Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion (Scientists in the Field)

In Florida, Brazil, and Senegal, three scientists are working very hard to save the manatee.  Manatees are docile, large sea mammals who are eaten in some parts of the world, feared in others, and adored in still others.  But human encroachment, disease, environmental hazards, and being hunted, among many other issues, are causing their numbers to decline.  Manatees are, in fact, an endangered species.  John Reynolds, a manatee expert at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida and chairman of the United States Marine Mammal Commission for the past two decades, is among the scientists trying to figure out how to save the manatee, and move it off the endangered species list.  It isn't as simple as just counting the numbers of manatees in the wild and seeing if the number goes up or down.  There are countless factors that go into giving an animal a designation (and every known species in the world has a designation). But in the Amazon, for example, manatees are very difficult to spot, and are hunted for food.  How do you get an accurate picture of what life is like for a manatee in Brazil, where Dr. Fernando Rosas studies the creature, when you might not even see one in the wild for months or years?  And in Senegal and other parts of Western Africa, where young Lucy Keith is working hard to put together a network of people who share information about manatees, people fear them and hunt them. Conservation is not an easy goal for these three scientists, but their love and passion for the manatee drives them each day. 

In The Manatee Scientists, John Reynolds does an aerial count of manatees in Florida and gives readers a basic overview of manatee biology and the new science being used to help with their conservation status; Lucy Keith is among the first to see bones of older manatees that were being kept by a legendary manatee hunter in Angola and has an adventurous weekend rescuing manatees trapped in a dam in Senegal; and Fernando Rosas takes his assistants and the author on an Amazonian riverboat trip, looking for a young manatees he released back into the wild, with mixed and emotional results.  Scientists thousands of miles apart, sharing science and information with a common goal — The Manatee Scientists is a perfect addition to our Scientists in the Field Series.

Jesse Goossens\' work includes travel novels, a detective novel, works on theatre, a young adult novel and several interview collections on topics of social justice.  She also worked for a considerable time as a radio host and cultural journalist, and acted and sang for ten years in a small theatre company.  Her work is characterized by a fervent search for what moves people - their passions, their motivations, their lives.  For her book, Plastic Soup, Jesse traveled to the United  States and several European countries to interview people who are involved with the issue of plastic waste: from Captain Moore - the discoverer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - to recyclers, from representatives of the plastic industry to delegates of environmental organizations, and from the Dutch Secretary for Environment to the director of UNEP New York.  During her travels Jesse kept a blog (www.plasticsoep.nl and www.plasticsoup.org), entries for which are in Plastic Soup.

A vast amount  of plastic waste - twice the size of the United States - is floating in the Pacific Ocean.  Welcome to the Great Pacific Garbage Path: the Plastic Soup.  Plastic is an incredible material we can't do without, but it also creates the biggest pollution problem imaginable.  This is something Jesse Goossens discovers during her travels and conversations across the United States and Europe.  Her blogs and interviews are shocking, fascinating and dismaying.  In this full-color book, she uncovers the effects of plastic waste on our health and on the environment, not only in the Pacific Ocean, but everywhere on earth.

In engaging text and unforgettable images, readers meet the woman who started it all (Curts mother!), the computer program that makes sense of his data (nicknamed OSCURS), and several scientists, both on land and on the sea, who are using Curts discoveries to preserve delicate marine habitats and protect the creatures who live in them.

Interview: Captain Charles Moore-discoverer of the plastic soup- A plastic graveyard in the ocean    14

Blog: THE BEGINNING    26

Interview: Jackie Caddick-Liverpool Water Witch- on clenaing up waste from the water- A little magic and a whole lot of work     28

Blog: "YOU CAN UNDERSTAND IT, ONCE YOU GET IT"    32

Interview:  Rinus van den Berg -  DSM- on the magic of plastic- Plastic? Fantastic!   34

Blog:  A GREEN POINT   38

Interview:  Nortbert Völl & Michael Heyde - Duales System Deutschland - over de kringloop van verpakkingsmateriaal, Der Gurne Punkt- Waste is not a problem     40

Blog:  THE LAW OF THE SEA     46

Interview:  Peter Prows - lawyer - on who should clean up the plastic soup - Nobody is responsible -so we all are   48

Blog:  THE OCEAN AS MONUMENT    52

Interview:  Rudolph Eilander - architect - on a plastic island in the plastic soup -Not an illusion but a dream   54

Blog:  WALKING ON WATER      58

Interview:  Michael Biddle - MBA Polymers - on plastic recycling - Plastic becomes...plastic   60

Blog: A COLORFUL PLAN     66

Interview: Jay Golden - Gorilla in the Greenhouse - on the Internet as a means of raising awareness- Not finger-pointing, but inspiring   68

Blog:  PIMP IT UP!    72

Interview:  Ross Mirkarimi -  Superivisor District 5 San Francisco - on the ban of plastic bags - Something small with big consequences    74

Blog:  ANGELS    78

Interview:  Hidde van Kersen - Waddenvereniging - on plastic pollution in the Wadden sea - Nature Can\'t stand up for herself, wo we do it for her     80

Blog:  A  GRAND VIEW    84

Interview:  Jack O\'Neill & Dan Haifley - O\'Neill Sea Odyssey - on educating kids- At sea everyone is equal   86

Blog:  BACK ON EARTH   90

Interview:  John Bouterse - Envosmart - on plastic recycling - Plastic becomes...diesel      92

Blog:  ROAD TRIP   96

Interview:  Marcus Eriksen & Anna Cummins - Algalita & Bring your Own - on the struggle against plastic waste - Never give up hope   98

Blog:  PLASTIC MAFIA    108

Interview:  Anthony Zolezzi - entrepreneur-activist - on cooperation with the plastics industry - A worldwide embrace   110

Blog:  LOSER   118

Interview:  Sarah Abramson - Heal the Bay - on the need for pressure groups - There\'s no simple solution    120

Blog:  SICK OF PLASTIC    126

Interview:  Jacques Joosten - DPI - on the versatility of plastic - We are only at the beginning   128

Blog:  ON THE DAY OBAMA BECAME PRESIDENT   134

Interview:  Juanita Castaño - UNEP - on the role of the United Nations - Appeal to the plastics industry  136

Blog:  FRESH SNOW   140

Interview:  Albert de Hoop - KIMO - on plastic pollution in the North Sea - And I thought I knew something about the oceans..  142

Blog:  AN ACID SEA   148

Interview:  Jacqueline Cramer - VROM - on legislation addressing plastic pollutin - Let\'s really go for it!   150

Blog:  FIRST EXPLORATION   154

Interview:  Michael Braungart - chemicus - Cradle to Cradle - We\'ve talked about problems for long enough now.  It\'s time for solutions   160

Links  169

About ACT - A Convenient Truths   170

Photo rights   172