Welcome to the class website for the Spring 2018 Pathways of Pollution Course in the Environmental Studies Department at the University of New England.
Below you will find blogs written by the students. Each student wrote a final reflection blog and blogged about one week during the semester. They are included below with the most recent entry at the top of the page.
In addition, on this site you can also find the story maps created by the students, sort reports communicating the findings of their marine debris surveys as well as a "Who are we?" and a "Class Description" page so you can learn more about our class. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Heather Heenehan, the Instructor for this course at hheenehan@gmail.com
Our class has also been featured in the Biddeford Journal Tribune and covered by UNE News: http://www.une.edu/news/2018/marine-debris-project-une-environmental-studies-students-featured-%E2%80%98journal-tribune%E2%80%99
Roxanne James
This semester has been eye opening to what we as humans are doing to the environment in terms of pollution and waste. The past five months I have learned about different types of waste, pollutants, and toxins humans use to degrade the planet. Through Pathways of pollution, I began to learn in class that humans are the cause of the pollution. For example, during our beach pick up in Wells, our class would collect trash and although we helped the ecosystem there was still a large amount of debris left behind. This debris if not picked up may find its way into an animal's digestive system or trapping their airways.
Secondly, I learned that our debris is often is single-use plastic. While cleaning Fredrick (Freddy) beach, our class found a large number of straws, bottles and bottle caps. I believe as humans we need to become more proactive. Meaning use less plastic straws or switch to reusable straws. This is something Demi Fox from NOAA spoke about. She explained that one cannot cut people off from their single-use plastics, but can create alternatives to entice them to use something different. I believe this how one has to think when coming up with solutions to our environmental problems. Reason being, people are not willing to change unless one gives them alternatives and entice them.
Lastly, something I loved learning about in ENV 398 is the need for lawmakers and scientists to work with citizens to form laws. This I find highly important when going into a field such as environmental science, where it will affect so many peoples lives. Demi Fox demonstrates this in her career field by working with fishermen to create recommendations about ghost fishing. She does this because she understands if she does not work to get the fishermen’s approval—her audience, and creates recommendations the environment might be harmed. ENV 398 has offered me the opportunity to understand that we as humans play a large role in what happens to the world. Now, I understand humans must take on a large role to reduce our waste and outputs in order to support other ecosystems and habitats. In short, this class has taught me the world is in trouble, but we can be the solution.
Photo Credit: Heather Heenehan
Liam Sullivan
As a non-environmental major, I have not taken as many ENV classes as most of the majors. I took this class in order to learn more about the subject as well as to learn things that I may not have known before. Throughout the class we would talk about subjects that I had no clue were issues that the environmental community not only worry about but also actively study. For instance, one day we spoke about an article where plankton were being killed by the surveying cannons used by the surveyors. Everyone knows that the oil industry is one that routinely destroys many aspects of the environment but the fact that even looking for the oil kills marine life was a genuine surprise for me.
Sound pollution is one of the pollutants that sometimes gets lost in all the talk of microplastics and chemical pollution, which are all extremely important but when talking about pollution every possible negative effect must be considered. I went to a town planning meeting in Saco for the required Citizenship class all seniors must take, and asked a question at the end about sound pollution to one of the board members. This member had not thought about the sound pollution that would be created from a new housing development, but would look into it more as the development progressed. Before this class, I would not have ever thought to have asked that question.
The other part of this class that was not only fun but also assisted in helping the community, and of course I am talking about both the cleanups of Freddy beach and Wells beach. The data gathering as well as the cleanup itself allowed me to see firsthand the connection between the work we can do in the classroom and the work done in the field. Not only did we help clean up a part of the coastline where we live, but also input data that could be used in the future by people around the world.
The last part of the class I will mention was the fact that we had a lot of autonomy in what we could do for our projects. We could choose what interested us and then go with it, especially towards projects at the end of the class. This was especially apparent with the sculptures everyone made, as there was a basic idea of what wanted to be done but we could make whatever we wanted to. I am not the most artsy nor creative person in the world, but helping create the “Fireball Flounder” and Shelly the trash sea turtle was an extremely fun and engaging experience. As with many of the other classes I have taken at UNE, as this one drew to a close I knew I was leaving it with a better understanding of how the world is affected by different types of pollution as well as what can be done about it and what is being done about it. Even if a single person does not believe they can do much for the world as a whole, at the very least they can make the beach cleaner.
Photo credit : Heather Heenehan
Rosaria Karis
ENV 398: Pathways of Pollution has been one of, if not the most influential class I have taken here at the University of New England. This class gave me many new skills that I will be able to use in my future endeavors, allowed me to experience new things, exposed me to many of the different types of pollution that exist in this world, and provided some ways that we can fight back against them.
Learning how to make a story map was something I found to be extremely useful as I will be able to use them for future presentations in other classes. They are a great way to communicate information in a visually pleasing way and it is great that they are stored online and can be made public because anyone who is looking for that information will be able to find your story map.
Learning how to use Raven to analyze sound file data was also a unique experience I had in this class. I had never thought about what sounds “look” like, but this software was able to make it a visual experience. Analyzing sound data was also interesting because I don’t think that people often think about how much noise they are actually exposed to every day. Without thinking about it, you might not be aware of how loud human activities are and how disruptive they can be not only to human health, but to the health of all other living things that are exposed to those noises. I am glad that I had the opportunity to spend time listening to the impact humans are having in Wells, ME, because now I am more conscious about the sounds that I make on a daily basis.
