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​BLOG BY GRACE C. YOUNG                                                                              
                                                                               


WHAT'S MISSION 31? THIS IS WORTH THE WATCH

6/18/2014

 
What is historic Mission 31 (and why is it so special?) This great video from Fusion explains the story very well: "Living underwater gives ocean explorers an incredible advantage. Unlike normal surface diving, where a person can only stay underwater a few hours a day, Mission 31 aquanauts can be under the surface for 12 hours or more. This is because their bodies are saturated with nitrogen, allowing them to live at the same pressure as the water that surrounds them." 
"To put it in perspective, it would take a normal diver six months to collect the amount of data that the aquanauts can obtain in 31 days."
"To say the least, Mission 31 is  ... cool." 
The cast of characters includes ... yours truly, Grace under no pressure :)
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"This is a story about saving our waters, our oceans, our seas."
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We Visited Jacques Cousteau's Grandson at the Bottom of the Ocean, article and video from This is Fusion.
Another great Mission 31 video is Splashdown: Aquanauts Switch Mid-Mission when when Liz, Matt and I splashed down to Aquarius.

ADVENTURES IN THE MANGROVES

6/14/2014

 
Yesterday I ventured with Matt and Brian to the Content Keys, where we met with two guides who took us on an adventure through the Florida mangroves. Mangroves are trees that grow partially submerged in the ocean. It felt like we were filming a Discovery Channel special (like this one on mangroves). 

We were there because we wanted to learn more about the grouper from an expert, our guide Don, who formerly hunted the fish but now tries to protect them. Matt and I will attempt to film the grouper's unique feeding strike during our saturation on Mission 31. 

Mangroves are amazing plants. They thrive in the salt water either by filtering out the salt at their roots or secreting excess salt through their leaves. They form forests in the middle of the ocean that harbor juvenile fish, filter water, and serve as attachment points for other water-filtering marine organisms. In addition, animals, such as pelicans and other costal birds, find shelter in the branches. There are even stories of monkeys living in the Florida mangroves! 

We snorkeled in the mangroves for several hours. Swimming under their branches, it was an alien world, like a scene from Avatar. We saw grouper, many snapper, some horse shoe crabs, and tiny crabs. The sounds were like nothing I've heard before. I could hear branches creaking and snapping, the rush of the current, and some popping noises from fish. Matt and Brian used the fancy RED camera to film the experience in incredible quality. The RED camera has more than 5 times the number of pixels of the very best HD camera. You'll have to wait to see their footage -- it'll be worth the wait! 
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Intrepid M31 photographers Brian and Matt setting up the RED camera. Their footage will come out later; it's worth the wait! Samantha, our German shepherd mascot, retweeted this photo :) 
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Our captain Mike knew the mangroves like the back of his hand. this was a good thing! The mangroves were like a thorny maze.
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Eerie!! The entrance to the mangroves is mostly bare and dying trees, weathered by hurricanes. 
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The mangroves entrance reminded me of the thorny forest in Sleeping Beauty. 
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This is what the mangroves looked like, although this isn't my photo. Credit floridarambler.com. Sometimes I'd look up and not see the end of our path. It'd be easy to get lost in the maze, but thankfully we had an excellent guide. 
The video shows a 6 second snippet of our hour long boat ride to the mangroves. It couldn't have been a nicer, more sun-shinny day. 
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We went out in a small motor boat, perfect for maneuvering in the shallow water. 

Mangrove Update

Update: Our guide Don just sent me a copy of July's National Geographic with a terrific piece with amazing photos about the Goliath Grouper in the mangroves that they've been working on for years.  I'll write a separate post soon about his fascinating work and this interesting creature that can be up to 800 lbs and nine feet long!  (added 6/21/14)

A REASON TO SMILE: Thank You Notes

This afternoon I got a very pleasant surprise in the mail. The students at Birches, whom I chatted with last week, sent me many thank you notes. It put a huge smile on my face! The letters have more excellent questions too. Kids are so curious! Have you seen anything cool? Have you swam with sea snakes? What other animals have you seen? Will you send me a 'pikshr'?  My first visit with this school was in the fall, and it was great (blog post here). 
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One thank you note asked, "Do you know which valves to turn on your helmet?" Another said, "Grace, We miss you very, very much!"

