Steve and I went down to Olympia tonight to check out the gray whale that was put together by school kids, made from 9000 plastic bags as well as a goodly number of plastic forks and fruit cups. It’s trash, but it’s art, and it comes with a strong message about what is recyclable and what isn’t and has plenty of good questions for anyone who’s paying attention. Do we really need these things? Single-use plastic bags, throw-away plastic cups. They aren’t recyclable (not really), they have no economic value and, because of that, they will end up in a landfill. Or in the ocean. Or on a beach somewhere.

This project was organized by the Thurston Solid Waste department and it took kids from 15 local elementary schools, 2 middle schools and a high school to put the whale together. It’s on display for the next couple of weeks at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 32 feet of braided bags and other plastic detritus hanging above the foyer. Check it out if you’re in the neighborhood… it might make you think about what is necessary and what is not.

I just got back from spending three days out on the Strait with the 6th grade class of Annie Wright School. We worked on beach surveys and clean ups at four different locations near Twin Rivers, Salt Creek and the mouth of the Elwha. The kids took part in setting up the grid, identifying the transects to be surveyed and in the actual counting process itself. It was not only a great chance for the students to learn about marine debris and how it is charted, but it was also a learning process for me about what works and what doesn’t when presenting the issue to different age groups. They were a great group of kids and I am very happy with the work we were able to get accomplished.

The beaches we worked are fairly heavily visited and I’m pretty sure they were cleaned up last month during the big Earth Day beach sweep. We didn’t find too much debris, but we did find some. (Surprisingly, the beach right at Salt Creek had the most plastic debris, even though it is probably the target of more clean ups than the others. It’s a hook-shaped beach that might be a collector… it would be interesting to see if past studies would confirm this.) Once I get the results together, we’ll be sending the completed report into NOAA to be added to the database.

Looking forward to doing more of these as the educational aspect of the Ikkatsu Project continues to grow.

Steve just put together the latest video short, an update on the Seaward kayaks we’ll be using as well as some excellent footage from last week’s south Sound overnight. (Was that really a week ago?)

There are a number of new things in there – new for us, anyway. Slo-mo, aerial shots over water and a whole lot of learning going on. Hope you enjoy it!

We’re pretty well set for this summer’s expedition, and we’re extremely pleased and honored that so many excellent gear manufacturers and suppliers are on board for the trip. Part of the deal is that we’re supposed to talk them up as we go but, in all honesty, we’d be talking them up no matter what – each of them is an integral part of making the Ikkatsu Project’s Alaska trip a reality and we are grateful.

Add to the list Mountain Safety Research (MSR), Seattle’s coolest gear maker. We already use a plethora of MSR stuff (as well as Platypus, Cascade Designs, Thermarest… it’s all one big, happy family), and we needed a few more items to complete our kit for this year. Thanks to Dave Fitzgerald of Summit Sales and the good people at MSR for making it all happen. Our newest sponsor will make it possible for us to filter our water, sleep soundly, cook our food and keep the camera gear dry.

These are all very important things.

It was a good trip… a short overnight in south Puget Sound, but it gave us some things to think about with our gear, how the packing process is going to play out and some ideas about filming techniques.

And, it sort of goes without saying, but south Puget Sound is a beautiful place. It was a pleasure to paddle familiar waters once again. Though it wasn’t entirely familiar waters… I had never been that close to McNeil Island before. Since the prison closed, however, the level of inaccessibility that used to characterize the place has worn away somewhat. It’s still off-limits, but not quite as vigorously enforced as it was when Department of Corrections ran the place. We went around the island, dipping into some of the coves along the way and paddling along the sweet sandy beaches. There is a whale carcass on the east side that got us out of our boats for a quick investigation; a young gray whale, in an advanced state of decomposition. Not appetizing, but fascinating anyway.

We did some shooting with the chopper (Steve should have a short up pretty soon), and that came out well. Likewise, we experimented with the bear fence, setting it up on the beach this morning and figuring out the system. The boats were great! Fast and straight tracking, and able to haul a goodly amount of gear. And a huge shout out to Rainshadow Coffee for the outstanding morning go-juice. (Seriously, that is great coffee!) I’m going to need a new tent though… and there are a few other things as well that are on the shopping list after the overnight.

More to come…

We’re leaving this morning for a short trip in south Puget Sound. It’s not about the miles we’ll be covering (not many), or the route (although that will be interesting), or even about where we’ll be camping (what we like to call an “unofficial campsite.”) This little jaunt is all about getting used to some of the items we’ll be taking that we haven’t used before, getting familiar with the cameras and the filming equipment and going through our gear and figuring out what we still need to complete our kit.

We’ll be setting up the bear wire for the first time, which will likely be entertaining. We’ll also be taking the Phantom and getting some aerial shots both on and off the water. I’ve got a new tent to set up and get used to and there are some other items to evaluate as well. In terms of packing, this will be our first look at the Seaward Quest 3 as a cargo-hauling vehicle, and we’ll have a pretty good idea of its capacity and limitations once we get back. We’re really looking forward to paddling the boats when they’re loaded; we are expecting great things from them.

Beyond the practical reasons for this little trip, it’s just a great opportunity to get out on the water. The salmon are running and the weather is supposed to be fair. (It’s a foggy morning but the conditions are calm, the air is warm and it’s supposed to clear up later.) Any time spent out in the salt air has got to be a good idea and neither of us has been to this part of the Sound for the past year, so it will be nice to get reacquainted.

We’ll be starting and ending at Steilacoom, leaving later this morning and getting back sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Times change. We are thankful to add Backpacker’s Pantry to our list of expedition sponsors and, after eating their offerings for the past 15 years, I can honestly say that it is not just good freeze-dried food, it is good food, period. Chicken, salmon, beef and veggie… We’ll be taking enough to travel in style, all the while getting the nutrition we need to keep going. I’m already looking forward to the chicken vindaloo…

Steve and I took an hour or so yesterday to attend a training session on water quality monitoring on the Commencement Bay waterfront. The training was presented by the South Sound chapter of Surfrider and the lead facilitator was Johnny Devine, a science instructor at the Science and Math Institute (SAMi), a public high school here in Tacoma.

Johnny went over the sampling methods and introduced the participants to the collection areas that are being monitored. Several of the volunteers present were interested in setting up new monitoring stations near their homes while others expressed an interest in helping with data collection at the existing sites.

Although the Ikkatsu Project has not been involved in water quality issues to this point, we felt that it was important to see what kinds of things are being discussed and how the testing was conducted. If there’s one central fact that has emerged from our work so far it is that everything is connected. While we are still focused on the issue of marine debris and the effects that marine plastic has on our environment, we are aware of the connections between one issue and another, whether they are immediately visible or not. Pollution, overfishing, heavy metals, displacement of fishing communities and the effects of climate change on ocean currents are all on our radar to some extent, and we’re interested in exploring how they interact.

The citizen science aspect of this project appeals to us as well, not only because Ikkatsu is focused on citizen science itself, but because we are always looking for new ways to link scientific issues with the people that are affected by them. People only truly value what they know and any effort to increase that knowledge is a positive thing.

Steve shot video of the training and we’ll have it posted here soon. It’s a reminder to all of us to look for ways that we can be involved in our local area to help make our waters cleaner and safer for all. Thanks to Surfrider and SAMi for the work they are doing!

Steve put together a short film (watch it here) that gives some idea of the beach we helped clean last weekend. This little pocket beach south of Portage Head was choked with debris of all kinds and the efforts of a dedicated group of volunteers from the sanctuary and the Coast Guard helped to make it a little better by the time we left. There is still a long way to go but this is a process, and we have begun.