Picking up marine debris and analyzing it was very eye opening for me. I had no idea how much trash was washing up on our own campus. I do not always see a lot of trash on our campus because facilities workers pick it up in the mornings before everyone is awake and active, and because I do not spend a lot of time at the beach here- and when I do, I am not sifting through the rack line where most of the debris was found. It is sad to think that there are places around the world where there is far more debris than what we collected. Hopefully our marine debris sculptures will continue to remind the people at UNE that we are all responsible for the trash in our ecosystems, and we have the power to stop it.
A sunset in Wells after debris was collected off of the beach
Photo credit: Rose Karis
Not only have I learned new skills in this class, I have learned about the different types of pollution that exist in the world and the ways we can all change little things in our lives to make a huge difference in the long run. Because of what I learned in this class, I now opt for cotton or wool clothing instead of plastic-based alternatives, I buy organic sunscreen that does not contain oxybenzone, I teach everyone who will listen to me about what noise pollution is and how it is affecting them, have replaced the majority of my old personal care products with ones that contain natural ingredients, and encourage my peers to not use straws. It is important to never forget that even though you are only one person and it may not seem like anything you do is making a big enough influence- everything you do will add up. Just because you can’t do everything, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything.
Barrett Saint-Amour
As both a junior and an environmental science major attending UNE, it has always been somewhat peculiar that throughout many of the courses I have taken that taken that deal with environmental conservation and eliminating waste, we oftentimes discuss the harmful impacts of waste, but never seem to actually discuss how to potentially reduce waste. I didn’t know that when I signed up for ENV398, I would finally be able to scratch that itch that had been present for years, and both learn and enjoy myself in the entire process. I was pleasantly surprised when we were able to go above and beyond just discussing various methods in class, and were able to actually get out in the field and make a difference by cleaning up and recording various articles of litters when we visited the Wells Reserve. For the first time throughout my environmental education at UNE, I finally felt like I was actually making a positive difference. I like to think of myself more as a visual and hands-on learner, so I felt that collecting trash at the sites we visited was right up my alley.
Another one of the most significant aspects of ENV398 that I enjoyed was how we were taught to think outside of the box in regards to pollution and how it accumulates. In particular, before we talked about and undertook the RavenLite Soundscape Assignment, I had never previously heard about sound pollution ever being an issue, which opened my eyes to this new threat. Learning how to use the software RavenLite was also a great skill to learn as well as a great intro to being able to use sound playback software, which will no doubt help down the road as a technical skill I can return to. In addition, although having to listen to snapping shrimp chatter for hours on end got tiresome, it felt like a truly special experience whenever an organism such a whale would unexpectedly show up on the program spectrograms.
I also enjoyed bring able to craft sculptures out of the trash we collected near the end of the semester. I had not previously visited the Maker’s Space before, so being able to drill holes and attach limbs to Freddy the Debris Dude was a lot of fun, as well as expressive. I hope that most of our projects find long-term homes where they are visible to other students as reminders of the negative impacts of their careless actions.
To summarize this semester in ENV398, this class has opened my eyes to not only the impacts of trash and litter upon the environment, but as well in regards to types of pollution such as sound, and additionally what can be done to stop humans from continuing to harm nature. Although I had a few rough spots, I sincerely enjoyed partaking in this class, and would wholly recommend any environmental student or anyone interested in the dynamics of pollution that’s on the fence to take the leap of faith and sign up for this class.
Below are some images taken at the Wells Reserve.
ENV 398 is one of the most dynamic and exciting courses that the University of New England offers in the sense that it is always something new and relevant. When I signed up for Pathways of Pollution, I didn’t really know what to expect. I figured we would talk a lot about industrial pollution and land-based catastrophes. Pathways of Pollution truly opened my eyes to an entire dimension of pollution that I had never before considered- marine pollution. Over the course of the semester, I have been made aware of a plethora of issues taking place in and around our planet’s oceans and it has made me consider my daily actions in an unprecedented manner. Hindsight is 20/20. Looking back now, it is easy to make the connection that what we do on land eventually finds its way to our oceans. But by taking this course and focusing primarily on marine pollution, I have realized that finding solutions to marine pollution absolutely means a more sustainable future and a healthier planet.
One of my favorite aspects of Pathways of Pollution was our visits to the Wells Reserve. Sue and Jeremy are so knowledgeable in their areas of expertise and it was truly captivating to have class time with them. Visiting Wells was just an overall great experience, and getting in the van and making the trip down to the reserve was some of the most fun I've had in a class. Jeremy had helped out in a previous class I've taken, Conservation and Preservation, and it was great to see a familiar face. He introduced us to NOAA's System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) which was one of the coolest applications I've ever used in college. SWMP (https://coast.noaa.gov/swmp/#/index) lets you look at any of the national estuary sites and collect data via graph or CSV file while looking at parameters such as tubidity, salinity, and depth.
SWMP data was one of the most interesting data sets I got to work with over the course of the semester. For our final project, my group looked at SWMP data from three areas that had been affected by hurricanes within the last year. One of the best parts about this project was how relevant these current events were. As climate change continues to "shake things up" across the globe, we are going to see an increase in weather and its severity. By looking at different parameters of the water at three sites in Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas, we were able to get a better sense as to how hurricanes affect parameters such as turbidity and salinity. Additionally, we got a better sense as to how long it truly takes for water parameters to return to normalcy. Below is one screenshot of the salinity levels at one of the sites in Texas after Hurricane Harvey hit.
Another rewarding and fun activity we got to take part in were a few beach cleanups both at Freddy Beach at UNE and in Wells. It's one thing to study and learn about marine debris, but actually getting hands on experience and getting out there to put study into practice made the experience even better. We picked up so much trash over the course of our beach cleanups, and the trash that we collected is just the very tip of the iceberg (probably not even the tip). It was a great bonding experience for our class overall and it was really rewarding to know that we were helping to make a difference, however small it may be.