Some Work, Some fun

The past few days I've also been helping prepare science research, so everything is ready for our saturation on June 17th. The Northeastern surface team, who has a fantastic blog here, started shipping their gear last week, and it's slowly arriving at base. One of the things I was most excited to receive was the plankton traps from graduate student Amanda Dwyer. On our first day in Aquarius, fellow aquanaut Liz and I will deploy a dozen of the traps over different regions of the coral reef. All traps are small, so they are minimally invasive. They will collect zooplankton that rise into the net. Each day and night we'll then collect samples from the net, and Amanda will analyze the results. She'll be able to tell the health of the reef from the samples, and learn more about the zooplankton's nocturnal behavior. Plankton are an incredible resource on earth; they provide at least half of the oxygen we breath! I'm excited to help learn more about their important role in our ecosystem. 

The tools for other research, including for the sponges DNA, coral-stress, and sponge metabolism studies, arrive this week as well. More on that to come! Other exciting news is that the underwater housing for the Edgertronic camera is on it's way here, thanks to the Sexton Corporation, who has amazingly designed, created, and tested a modular system for using the Edgertronic underwater. 
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Graduate student Amanda designed and assembled plankton traps we'll use for her research during Mission 31.  She describes the process in her blog post. 
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We tested her traps in the pool this week. They look good! We just need to add weight so they'll sink. The net and the jar at the top will collect plankton.
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This is what zooplankton actually looks like. They're incredibly tiny animals, barely visible to the naked eye. See Amanda's blog post. 
Credit cmarz.org
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I still think of the plankton character in Spongebob whenever I think of plankton... Despite knowing more about plankton now than I ever did before.
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M31 team member Billy found mascot Samantha (follow her exciting Twitter account!) at a serious moment at mission headquarters, reading papers about plankton, sponges, and coral reefs to prepare for Mission 31 science. Someone said that the world would be a better place if more dogs had twitter accounts.
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Friday night (+Friday the 13th!) full moon celebration on the beach, complete with fire dancers, fireworks, and a Latin-African fusion band. I tried taking a photo of the moon with my phone, but it just looked like a flashlight hanging in the sky.
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Beautiful! Did an interview on the beach yesterday for Univision TV. Couldn't imagine a better back drop! The only issue was that we sometimes had to wait for a paddle boarder to pass in the background :)
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Also beautiful! Credit to Jeremy Childress at the Sexton Corporation, who made this underwater housing for the Edgertronic. He also connected the Edgertronic to a battery and screen that will fit inside the housing. 

RETURN FROM THE AMAZON (AND SAVING A TURTLE)

6/9/2014

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Today Mission 31 team members Matt and Brian returned from the Amazon, where they were shooting a continuing project with Fabien Cousteau's sister Celine. You can see photos, showing how the Amazon has changed during the lifetimes of three Cousteau generations, in the ebook Return from the Amazon available in the iTunes Store. Matt and Brian told us the Amazon was scorching hot, over 105 degrees F. The 80-degree weather here in sunny Florida must now feel like a cool spring day! The intrepid explorers also shared stories of the bugs and difficulty in traveling around the Amazon. What an experience! I can't wait to hear more over dinner. 

Meanwhile, I continue preparing Mission 31 science research from topside. Today we sent out plankton nets for a research project designed by Northeastern graduate student Amanda Dwyer. I'm also counting down till  saturation -- 7 more days! 
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Billy found me working late yesterday, preparing experiments for Mission 31. In front of me are tubes that will store zooplankton for Amanda Dwyer, a researcher at Northeastern University.

The Turtle Hospital 

Last Friday I had the opportunity to visit the Turtle Hospital with production team member Billy Snook. I was completely blown away at the incredible organization. It pained me to see how turtles have suffered from human causes, even indirectly. For example, sea grass absorbs fertilizers that run off into the ocean that turtles eats. The chemical fertilizers can develop tumors called fibropapilloma that will slowly and painfully kill the turtle. If the fertilizers in our crops do that to turtles, what are they doing to us?
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I posted this story to my Instagram. Thankfully the turtle made it into the hospital's care and is on the road to recovery.
             
