa Barbara – at least we had something handy to put it all in as we emptied the trash when we got to shore…

Here’s a map of that data collection – click to see a larger version…

Winds 20 -25kts. We’ve been “hiding” behind Point Conception for 36 hours, waiting for the wind and the swell to calm down a little bit. After catching a few waves at Coho, we raise the sails to head further down the coast. I’ve never gone from upwind to 14 kts so quickly… Capt Mark took us up towards the actual point so we could get a good look at Governor’s… It was like peeling out of a small eddy in a really swift river…

We built some weather days into the schedule just for events like this one, and this protected area was a fine place to wait out the weather…  Along he way, Dave provided sailing knowledge, and we were visited by more dolphins… mostly a travel day, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Click any images for a larger view.

A day to prepare. After a great day working the sailing and evening programs yesterday, today’s work includes provisioning, sail planning, and a few maintenance items for the boat. At breakfast, Captain Mark ‘orders’ us to go for some exercise or recreation before we start our work, because we’re going to have a big day preparing and likely sailing through the night. Most of us go for a surf across the harbor on a nice beach break. As soon as we’re done, everyone is off to complete their tasks – for me, that means making sure the blog us up, getting the GPS gear charged and ready, and adjusting a few website related issues. Mark makes the announcement that we will leave at midnight, as a 15-20 ft swell is approaching, along with 15-20 kt winds, and we don’t want to be in open water north of Point Conception as those conditions appear.

Part of our role on this journey is to look for the deep dependencies we have on single use plastic and polystyrene – the stuff we all use, sometimes only for a few seconds, and then throw away. We decided to do our provisioning at the local farmers market in San Luis Obispo, because it supports the local economy there, and it gives us a chance to meet people and mix it up a little before we go to sea. We meet at six, to carpool down to “SLO town”…

Once we walk around the corner and enter this night market, the color is vibrant, and the energy is up. Fruits and vegetables from all over the area are on display, and farmers become proud salesmen, making sure we all know about their harvest. I’ve never provisioned a boat with this much fresh produce – we bought lots of stuff that was not even on the list; basil, honey, pistachios, lemons, beans, strawberries, avocados, and more…

We hold, smell and taste many flavors from this carnival of the senses; the sights and sounds are alive and moving and swirling… We make one end of the market, and turn for the other end. Much more a festival to me than a farmers market….

Even puppet shows for the kids! More pics at the bottom of this post.

As we got further into the concessions end of the market, we began to notice the plastic and polystyrene containers, lids, and straws that have become the meal delivery vehicles of choice for our society… after picking this stuff out of the ocean for a few days, it doesn’t look like a tasty treat, or a quenching drink anymore. I’ve found what I think to be engaging ways to start conversations with these vendors about the way they sell their products to ‘us’. Some vendors seem quite interested in the fact that bio-compostable cups, bowls, and silverware are become almost price neutral, others seem to think it is not an issue.

Either way, we made sure they knew we were not going to buy anything from them delivered with a single use product mage from plastic or polystyrene. If you are concerned about these materials in the oceans and waterways, you can vote like this too. Also, I do like to remind people that we are all learning and

changing our ways… good people are working hard to create jobs and products in this very market, and they are the type of people to realize that their product may sell better if it’s delivered with compostable dinnerware – it’s up to us to let them know we want and expect sustainable materials – click here to suggest sustainable suppliers for your favorite restaurants and vendors!

Back to the journey. By midnight, we’re stowing supplies and bringing-in the lines to make our way south. I love leaving at night. Nobody to see us off… coffee brewing, and those with a late watch tuck-in for a few hours sleep. My GPS gear is tracking our progress, as is all the navigation software aboard the Baylis.

Captain Mark and Dave both use paper charts to plan and track progress – I appreciate that for so many reasons, the main ones being that the electricity can fail, and you can still work the nav problems, and you can see little bouys and other chart features, while still seeing the big picture at the same time. Small computer and chart-plotter screens just cant facilitate that.

I‘m so excited to make the turn around Point Conception. I get some sleep, as I have the 5:00am to 7:00am watch. Once I’m up, I join Dave for late stargazing, and a beautiful sunrise as we approach the point.Here’s a little YouTube film I made of this morning…

Up early Wednesday to find a coffee shop and get email in and out… the fog is thick, and the streets of Morro Bay are quiet… I’m thinking about how the people of this town must describe where Morrow Bay is when they are traveling… to the north, the cliffs of Big Sur, and to the south, Point Conception and then Santa Barbara. Morro Bay, and a few other small towns, share a unique quiet coastal zone of California that has a slight feeling of the New England fishing villages, mixed with a surfing and boating lifestyle… ‘unique’ and ‘community’ are the words I have in mind.