ENV 398 Pathways of Pollution has been one of my favorite classes that I've taken at UNE so far. I've realized how important it is to be educated about issues, environmental or not, in order to truly make a difference. The course was very dynamic and hands on and that's not something that every course here at UNE offers. I had so much fun in our tight-knit class and Dr. H really did the course justice. It is a shame that Dr. H will not be with us next year, I think the environmental department could really benefit from an expert in marine debris. It's a pertinent issue that is not talked about as much as it should be. After taking the course, I think I speak for the class when I say that I feel a moral responsibility to make others around me aware of marine debris and its related consequences. One of the most important things I've learned from this class is that we can all make a difference. Whether its skipping the straw or helping out at a local beach cleanup, by playing our part we can help mitigate environmental issues on a global scale.
As a senior in college I have taken my fair share of courses in everything from climate change to indigenous peoples to permaculture. But never have I had a class that has brought in several different programs and is so applicable to the real world. In all of my other classes I have used power point and excel endlessly, but it is very rare that I learn a new program. In this course I was introduced to the Marine Debris Tracker App, the Fulcrum App, Ravenlite, Camtasia and ArcGIS Story Maps. These programs made the class exciting but also applicable to my future in environmental studies.
This class focused mostly on marine debris and noise pollution and the effects it can have on both humans and wildlife. Most of my other courses we focused on different types of pollution, but very rarely did we go into anything regarding the marine environment. This may have been because I did not get the opportunity to take any classes in the marine department but being and environmental studies major I would have expected to get a little taste of all types of pollution. Before this course I had little to no knowledge of nose pollution, the most experience I had was reading a Facebook article that mentioned the effect boats can have on whales, and that was it.
I got the opportunity in this course to take a deeper dive into noise pollution and what it really is. The entire class had a complicated relationship with the Ravenlite program, as it was a bit hard to work with, but it did open a door to an entirely new world. For my final data exploration project, I decided to brave the Ravenlite program again to analyze the sounds of UNE’s dumpster being emptied. This gave me the opportunity to compare the sounds of whales, birds, and anthropogenic noises. I learned a lot about how to read a spectrogram and how to understand all the information that Ravenlite was giving us. It was one of the favorite parts of the class, looking deeper into noise pollution. Throughout the course I had the opportunity to look at sound data from Wells Reserve, Islands in the Carribean and on the UNE Campus. I find myself aware of all the noises around me and constantly thinking about how that is affecting not only myself, but everything in the natural world.
The marine debris portion of this class really made a difference, not just in our awareness of our trash, but to the UNE community as well. During the spring semester the class did a total of eight beach clean ups, including our own Freddy beach and at Wells National Reserve beach. We picked up everything from tires, to nips of fireball, plastic fragments, shoes and everything in between. By learning about marine debris and then actually going out and picking it up it gave us all a closer and more intimate perspective of how people are impacting the planet. During our beach clean ups, we used the Marine Debris Tracker App and the Fulcrum App which allowed us to track where each piece of debris was, along with the coordinates. We then made all of our debris into sculptures that were presented to the entire school. It is important for people to be able to see just how much trash is on our beaches and to understand the consequences of leaving your trash on the beach. This class was one of the highlights of my senior year because I gained skills and worked in programs that will both help me in the future but also helped the community around me.
Pictures from left to right: Two UNE students enjoying the glorifying reality of picking up trash, a UNE student placing the sound equiptment that recorded sounds at Wells Reserve, and one of the final products of the marine debris that ENV 398 created. Photo credit: Heather Heenehan
I took Pathways of Pollution as a requirement for my major. I am an Ocean Studies and Marine Affairs major and the school recently changed this to Marine Affairs, meaning my major no longer exists. I was 'grandfathered' in and allowed to keep my major, but a lot of the classes I needed the school no longer offered. I was suppose to take Marine Pollution, but was unable to because of this. My advisor allowed me to take Pathways of Pollution as a replacement for this course, and to my delight, a majority of the content we covered was marine based. I am also took U.S. Ocean Governance this semester and it was very interesting getting to learn about the policy and regulations side of things, like the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, while also seeing first hand, how our country could benefit from more regulations regarding non point source pollution.
This class made me much more aware of my surroundings. I honestly didn't think much about litter and pollution before this class. I knew it was an issue but it wasn't something I thought about regularly. Now I find myself making consciously making choices in my day to day life, with what i've taken away from this class in mind. I try not to use straws, I do my best to minimize my plastic use, and I am more conscious about what I am throwing away and whether or not it can be recycled. I've also found that I'm talking to others about what we learn in class as well. I tell my family and friends about plastics and marine debris and make an effort to educate them the way I have been.
This class was right up my alley as far as teaching style. I do not do well with strict guidelines and structure. I liked that we were able to focus on what interested us and move forward with those interests, highlighting them in our research and class work. Going to Wells every other week was a welcome treat. My favorite place is the ocean so I couldn't think of a better way to spend class. Additionally, I love making art, so it was very cool getting to incorporate that into my school work. I haven't used data bases as much in my other classes as I am not particularly math, or research based in my field. However, I did find the tools we were given in class to be very useful. It was helpful getting to see the data and compare it to other sources. It's one thing to learn about marine debris in class, and it totally different seeing the hard numbers, or even seeing the quantities on the beach.
This class was engaging and interesting, I feel like I got a lot of experience that I would not have gotten from a traditionally taught class. I go to use Ravenlite to listen to acoustic recordings, and hear first hand, the presence of noise pollution in nature. I got to use Marine Debris Tracker to catalog the debris we collected. Having this experience with these different resources has expanded my tool belt as far as research and interests. This class has opened my eyes to issues I didn't see before. It showed me my role in environmental protection, and I got to learn all of it in regards to the ocean. This class was awesome, and really taught me all the different ways things can be looked at and showed me all kinds of different resources I hadn't known about before. I am glad that Marine Pollution wasn't running this semester, because I'm not sure I would have gotten the same amount out of that course as I did this one.