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This photo shows one of the recovered turtles; without the care of the Turtle Hospital this turtle would have died from human causes. Let's be optimistic! 
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Turtles unfortunately suffer from a variety of human impacts. The turtle hospital helps by removing tumors, helping a turtle eat again, and more, so a turtle can have a second chance in the wild after a human-caused incident.
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This turtle developed fibropapilloma tumors from fertilizers that ran-off into the sea grass it eats. If fertilizers are doing this to turtles, what are they doing to us?
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I could hardly believe, all these debris the hospital found inside a single turtle; the turtle can't digest the debris, not only giving it stomach cramps, but also causing gas to form in it's digestive track. The gas ruins the turtle's buoyancy, causing it to float, unable to dive for food. The turtle hospital can't remove all the plastic from a living turtle, but the can help by adding weights to a turtle's shell so it at least don't starve to death on the surface.
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On the ride home I had a lot to think about. How can we help marine creatures from their impending doom? We take them for granted, but all the creatures help keep the ocean ecosystem in a healthy balance, and the ocean is our live support system. We need more turtle hospitals! And less reasons for turtles to need to go to the hospital from human impacts!

If you extra specially care about sea turtles, check out The Turtle Hospital (maybe even call or donate!). There's also a fantastic non-profit called the Sea Turtle Conservancy; I follow them on Facebook to stay up-to-date on all their work (and see pictures of sea turtles on my news feed.)

A DIVING DRONE

I forgot to tell this story. On Spalshdown Day, the Mission 31 production team smartly deployed quadcopters to capture aerial footage of the excitement. Well, there was some problem with one of the copters (never really understood what happened), and it fell into the ocean. Luckily, one of the Navy divers, Carter, without missing a beat, dove in and rescued the copter on a breath-hold dive to 10m. Amazing! Sometimes robots need the Navy to rescue them too. 
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Mission 31 video editor Toby Wallwork in front of one of the flying quadcopters. Credit to Mission 31.

There's also blog posts:  "Shellebrate" -- It's World Turtle Day! and Sea Life Just Fish? Think Polar Bears Too! 
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WORLD OCEANS DAY WITH OCEAN SUPERSTARS

6/8/2014

 
Happy World Oceans Day! Mission 31 and Aquarius, the only undersea research laboratory in the world, was the place to be for this year's celebration. Jean-Michel Cousteau and Dr. Sylvia Earle graced us with their presence, as well as Vampire-actor and conservationist Ian Somerhalder (his foundation) and former aquanaut Greg Stone (his TED talk). We celebrated with visits to the crew in Aquarius (Fabien, Adam, Andy, Otter, Kip and Ryan) and with a special event at Islamorada's History of Diving Museum.
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Ian and I talked about Mission 31 research. With the Ian Somerhalder Foundation, he wants to help us save the oceans. We need more celebs like this! A tall order, I know...
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Awww... I got a hug from the vampire. I hoped we conveyed how extraordinary Mission 31 & ocean research are!
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Such a pleasure to meet Dr. Earle! She's an inspiration.
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"Her deepness," Dr. Earle, getting a hug from Ian! He's a big fan of hers and quoted her in his interview today: "No blue, no green." M31 documentary film maker Marc Ostrick is on the right.
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Flashback to last Spring 2013 meeting Sylvia in Boston, with my friend Hrant.
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Ian gave the mission control desk a shout-out as soon as he entered the habitat. He knows how to work the camera! M31 film maker and aquanaut Kip, on the left, pointed out the security cam to the movie star.
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Sylvia and Jean-Michel! Ocean legends.
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Ian and Fabien chatted for 45 minutes in Aquarius, the max you can stay without needing decompression. Across the table is former aquanaut Greg Stone. Standing in the back is Otter, the habitat technician who will stay below for the full 31 days! Fun fact: by the end of M31, Otter will have spent over 200 days underwater.
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Who better to celebrate World Ocean's Day with?! From left to right: Audra Santoro (Aquarius Foundation director), Saul (M31 director), Sally (founder of the Diving Museum!), Spanish Garden's restaurant co-owner, Sylvia, Spanish Garden's restaurant co-owner, Jean-Michel, Billy Snook (M31 camera team), me, and Amy (M31 publicist).
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In the afternoon I did an interview for hispanic television. I'll post when it's out! This is me with the show host, Nicolas Ibarguen.
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In the evening I had the pleasure of Skyping with Andy and Adam in Aquarius and helping them answer questions about Aquarius and Mission 31.
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My World Oceans Day Promise is to engineer technology and help make policy to protect our oceans from climate change, pollution, and overfishing. This photo, just released by Mission 31, is from training. I'm surprised I can recognized everyone in their gear. From left to right, it's Kip, Fabien, Andy, Liz, Adam, and me.