I find The Rock Espresso Bar – OPEN – nice – it’s named for this rock, an igneous vein at the harbor entrance, whose surroundings eroded away long ago…I get my work done, later joined by some of the crew to finalize the plan for the day… a morning surf, clean the boat, staff meeting, and then our Think Beyond Plastics Program starts at 3:00. He added that we will stay in the harbor an extra day to wait for the winds to clock around from S to NW, so we’ll have a fine 15- 20 Kt wind off our starboard shoulder one the way south around Point Conception.

Today our first program work starts – we’ll take a large group out on the boat, the Derek M. Baylis (‘the Baylis’) for “science under sail” – marine ecology, plankton tows, and ‘trash talk’. Then we will screen “Strange Days on Planet Earth”, a production of SeaStudios, whose foundation is the primary creator and supporter of this expedition.

Now writing later… the day went well. Great interest in the program work we are doing, and an enthusiastic turnout at our evening program.  For the sake of time, I’ll let the pics talk for now, and provide a program brief after we get to Santa Barbara.

Weeks of planning finally boils down to departure day – phone calls, charts, website updates, last minute provisioning – all part of the day… then Dave Robinson, SeaLife Conservation Program Director, has us all over for a traditional pre-sail dinner of fresh fish and salad… one last check of the email, and the mapping site, then we’re off to the harbor…

All well after our 12 hour shakedown from Santa Cruz to Morro Bay, With little fanfare, and under the watch of  only the slipped boats in Santa Cruz harbor, we let the lines at 10:30 Monday night, under the full moon. After a few high-fives and fist bumps, our crew of six settled in for sleep and our shifts on watch. My first watch came at 3:00am – I joined Martijn Stiphout at the helm, then an hour later he was relived by Capt Mark. I slept again before sunrise, and woke to scan the horizon… I saw a little bump, getting bigger quickly. Debris – we turn the boat, get the net, and here’s our first retrieval, a smiley-face balloon…

A few minutes later, a humpback whale came and thanked us with a beautiful show; a few blows and and some turns, then a beautiful dive (tail in the air), and a minute or two a return breach out of the water – very cool. I had camera in hand from taking the retrieval picture, and I switched it to video to catch this:

The Think Beyond Plastics Expedition is underway. A little background on the voyage: Drew Stephens, from The GIS Institute, will be aboard the Derek M. Baylis this November, a 65′ research sailboat, traveling through communities in Southern California, providing GIS support to Sealife Conservation and Sea Studios Foundation. The goal is to provide scientific and advocacy support for the polystyrene container and single use plastic bag bans being considered by local governments along the route. Programs will run from November 4th in Morro Bay and conclude at the end of November in San Diego. We will host evening programs in communities to screen SeaStudios films (Plastic Plague, and Bag the Bag), and to facilitate panels with local marine and government officials. A DVD resource  will also be provided in reusable shopping bags made from recycles plastic bottles. The DVDs contains the films, a sample polystyrene ordinance, a list of cities and counties that have adopted the ban, a copy of state ordinance AB1358, and a list of local vendors who will provide alternative bio-compostable products to cities and businesses. The DVD tool allows a city to essentially create a legally defensible ban in their community from a copy and paste. The overall goal of these meeting is to provide tools and credible imagery for citizens to foster change in their communities.

During the day, SeaLife Conservation’s role is to provide the Derek M. Baylis as a venue for an educational opportunity to those interested in pursuing this cause. We will provide a short daysails to conduct “Science Under Sail” activities, which include a plankton tow (and video microscope examination of the sample), a general survey of local waterfront to see storm drain and streams, and demonstrations of our debris removal and GPS/mapping techniques.

SeaLife Conservation has been studying and educating the public about ocean plastics for nearly five years. They have learned a tremendous amount about how plastics impact our oceans, and just as importantly, the sources of the plastics. During that time we have worked with a number of city and state agencies to develop better practices to help prevent plastics from entering our oceans. SeaLife Conservation work with the city of Monterey, in particular, has been very rewarding. This past February Monterey passed a ban on polystyrene (Styrofoam) takeout containers within the city limits. SeaLife Conservation is broadening its mission area, and extending the reach of its message by supporting cities to pass bans on polystyrene and on plastic bags. Sealife Conservation’s particular strengths are educating the public and studying plastic types and concentrations. These strengths are best put to use by partnering with non-profits and city agencies interested in adopting bans.

Sea Studios has been producing films about the environment for National Geographic, PBS, and for private distribution for years. Recently, they have sought to highlight their work in communities and leverage their work to help create change, just as Sealife Conservation has. We started working with Sea Studios this past summer, hosting participants from two very successful events they produced, the Think Beyond Plastic Film Festival and the Plastic Pollution Coalition Summit. With two successes under our belt, it was time to step up our collective game!