Below is the Fireball Flounder made by ENV398 here at UNE
Taking the class Pathways of Pollution was a great way to introduce me to topics that I had not been exposed to in previous classes while learning new techniques and even participating in data-generating pollution clean-ups. This was also my first course taken with a focus on marine issues (most of my studies have been focused on terrestrial science) and I’m glad I fit it into my schedule before I graduate! I learned that marine debris comes in all forms and sizes, from derelict fishing gear to tiny microplastics and marine pollution can be both invisible and visible.
One of the topics that I learned the most about was noise pollution. I had never thought of the idea that traffic noises could prevent birds from mating and that boat engines could prevent whales from communicating. Noise pollution is so different and hard for people to conceptualize because we can only hear it, but not see it. For our class, this changed when we did the noise pollution assignments with the software called RavenLite from the Cornell Ornithology Lab (RavenLite is available at this link: https://store.birds.cornell.edu/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=RAVENLITE ). We used RavenLite to listen to recorded segments from terrestrial and marine locations around the world. Raven allowed the once invisible noise pollution to become visible on our computer screens as we could see by various colors and intensities how loud a noise actually was and how much space that noise took up in the environment it was made in. This was a difficult project that challenged us to learn how to use a completely unfamiliar software, but it taught us so much about the research process and how damaging noise pollution can be for wildlife.
My favorite topic that we covered in class was marine debris. My favorite part about it was that we not only learned in the classroom, but we went out onto our beaches to actually clean them up. A lot of the debris that is found in marine environments originated on land, so it is important to also examine how we live our lives on land and what we can do to reduce our waste. One way we did this was by bringing our own metal spoons and ceramic bowls to eat ice cream at our final presentation!
During our beach cleanups, our class used the app Marine Debris Tracker (Clean Swell is another useful app that can be used to track marine debris) to record every piece of trash that we picked up every time we did a beach cleanup. To clean UNE’s on-campus beach, Freddy Beach, we paired up and visited the beach 6 times total. To clean up the beach at the Well’s Reserve, our class visited twice: once in February and once in April. We used the Marine Debris Tracker app in order to log the GPS location of every item found as well as collect a running total of items, visually see where the debris was most commonly found, and to contribute information to a larger data set of marine debris worldwide. Have you ever noticed the amount of plastic and other debris that washes on shore at your local beach? If so, maybe you might want to download the app and collect valuable data as a citizen scientist while cleaning up the environment! Doing so is a great way to see how much you have actually accomplished during a cleanup.
All of the marine debris that our class collected at UNE was kept until one of our last class meetings where we went to UNE’s Makerspace and created art sculptures completely out of the trash we collected. This was my favorite class. In total, our class made a jellyfish, a flounder made out of alcohol nips, a person, and a turtle! We displayed our artwork at an open house on campus and many people who stopped at our display had similar reactions: that our art was cool, but incredibly depressing. They’re not wrong! We hoped that creating such a display would evoke in visitors the desire to use less plastics, recycle, and properly dispose of their own waste. It truly is up to us to address the various pathways of pollution, one of which is ourselves.
Our Marine Debris Sculptures: (from left to right) Jellyfish, human, turtle, and flounder. All photos courtesy of Dr. Heather Heenehan.
I've known what pollution is since a kid, seeing it litter the streets of my hometown and seeing it thrown from cars in front of me. Growing up, I became more and more aware of the ever growing environmental problems were are facing today as a group of young adults. We are staring climate change in the face, needing to figure solutions for the problem before it unravels before our very eyes. Our class became dedicated to the solutions to pollutions. We spent time cleaning up the beach on our campus, the beach at Wells Reserve and spreading general awareness of marine pollution to the University of New England's Biddeford campus.
We got to collaborate with some awesome guests. I found it extremely helpful and beneficial to hear their stories and get information on what they've done in their professional careers. I did not really understand there could be a profession in pollution, but there are so many that can really prove to be successful and important in our future. My favorite trips were the ones where we got to go to the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve and get to do beach cleanups. The beach was so nice and open, walking it didn't seem like a chore at all. Along with picking up trash, I was able to talk to classmates and engage in in-depth conversations about daily life and pollution and how important it is to understand the small but powerful message marine debris exclaims but is not often heard. Marine debris in our oceans have been a major but silent problem, I did not grasp the concept of micro and macro-plastics in our ocean until this semester.
This is just one of the many pictures from the beach cleanups we got to do in Wells. Pictured is Aurora waving hello to me as I was taking her picture when she was picking up debris on the beach. Aurora has been a close friend of mine and having this class with her really made my semester better. Getting outside and doing something positive and productive has made an impact on my semester, this being the first where I've had many field labs. Our second time around, Sue Bickford from the Wells NERR joined us and that was helpful because she was fearless jumping into bushes and retrieving any sort of marine debris she could see.
Using the Marine Debris Tracker app was something I was nervous about at first but then became second-hand nature when cleaning up beaches. It's so simple to use and so useful to counting just how much trash we pick up on our beaches. It's hard to believe we found over one-thousand pieces of debris on our small beach on campus. It really says something about the current state of our oceans and just awareness of pollution on our campus.
Another aspect of the class I had no idea really impacted the environment around us was noise. Noise pollution is a huge problem that is swept under the rug. Up to taking this class, I did not think of noise pollution as a big problem but after our soundscape assignment and actually hearing birds stop chirping and no sounds after a train whistle or people talking, it raised my attention. Cars going off in the distance stopped any natural sounds near the recording device, people talking loudly stopped the birds from chirping, everything seemed to stop.