SEA LIFE JUST FISH? THINK POLAR BEARS TOO, HERE'S WHY 

6/2/2014

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When you think marine mammals, do you think polar bears? I didn't until I learned more. Polar bears are the only bear considered a marine mammal. Their scientific name, Ursus maritimus, translates to "maritime bear." Born in snow dens, they spend most of their time on the frozen sea, which they use as a platform for hunting seals. Mission 31 will study climate change effects on some tropical creatures. Although the Florida Keys have no polar bears, ocean health and climate change research impacts all sea life, from zooplankton (microscopic animals) to polar bears (up to 1,200 lbs). Want to know more? 20 Interesting Facts about Polar Bears.
A greater understanding of our oceans 
is needed at this critical time of dwindling resources and increased pollution. The oceans affect more life than 
we think.


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Polar Bears live on the frozen sea as a marine mammal. Credit Moses Anderson via Polar Bears International.

Ocean Food Chain, Top to Bottom

Specifically, Mission 31 experiments will study climate change effects on zooplankton and coral reefs, marine life found in the Keys.  An overview of all M31 science research is at blog post 5/24/14.  Polar Bears International, the world's leading conservation group for polar bears, will celebrate World Oceans Day on June 8 in honor of all ocean life, large and small, even the ones that don't first come to mind!   
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Mission 31 is studying effects of climate change on our oceans.
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Polar Bears spend most of their time on the frozen sea, so it makes sense their Latin scientific name translates to "maritime/sea bear." Photo credit Kt Miller/ Polar Bears International
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Polar bears keep from slipping on ice with the help of small bumps on their feet called papillae.

World Oceans Day 

World Oceans Day day will be a big day for Mission 31. Media and celebrities, including Dr. Sylvia Earle and actor Ian Somerhalder,  will visit us in the Keys and there'll be a celebration underwater (what better place to celebrate?). Up to World Ocean Day, I'll post daily about the wonders of the ocean, the current issues it's facing, and how we are bringing attention to those during Mission 31. Stay tuned! 

More blog at What's Mission 31 About? This is Worth the Watch.  
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SCIENCE SATURDAY: MISSION 31 RESEARCH PROJECTS

5/24/2014

 
This morning mission scientists (Adam, Andy, Liz, and I) reviewed all the research experiments with the rest of the Mission 31 team. Researchers from Northeastern also joined us on a conference call. "Mission scientists" aren't the only scientists involved in this mission. Dozens of other scientists and technical advisors are participating by providing knowledge, expertise, research equipment, and other resources. From Northeastern, for example, five graduate students designed experiments for the aquanauts to conduct. Other researchers will also assist us via regular surface dives in the work that don't require saturation diving. See What's Mission 31 All About? Understanding M31 Ocean Research [video] in my blog. 

The Big Take-Away

The big take away here is that we are conducting research that isn't possible without Aquarius, the world's only undersea laboratory. It would take a normal diver six months to collect the amount of data that the aquanauts can obtain in 31 days. Specifically, we're researching: 
  • Coral reef health
  • Goliath grouper feeding behavior 
  • Zooplankton 
  • Barrel sponges
  • Environmental contamination

The Team

Science research during the first half of Mission 31 is run by Florida International University (FIU), and by Northeastern University (and me, from MIT) during the second half of the mission. For the second half, Liz and I are aquanauts working with a large team, including: 
Principal researchers: Mark Patterson, Brian Helmuth, and Loretta Fernandez 
Graduate students: Amanda Dwyer, Alli Matzelle,  Jessica Torossian, and Nick Colvard 
Technicians: Francis Choi and Sara Williams
Media and Outreach coordinators: Morgan Helmuth, Amanda Padoan, Angela Herring, Ursula August, and Kara Sassone 

The Science Details

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Micro-electrodes will help us periodically monitor the health of the coral reef (Image credit: Unisense)

Coral Reef Health

Our research will help answer: How do corals respond internally to daily fluctuations in external temperature, light, pH, and dissolved oxygen? The topside team will insert Unisense electrodes into three coral polyps per colony underwater to measure the gastrovascular system (the gut) of the corals. Data collected 24/7 over two weeks, creating the first long-term data set from wild corals. In addition to the data from the electrodes, Liz and I will measure corals' photosynthetic performance with a PAM fluorometer.

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We'll study the goliath grouper's unique feeding behavior (Image credit: Alan Egan)

Goliath Grouper

We'll record unique predatory behavior of the goliath grouper using a state-of-the-art high-speed Edgertronic camera. The results could validate the unproven theory that Goliath Groupers use the sound of a collapsing cavitation bubble formed in their head as a weapon to stun their prey. It'll help answer: What is happening during a grouper's feeding strike, and does the grouper use sound as a weapon?
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We'll collect zooplankton samples using nets to measure their health and abundance.

