BENEATH the BLUE

It’s day 11 onboard SeaDragon and we’re at lat40/long147, heading east through the northern edge of the accumulation zone. Spirits are good as we are all accustomed to the rocking boat and its jobs: standing watch, driving, cooking, cleaning, setting and hauling the trawls, keeping the ships log. Last night my crew of 4 (Hank, Rob, Ming & I) had the 10-2am watch. The wind was up, the sea was up, and I got the boat cranking along at 10 knots, starboard rail on the water. For awhile, the moon shone through a generally cloudy sky, and I steered by its location as it danced between the mainsail and its stays. What a place of immense power that we, so small, are traversing!

Each night after our 6pm dinner one of us takes the Six O’Clock Slot and presents basically anything of interest. We’ve seen film footage from our South Korean crewmates of coral spawning at night. We’ve heard about Tim, our Australian mate’s beach clean-up project Take Three, and his aspirations to expand its scope. Ming, from Taiwan, showed photos of the Taiwan coast before and after the government’s 70-year use of the beaches as landfills; only in the past 20 years have Taiwan citizens had access to their coastline and had the ability to clean it up. Hank Carson, marine biologist from U Hawaii/Hilo, presented his work researching the impacts of plastics acting as “rafts” for various organisms. And Marcus presented a powerpoint spanning his work on the marine plastics issue including the Junk Raft that he sailed from California to Hawaii. I presented my work in progress, “Just, one word…” to a warm reception and very constructive feedback. I’m spending considerable downtime editing it, as I’ll be doing a formal presentation of it at Vt College of Fine Arts on Aug. 4 – right around the corner!

Meanwhile, we are 9 days away from Vancouver, speeding across the sea, and all are well.

Karen

Finally, time to sit and write another blog entry! We’re at lat41, long154, heading east through the northern part of the accumulation zone. We drove straight north for 7 days in rolling choppy seas, and had our first calm day yesterday in the midst of a high pressure system. What a day, too! We stopped for snorkeling and swimming. Two thousand feet of deep blue water below us, flat sea and horizon all around, we were very tiny dots on the vast expanse of blue.

We’ve become a boat-bound collective. All on board are fit, cooperative, generous of energy and spirit, and eaay-going under sometimes difficult conditions. A communal community we are, bound by our dedication to making this a better planet.

We’ve been visited most nights by some small birds that we call sea-bats, because we haven’t been able to identify them yet. They sound playful as they chirp and swoop around the boat. During the day, we have an occasional black-footed albatross fly by with a 5-foot wingspan. Nightwatch is interesting. 10-2 or 2-6 am, we drive the boat, make bread, drink tea, gaze at the moon, make our hourly log entries, and have funny and thoughtful conversations on deck.

We have the high speed trawl out all the time between the larger manta trawls. I can see now that this whole area of ocean contains plastic: we’re trawling a tiny slice each day and we’re pulling in plastic with each trawl. We log each piece of macro debris as well: pieces of buckets, buoys with massive amounts of barnacles along for the ride, float balls from fishing fleets far away. Marcus and Hank, the lead scientists, are collecting much important data from the barnacles, seaworms, fish eggs and plankton clinging to the debris.

More later!!

Trawling the Pacific under fair skies…

Day 5 of our SeaDragon/Algalita journey, we were under blue skies and sailing across a deep cobalt sea. We put out the manta trawl – the larger one – for the first time. It’s an aluminum device that sieves a large quantity of water through a 500 micron tubular net. It’s deployed for one precisely timed hour, and all conditions are carefully recorded by us, the crew, including sea state, wind direction & velocity, lat/long. We are collecting the plastic and fish from each trawl. Onboard scientist Hank Carson (U Hawaii/Hilo) will be testing some of the samples as we go, some will be preserved for about 7 other scientists from different institutions, and we will bring home small samples. The trawls pick up small items and microbits of plastic. We will try to deploy the manta trawl 25 times over this voyage. So far, this was the first day it was feasible as we need fairly calm seas and it’s been choppy.

Hank’s main research focus is on the variety of microbes and organisms that cling to plastics as a habitat, a raft, or a food source. Other scientists will continue to analyze the adsorption potential that plastic has for persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and others continue to study the extent to which POPs from plastic ingestion exists in the marine food chain.

So far, each trawl (manta and high speed) that we’ve deployed has captured a significant amount of plastic. When we slow the boat for manta trawls, we pick up any macro plastic items that drift close to the boat. What’s clear is that the ocean around us is teeming with plastic.

Day 7 onboard SeaDragon

Well the seas are still up, and it’s still windy, 20-25knots. We’re moving the boat well, north, where there is a high pressure system 2 days away. Rights now we’re at lat36/long156. We see plastic everywhere, large and small pieces, and we’re pulling in hundreds of bits in the high speed trawl every time it’s deployed. When we reach the high pressure system and the seas calm, we will be able to see more debris, and perhaps get into the water for some photos and video. For now, we mostly record trawl samples and sightings of debris in a log, recording time, date, lat/long, sea state, wind.

Life onboard is a constant challenge. We have a prevailing wind from the NE, so the boat is always listing to port, rocking and rolling in a 6-8’ sea. Cooking, cleaning, showering take basically everything we have. Thankfully the seasickness is history, but the queasiness remains when down below. The crew, all of us, are easy-going, cooperative, and team spirited, and we are all learning much from each other.