This class really showed me the importance in understanding how pollution gets from point A to point B. Ending up in our oceans, on our beaches, in our waterways, etc. I've really come to understand that pollution and plastic is going to plague our society for thousands of years to come unless we start a massive change that can end this. It would be a massive challenge to get there, but one day, hopefully we can see the change happen. I've learned new ways to lessen my plastic use, protect wildlife, cleanup beaches efficiently, and just learned about changing the environment we have come to live in today.
Coming into this class I knew nothing about pollution, other than that it was a problem. I assumed we would focus mostly on marine pollution and how it affected marine life. Most of the class was dedicated to marine debris, and our marine debris collection was really powerful. We wound up collecting about 1300 pieces of marine debris over the course of six weeks, and made sculptures to put around campus to raise awareness about marine debris. Using the Marine Debris tracker app was a great tool for our cleanups, as we were able to track every piece of debris that we picked up as a class. We had four sculptures (featured from left to right): Debbie the Debris Jellyfish, Shelly the Marine Debris Turtle, Fireball Flounder (made entirely from fireball nips), and Freddie the Debris Dude.
Having Demi and Theresa from NOAA and the Maine Coastal Program come and talk to class was a really amazing experience. Both women gave great insight into the world of marine debris cleanup and policy. Learning the truth about derelict fishing gear from Demi was really important and should become common knowledge. Fishing gear left on beaches cannot be disposed of by good hearted samaritans because technically it is private property. Even if the fishing gear is smashed to pieces or unrecognizable, it cannot be picked up unless the proper official is there and it is destroyed after. Working with Demi and Theresa was also great because they were excellent examples of women working in a professional environment about issues that really matter.
A lot of what we did in class related to current movements to cleanup pollution. Phasing out plastic straws and moving towards eco friendly straws or glass/metal straws is a big movement right now, and is an important issue. There is one company making a foldable metal straw that fits in a case small enough to put on a keychain, so you can always bring a reusable straw with you. (more information can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/908228738/finalstraw-the-worlds-first-collapsible-reusable-s)
Another super important part of this class, while it drove most people insane, was the soundscape assignment. Raven Lite may be the most temperamental software that I have ever had to use, but the purpose for using it was important. We used Raven Lite to look at noise pollution at the Wells Reserve. The soundscape assignment had one major takeaway: people are loud. All vehicles disturb the natural sounds of the forest, including cars, airplanes, and lawnmowers. Even just talking disturbs the forest, although talking isn’t the main problem.
The soundscape assignment was important not just for us, but also for the wonderful staff at the Wells Reserve. They were gifted the technology to capture and track this pollution, and this assignment was a really great way to utilize the sound files that they were collecting. In my assignment, I found that roughly 50% of all noise over the course of three days was anthropogenic, with the loudest sounds coming from planes and trains.
This class is important to take because people don’t understand the way that they affect and change the natural environment, even if they don’t intend to. Marine debris found on the beach isn’t just from people who litter; it comes from trashed dumped into the ocean from all over the country and the world. Animals get trapped in the pollution, or die from ingesting too much of it. Noise pollution is also a huge impact. I know that when I travel, I don’t think of how the sound of the plane is going to affect environments thousands of feet below me. People need to be made aware of the indirect ways that they are harming the environment, and why it is so important that we cut down on our pollution for all life on Earth. People say that one little thing won't make a difference, but that's not always the case. Just switching straws, going to the beach to pick up debris once or twice a month, and being aware of how loud your car/music is can make a big difference.
Pathways of pollution was a perfect class to take during my last semester here at UNE because it is unlike any other classes I have taken before. I signed up for the class because I was intrigued about the idea of service learning and had heard that there was going to be a marine focus. I was excited about both of these aspects of the class from the get go and was glad to find that they were both key themes of the class all the way through. This was really the first time I got to focus on marine issue in a class and I found it very interesting especially considering I originally choose to come to UNE to study marine science but ended up changing my major to environmental studies before freshman year even started. I was also excited about the idea of service learned because I have been lucky enough to get out in the community through various classes, internships, and volunteer experiences and these have been some of my most enjoyable and rewarding times at UNE. I really appreciated the fact that this class allowed me to give back to our own small community here at UNE by cleaning up Freddy beach and sharing our marine debris sculptures with our peers; while also allowing me to give back to the wider community by cleaning up the beach at the wells reserve and sharing this blog with the world!
My favorite part of the class was definitely the beach clean ups. As a class we completed 8 beach clean ups over the semester, 2 at Wells beach and 6 at Freddy beach and cleaned up thousands of pieces of debris. I really appreciated being able to get outside and have fun with by peers spending class time at the beach regardless of the cold weather and fact that we were picking up trash. What made the beach clean ups even better was being able to finish off with a fun creative project. We made a jelly fish out of ropes, straws, balls, and a large piece of styrofoam named Debbie the debris jelly, a fish out of alcohol nips named fireball flounder, a person from wood and bits of plastic named Freddy, and a turtle out of wood, styrofoam, and bottle caps. I also really enjoyed making a sort report to share some of the data were collected. Again this was a fun creative outlet and was unlike anything I have been able to do in a class before.
One of the biggest things I will take away from my time in this class is the fact that while pollution is a huge problem, it is also a huge opportunity. It is an opportunity for collaboration, experimentation, and creativity. It has been depressing to see the amount of pollution that ends up on the beaches we love and to learn about the suffering of so many species who are effected by all kinds of pollution. However, it has also been inspiring to meet so many various people working to put an end to pollution and to learn about all the amazing things they are doing. I would encourage everyone to do one small thing every day like drinking from reusable straw or picking up a piece of trash you see one the ground to bring this inspiration to life.
