Those were the worries I had after agreeing to join Water Education Specialist Sue Alfeld in a Bay Area classroom to discuss my journey to cut back on plastic. Organized by The Bay Nature Institute in Berkeley as part of their "Blogging for Biodiversity" program, I planned to come and observe Sue's lesson on ocean plastic and the fate of Laysan albatross birds and also participate in sharing my own experiences.
(Read more about Sue's program in the Bay Nature article, "Turning Back The Plastic Tide.")
Well, those worries melted away as soon as I met the warm and totally down to earth Sue. And the education started before we even got to the classroom. After picking me up at a bus stop near Benicia Middle School, Sue showed me where she and many residents of the area had gathered to collect trash during Saturday's Coastal Cleanup. As we drove along, she stopped to examine some of the day's trash collection.
This trash was not collected near the beach but further inland, proof, Sue believes, that the message about litter's effects on the ocean is getting through. Benicia's waterfront along the Carquinez Strait is actually pretty clean.
The Carquinez Strait, in the words of Sue to a class of third graders, is the "ponytail of the mermaid" that is the San Francisco Bay. Do you see it?
It was a beautiful day in Benicia, CA.
Our first group was a class of eighth graders at Benicia Middle School. Sue presented a slide show about Laysan albatross and managed to interest these restless California students in the plight of creatures thousands of miles away. They were especially captivated by a video showing the albatrosses feeding their chicks and performing their mating dance. (There are many more such videos on YouTube but I'm hoping to find a copy of the one Sue has, which is so much fun that the kids asked to see it a second time.)
Showing the actual stomach contents of some of these birds was the real kicker. As part of her regular program, Sue routinely has students dissect the albatross boluses and analyze what's inside. What's a bolus? Basically, what the birds throw up after digesting all that they can. See all the plastic?
This bird had ingested lava rock and plastic bottle caps. Trouble is, it's not just the adult birds consuming plastic, but the baby for whom the mother has collected it in the first place. She only lays one egg per year, if that, and leaves it for up to two weeks to hunt for food floating near the surface of the ocean. Upon returning to Midway, she feeds her chick with what she has swallowed. And more and more, that "food" turns out to be plastic.
Beth Terry writes about finding alternatives to plastic and tracks her own plastic consumption and plastic waste at www.FakePlasticFish.com. Why Fake Plastic Fish? "Because if we don't solve our plastic problem, they could be the only kind of fish we have left." Please stop by and leave a comment!