Yesterday my partner, Ken, lost his dad to the universe. After our satellite phone call, I drove the boat for awhile in tears, then I saw an albatross gliding and swooping through the rolling waves. Freedom and peace, I wish for Dad Parker. Rest peacefully

At sea!!

We left Thursday July 7 at high noon from Honolulu – bright sunny skies and a
gentle sea at Lat.23/Long.68N. Skipper Clive knew the seas were up north of the
island, so we went the long southern route around, getting used to the boat tasks
and each other. There are 13 on board: Skipper Clive, first mate Dale, and
science leader Marcus. Crew mates beside me are Kim, Judy, Carolyn, Ming,
Jin, Brandon, Ron, Hank, and Tim. A diverse group indeed, from US, Australia,
New Zealand, Taiwan, and South Korea. We are in watch groups, on duty in 4 or
6-hour shifts noon-6 pm, 6-10 pm, 10pm-2am, 2am-6am, and 6am to noon. We
have two shifts off between watches.

This is my first blog, as writing has been impossible for the past 3 days. 8-10
foot swells and chop, and winds 25-35k have kept the Sea Dragon rolling such
thateverything is an enormous chore. It was basic sustenance living for 3 days.
No one ate much, almost everyone was seasick, yet we managed to laugh about
it, learn our basic crew duties, and watch out for each other. We all now drive
the boat from its stern wheel, on a heading of roughly 0 degrees, straight north.
We’ve sailed over 500 miles since leaving the dock.

Outfitted in foul weather gear and state of the art life jackets, and having total
confidence in the core crew, we feel safe on board despite rough conditions.
Today the seas and wind finally started to diminish, so communications will be
better.

What an amazing place to be for these 3 weeks: already we have had great
discussions about the science, policies, and public health consequences of
marine debris. We are all doing what we set out to do: to learn as much as
possible from each other, and to work directly towards a better understanding
of this global problem. We will be collecting debris and water samples once we
reach the accumulation zone in the next several days.

Today, Marcus launched the high speed trawl, which will collect surface plastic
and whatever else for several hours at a time, between deployments of the larger
manta trawl. We are collecting samples and data for several marine scientists
studying a range of issues from POPs adsorption to how plastics attract and
carry marine life.

Excitement this afternoon as the high speed trawl picked up a large net ball (it
broke away as we pulled in the trawl), and at the same time Dale and our fishing
line caught a 3’ mahimahi which we will have for dinner. We think the fish might

have been following the net ball, which probably had quite a lot of smaller fish
in and around it. Marine scientist and crewmate Hank Carson inspected the
stomach and found what might be clear plastic bits – they will be analyzed later.

So far, then, quite an adventure in difficult living conditions, but amazing stars
and galaxies in the night sky, dolphins and flying fish and what a thrill driving
this 72’ steel stallion across the Pacific waters. We’re now at lat29N/long157W,
holding a straight northern course.

Later…..!
Karen

From Algalita’s site, check out my crewmates for the next 3 weeks:

http://www.algalita.org/research/NorthPacificGyreVoyage.html

Counting down the days before leaving for Hawaii and meeting the
SeaDragon crew: profiles are at: http://tinyurl.com/5tgozz2

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karen.ristuben@gmail.com

Welcome to my blog community!

For the past several months I’ve been working hard to research and assimilate many aspects of the global problem of plastic pollution, plastic toxins, and their public health implications.  I’ve been considering the extent to which our consumer culture is affecting our natural environment – not new news, I know, but the issue of environmental toxins from plastic waste is far more extensive that I ever imagined.  So striking is the lack of a coordinated national or international effort to address this complex global crisis.

In this newly emerging genre of “artistic research”, I’m hoping to bring this important issue forward through a number of related practices:

* a multi-media performative lecture called “Just, one word…” that I will present at Vermont College of Fine Arts, the Cape Ann Museum, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), and other art, science, and educational venues;
* an installation that will include an ever-changing wall map of the various cultural, scientific, and  political systems impacting the issue; the installation will also include evidence from my July 2011 voyage through the North Pacific Gyre, photography, and video;
* web-based informational resources; and
* local beach clean-up initiatives.

Over the last few years, I’ve come to realize that my own art practice has become less about making specific objects (sculptures, photographs), and more about employing all of my training and interests toward what I care deeply about: the health of the ocean and other environmental needs of this planet we inhabit.  I believe that, through artistic expression (for me, photography, video, music, sound) and interdisciplinary collaboration, small changes in our consciousness and habits may result in a more consonant relationship between us and our environment.

I will be leaving on July 5 to meet up with the trans-ocean sailing vessel SeaDragon, to sail through the North Pacific with Algalita Marine Research Foundation scientists who study the issue of marine plastics.  This will be the capstone to my M.F.A. thesis work, and I expect that it will be an amazing adventure with extensive and rich, hands-on learning about the science and ecological effects of plastic pollution.  I will post regularly during the voyage.

Thank you for tuning in to this blog, and I hope you subscribe.   Change in this critical environmental area can only emerge from a base of knowledge and many voices.

Karen