Need another great way to find inspiration? Spend some time in a beautiful place like this.....and pick up any debris you find.
Photo Credit: Dr. Heenehan
Debbie the Debris Jelly
Photo Credit: Emily Murad
I have always been an advocate for the protection of the environment, and I especially love the ocean and its inhabiting marine life. I decided to take ENV 398, the Pathways of Pollution course, specifically because it emphasized a focus on learning about the marine soundscape, and how marine mammals are particularly affected by sources of anthropogenic noise. Although I was aware that noise pollution in the ocean is an ever-increasing issue, I wasn’t sure of how exactly it affected marine organisms and was also ignorant to the extent of its effects. Through taking this course, I learned that anthropogenic noise in the ocean, such as vessels/shipping routes, oil drilling, dredging, naval sonar, etc., affects marine mammals in their communication, foraging, and mate finding, as they rely on acoustic sound space to carry out these essential activities. The human sound intrusion lies within the same range of sound (dB) that these animals utilize to communicate. This forces them to either adapt and overcome by putting out louder signals, or to avoid the sound by moving to a location farther from the anthropogenic sound source or communicating in times when human sound is quieter.
ENV 398 Conducting final beach cleanup at Wells
Photo Credit: Heather Heenehan
In addition to learning about marine sound, our class also learned about terrestrial sound by listening to recordings from the Wells Reserve in Wells, ME and by reading related, peer-reviewed journal articles. This class was multi-faceted as we not only learned about sound, but also learned an immense amount about marine debris (especially the major issue of plastic pollution), and marine animal entanglement and ingestion. Every class was diverse in its activities so I never got bored of the material as we were constantly doing something different. We did everything from attending lectures and reading articles, to the more exciting and hands on stuff such as conducting marine debris cleanups, creating sculptures from such debris, creating plans to prompt change, getting our hands dirty by digging through dumpsters, and listening to and working with guest speakers from all different backgrounds and careers, and so much more!
Some of our guest speakers included Jeremy Miller, from the Wells Natural Estuarine Research Reserve; Theresa Torrent, from the Maine Coastal Program; Susan Farady, a professor here at UNE in the department of Marine Affairs; Alethea Cariddi, the sustainability coordinator here at UNE; and several others. I want to thank all of our guest speakers (including the people not mentioned above!) for being so supportive in helping us with our class efforts, and for following along with our progress throughout the semester. I also just want to thank Heather Heenehan for being such a great, passionate, enthusiastic, and understanding professor! I know that everyone appreciates all the work you put in to making this class a success and for providing your students with your knowledge, experience, and time, especially when we needed it the most (ahem… RavenLite… cough cough). Seriously though, thank you for everything you have done for our class!
I learned much more from this class than I expected, and I am really happy that I made the decision to enroll in ENV 398. Through taking this course, I have noticed some changes in myself, and in my personal habits that I know have previously made a negative contribution to our massive, worldwide plastic pollution issue. I have become much better at religiously remembering to bring my reusable shopping bags to the grocery store, I have stopped buying and using single-use water bottles and always carry my reusable water bottle with me everywhere I go. When I do trip up, for instance when I forget to tell the waiter that I don’t want a straw with my drink, I immediately feel bad about it and know that it’s a necessary step in prompting a behavior change. I feel as though this class has also made me even more of an environmental advocate than I was prior to taking it, as I constantly find myself convincing my parents to recycle (something that we did not do when I was growing up), to buy/use reusable shopping bags, to skip the straw, and to generally become more aware of how their --and all of our-- habits are affecting the environment in which we live and depend upon for survival, and what we can do to reduce our pollution footprint.
I urge everyone to come up with 3 things that they can do, or personal behaviors that they can change, in order to protect our oceans, lands, wildlife, and ultimately our people. What will you change?
Here are several links that offer suggestions of where to get started:
Marine Debris sculptures made by ENV 398 - Ft. Shelly the Sad Sea Turtle and Fireball Flounder
Photo Credit: Heather Heenehan
PSA: Please stop throwing your Pez heads in the ocean. It is creepy and bad for the seals. Thank you in advance!
Photo Credit: Heather Heenehan
This week our class began with a presentation from a guest speaker, Susan Farady, who is a Professor of Marine Affairs here at the University of New England. In addition to teaching classes at UNE on Marine Law and Policy, Ms. Farady is also a lawyer! Her presentation introduced us (re-introduced, for some) to the Clean Water Act (CWA). We learned that the goals of the Clean Water Act are essentially to ensure that our waters in the US are clean and healthy enough to be suitable for human use such as fishing and swimming (i.e. “fishable and swimmable”). The CWA mainly achieves this goal by ensuring that bodies of freshwater within states meet particular water quality standards set by the state and approved by the CWA, managed under the EPA.
Susan Farady presenting to ENV 398 on the Clean Water Act (CWA)
In addition to setting water quality standards, the CWA establishes TMDLs (Total Maximum Daily Loads) and provides permits to some polluters via the NPDES program (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System). Together, these actions actually allow for some extent of pollution into freshwater sources to occur. However, these allowances are monitored and controlled in order to minimize pollutant inputs, while simultaneously allowing leniency for industry to continue with daily operations, that can’t necessarily avoid pollution altogether.