Zooplankton

Every day we'll collect small samples of zooplankton with nets to quantify their presence on the reef. The data will help scientists answer: How are plankton communities changing with climate change? In addition, the ratio of alive to "zoombie" (recently dead, but not broken down or consumed yet) zooplankton in our samples will give insight into the populations and lifespans of these creatures, which are necessary for coral reefs to be resilient against coral bleaching events. 
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Giant barrel sponges, like that in the photo, filter water. We'll study their behavior using sensors to measure their metabolism.

Barrel Sponges

Sponges are prodigious filter feeders. They filter water equal to their entire body volume in less than a minute and remove more than 99% of the particles they inhale, most of which are bacteria. Part of the reason visibility is so good on a coral reef is becuase of the filtering by sponges. We are looking to answer the following research questions: How do barrel sponges filter material and how can we model their behavior? Does their behavior fluctuate over the course of a day in a predictable pattern (circadian rhythm)? Are neighboring sponges pumping at the same rate or is every sponge different? We'll answer these questions using sensors that measure fluctuations in temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, and flow over the seafloor and in the water coming out of the sponges. From these measurements, the Northeastern researchers can study how sponges' metabolism and feeding rate respond to changes in the environment. We'll also collect DNA from 14 different sponges for the Ocean Genome Legacy Project.     
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We'll deploy and recover sensors that will measure environmental contaminants on the reef.

Environmental Contamination

We'll deploy and recover sensors that absorb and measure environmental contaminants, including PCBs, PAHs, and potentially dispersants from the BP oil spill. They will help us answer: What environmental contaminants are in the coral reef? Based on the findings, Dr. Loretta Fernandez can model contaminants in the area and refine methods for measuring them. 
In addition, Florida International University has planned a number of experiments to conduct during the first half of the mission. We expect the Mission 31 will produce much valuable data and many research papers! 

Continue reading. More Grace Under Pressure blog posts here.

IT'S WORLD TURTLE DAY: SHELLEBRATE!

5/23/2014

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It's World Turtle Day!  All sea turtles breathe air (like SCUBA divers!). Many sea turtles fatally mistake plastic garbage bags as jellyfish food.  With ocean garbage on the rise, using recyclable bags instead of plastic is a great idea.
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Image credit The Nature Conservancy.
25 Selfies to Celebrate World Turtle Day!
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The totally awesome sea turtle, surfer dude "Crush" from Finding Nemo.
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I WANT TO DIVE IN THE MALDIVES

5/2/2014

 
Gorgeous video of a dive in the Maldives. Shout out to EunJae Im. 

NOW YOU CAN BUY CLOTHES MADE FROM ALL THAT PLASTIC THAT'S POLLUTING THE OCEAN 

4/30/2014

 
Well, not quite yet . . . but soon! Artist Pharrell Williams (yep, the guy who sings Happy) is starting a hip clothing line made from recycled plastic from the ocean. It's not too clear how they're doing this (I'm curious on the engineering details, of course . . . Maybe they're going to use this 19-year old's idea !?). The video showing animated octos making the clothes certainly doesn't explain, but it must be possible . . . 

Speaking of celebs who want to help the ocean . . . Leonardo DiCaprio and the President of Iceland, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, (link to his 2014 save-the-ocean speech) are also doing great things for the ocean. I hope more celebs will follow to spread awareness of the urgent need for ocean conservation!  

Pharrell's animated video with Raw for the Oceans and Bionic Yarn says the clothing line will be available August 15. 
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In Pharrell's video, animated octos throw plastic bottles into an underwater machine that makes clothing! I'm curious about the actual plan . . . (Maybe this is the actual plan.)
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How much plastic is in the ocean? Way too much. This infographic by One World One Ocean explains.

More Grace Under Pressure blog posts here.
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    Author

    Grace Young  (B.S., MIT, Ph.D, Oxford) is an ocean engineer, aquanaut, and explorer currently working at X. She lived underwater as a scientist and engineer on Fabian Cousteau’s Mission 31, and is a National Geographic Explorer. 

    Blog Highlights: 
    1. No Engineer is an Island
    2. Mission 31 Highlights
    3. Sailing Across the Atlantic 
    ​3. Return to CERN

    Tweets by @grace_h2o
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