Watershed Wonders School Assemblies
Synthetic Sea
After a decade of research in the North Pacific Gyre, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation has discovered the great garbage patch extending across the sea from continent to continent. We've documented the rapid accumlation of plastic waste in the sea and in the bodies of numerous marine life. Invite us to bring this to your school, with two 40-minute informative assembly or classroom presentations. We will follow our lecture with a single classroom activity, whereby students dissect the regurgitated bolus from an albatross stomach. Students will learn first hand that our plastic waste has an impact on wildlife 1000's of miles away.
Synthetic Me (COMING SOON!!!)
Man-made synthetic chemicals are all around us, from the things we wear, to what we eat and drink. Only now, after decades of exposure to some chemicals from plastic, are we beginning to see that low-doses over long periods of time, or periods of embryonic development, can have harmful effects. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation has focused on the impact of plastic marine debris, and recently discovered that many persistent organic pollutants, like PCBs, PAHs, and pesticides, are washing down coastal watersheds and sticking to plastic particles. We've found that plastic in several fish species, including those eaten by the fish that we harvest? Is plastic marine debris able to transport pollutants from the sea to the food we eat?