One of the most intriguing parts in the presentation was when our class was shown a video titled, “The Crying Indian,” which was a commercial that aired on television in 1971. This video depicts an Indian paddling in a canoe in his beautiful, pristine homeland, who then makes his way down a river and essentially time travels into the industrialized world that we still exist within today. It then goes on to show the Indian paddling through polluted waters filled with plastic and other trash, while he is surrounded by smog from output of the factories. As the Indian reaches the beach he sees that it is littered with trash everywhere, and when he makes his way to the edge of a nearby highway a bag of garbage is thrown out of a car window and it lands right at his feet. A single tear runs down his cheek and the narrator stresses, “People start pollution, people can stop it.”
As this commercial was very influential to the creation of the CWA, and in promoting an environmental movement to reduce pollution, why do you think this commercial was so successful in motivating people to take action? Do you think that some form of media message could ever have a similar effect on today’s current pollution problems? If not, why?
After the presentation the class utilized the remainder of the time to work on our data explorations projects. My group is currently working on a StoryMap that provides data on the top types of marine debris that are found on the coasts of several countries (US, Spain, Greece), and also provides information on plastic bans that may or may not exist within each of the chosen countries. The goal of our project is principally to determine if there are any correlations between policies/bans and marine debris type/abundance. Hopefully this will help us to understand what actions have been most successful in reducing marine debris.
From the combination of this presentation and the work we have been doing on our data exploration projects, it is evident that clean water sources (both fresh and marine) are very important to maintain for the health and safety of the inhabiting organisms and humans alike. Now that you have learned a little bit about the Clean Water Act, can you think of anything that you can do to reduce pollution into bodies of water?
Below are several useful links to websites that contain more detailed information regarding the Clean Water Act:
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-water-act
https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/clean-water-act-cwa-and-federal-facilities
Remember all of that marine debris from Freddy Beach that was collected throughout the semester? Well, we wanted to do more than just weigh and sort it. We wanted to do something with it that would make people reflect and really start to think about the waste they produce and how they dispose of it. To do this, we decided that we would need to create a visual display that would catch the attention of people walking by. After coming up with some ideas about things we could create with our debris, we headed to UNE’s makerspace for a little bit of help from Mike Etsy.
The class divided into groups to tackle this quest and worked diligently to get the job done. By the end of the class period, four pieces were created- Debbie the Debris Jellyfish, Freddy the Debris Dude, Fireball Flounder, and Shelly the Sad Sea Turtle. Freddy needed some additional structural pieces to allow him to stand up on his own, but the rest of the sculptures were entirely composed of marine debrise, zip ties and hot glue.
With these pieces, we hope to have a major impact on the students, faculty and staff at UNE. It is easy to see pictures of trash that was picked up in places around the world and completely disconnect yourself from it, but it is completely different when you get to see it in person and know that it was picked up from an area not too far away from where you are standing. We hope that it will make people reflect on their own actions and think about how any of the items that we found on the beach could have come from them. Ironically enough, one of the gloves that is serving as Freddy’s hands actually belongs to Dr. Heenehan herself. She accidentally dropped it on the beach one day after doing a cleanup and it was picked up the following week as debris. This just goes to show that everyone, no matter how careful you are, has the potential to contribute to this problem. It is important to not distance yourself from the issue or convince yourself that there is no possible way that any of that debris could be yours, because there is a chance that it could be.
In order to reach the UNE community with our message of mindfulness when it comes to trash and litter, we will hopefully be placing our sculptures in visible, high-traffic areas on campus such as the Commons, the Campus Center or the Marine Science Center. The more people that see them and are able to find out the story of why they were created, the better. We also don’t want people left with a feeling of hopelessness as a result of this project. It is important for people to know that this type of pollution is entirely avoidable if people take the proper precautions to consume less and also properly dispose of the waste that they do produce.
Here are some helpful links that provide information about how you can reduce your potential to contribute to the problem of marine debris-
http://thankyouocean.org/threats/marine-debris/
https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/discover-issue/solutions
So now I encourage whoever is reading this to take some action! Whether it be teaching a friend about the issue of marine debris, a commitment to stop using straws, or doing your own beach cleanup, every single person is capable of making a difference in this world and ensuring that the planet we live on is a healthy one.
Heather, Hannah and Emily hold up Debbie the Jellyfish
Photo credit Heather Heenehan
Liam, Alison, and Courtney pose with Shelly and Fireball Flounder
Photo credit Heather Heenehan
Aurora, Barrett, Rose, Quinn and Kyle pose with Freddy
Photo credit Heather Heenehan
For class on April 12th, 2018, the entirety of us headed to Wells Reserve for our second beach cleanup and SEANET survey. During the cleanup, we found over 200 items of debris ranging from small pieces of styrofoam to a large rubber tire that Liam graciously carried for almost the whole duration of our clean up (see photo below). Joining us on this trip was Sue Bickford, the Stewardship Coordinator for the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. She was a major help during our clean up and we appreciate her taking the time to come and join us on our trip!
The major items we found during our clean up at the beach in Wells were cans, plastic pieces, styrofoam, rope, derelict fishing gear, etc. All of these are avoidable pieces of debris that we can keep off the beach with simply not throwing our trash on the ground after we're done with it. At one point during our clean up, there was a small area up off the shore were there was at least fifteen cans and bottles that were left/washed up after that big storm Maine got a few weeks ago.
This was a piece of plastic that I found on the beach, one of the many pieces of debris.
Photo credit: Kyle Beem
As we walked down the beach, we started off in a long line to the water, we would pick any of the debris up, log them in our Marine Debris Tracker App and threw them in the basket Heather and Hannah were carrying on their backs. We found pieces of lumber, a tire, an old styrofoam boogie-board, and other large pieces of trash that we couldn't fit in the baskets so some people carried them throughout the whole survey.
While doing our survey, we came across a patch of sand that when you would step on it, sand around your feet would collapse and make a cool pattern. This was a highlight of Aurora's trip, as she is the one who discovered this "living sand."
We did not come across any dead birds during our survey, however, we did find a cool looking skull of a fish that I forgot to take pictures of. There seemed to be a lot of trash that was pushed up and into the sand dunes due to the tide. We did our best to get everything we could and record it, while keeping the beach clean as possible for other people to use and also hopefully keep clean.
The amount of marine debris we've found on our surveys is concerning but not irreversible. The best thing people can do to stopping this litter on the beaches, is to not litter and cut back on the amount of waste we produce. Another good way to fix marine debris is to go out and clean your favorite beach on your own and take responsibility that the fact that humans did this and we have the power to change and fix it.
Thank you to Sue, Dr. H., and fellow classmates for coming out and cleaning the beach to the best of our ability. Our two hour time out on the beach was successful, in my eyes. We gathered and disposed of so much trash as productively and efficiently as possible. Keep your beaches clean!
Picture of Aurora and Barrett searching for marine debris.
Photo Credit: Kyle Beem
Students at Wells Reserve for our cleanup. Photo Credit: Heather Heenehan
During class this week, students took turns presenting their StoryMap projects throughout the full duration of class. These projects, which were an independent study conducted by each student, helped provide insight into a plethora of issues regarding many different aspects of global pollution, among which included presentations on the topics of air pollution in the White Mountains, how sunscreen affects corals, and the issues associated with the accumulation of micro-plastics.
Links to examples of these Story Maps will be coming soon!
The next day, on April 6th, students participated with Alethea Cariddi's class in a scheduled waste characterization study. Students who contributed to the study included those in ENV 240, taught by Alethea Cariddi, and students from our Pathways of Pollution class. In this waste characterization students went through, identified, and characterized the contents of a campus dumpster, recycling bins, and our own 1,500+ pieces marine debris collected on campus over the last six weeks.
Students began assisting in the study by suiting up their in work-clothes and being given a set of gloves and tongs. Students moved onto one of two tarps in the middle of the Campus Center gym, one where trash bags from a dumpster on campus had been collected and the other where the bags of marine debris were collected. These bags were then sliced, and their contents emptied out onto the floor, where students would separate into various different types of waste. The biggest categories for our marine debris were items that could have been returnables, plastic that could have been recycled but are not returnables, and trash. Other categories included compost, recyclable glass, paper, and metal.
Students and Dr. Heenehan suited up and ready to begin the 2018 Waste Characterization Study
Photo Credit: Rose Karis
Top four categories of waste from our marine debris characterization: Returnables, Recyclable Plastic, and two categories of trash. Photo Credits: Rose Karis
The contents of the dumpster were sorted into these same categories. Later in the study the contents of a recycling bin were examined as well.
The waste characterization study, in addition to accomplishing its goal of going through the contents of the dumpster, recycling bins and our marine debris, also succeeded in sorting out trash that had previously been thrown in the wrong receptacles and quantifying this as well. This is currently an issue that the UNE campus struggles with, as although providing the right receptacles for certain types of trash helps with the cause, actually educating the students to use the correct ones is more difficult.
In the last waste characterization study done in 2016 they found that nearly 40% of what was in the dumpster could have been recycled and nearly 20% could have been composted. They were also able to quantify the contamination of the recycling bins with materials that are not recyclable. Since this first study there have been many efforts to improve recycling on campus and there's even a new composting program for residential students. Hopefully, these efforts will be reflected in this year's characterization.
In addition, by participating in the waste characterization study, students were further educated as to what type of trash and recyclables could be disposed in what type of receptacle. It was very commonplace to hear students asking where they should dispose of their findings during the waste characterization study, and it was through these questions that will help them (and others) learn. Finally, by helping to complete the characterization study, administrators of the study will gain broader insight into numerous possible questions from the data, including what type of trash found was most common, which one was most incorrectly disposed of, how often did students choose to recycle, etc.
To summarize this notion, it can be stated that overall, the waste characterization study was effective in both teaching and providing experience to the students that participated regarding how to deal with waste, as well as providing a hands-on experience working with it. It was also effective in providing vital information to coordinators that will help shed some insight into how the dynamics of trash disposal and recycling function on campus.
What do we do next? Our class is going to be communicating the results of our cleanups in a few different ways one of which will be making marine debris sculptures out of some of the debris we collected to help share the message about this issue and to encourage members of the UNE community to take care of their campus beach.
Before picture of some of the contents of the dumpster and the recycling bins that were characterized during the study.
Photo Credit: Rose Karis
This week our class covered several different topics and was split into two different sections. In the first half of class we were visited by a guest speaker, Ms. Theresa Torrent, a representative from the Maine Department of Marine Resources Maine Coastal Program. She is also the Maine Coastal Cleanup Coordinator, and gave an interesting presentation about her role at NOAA and some of the events she has participated in.
Since 1986, International Coastal Cleanup has been one of the hallmarks of their work. With the help of over 9 million volunteers, a whopping 145 million pounds of debris has been removed from coasts all around the globe in just under three decades! Ms. Theresa Torrent’s first cleanup was in 1988, and she has been coordinating here in Maine for 18 years. One of the most recent campaigns she is working on follows the motto “A Trash Free Sea Begins with ME”. She also gave us lots of details about her findings so far. Thus far, beach cleanups have turned up a plethora of plastic. Single use plastics are easily identifiable by everyone, and a huge problem all over the world (not just the United States!). Besides plastics, cigarette butts and lobster traps are just two examples of common marine debris found on Maine’s beautiful coast. In 2014, cigarette butts were the number one most collected marine debris in Maine!
There are often many challenges associated with coastline cleanups. In Maine, lobster traps are protected by a no molestation law, which creates an issue because you cannot touch lobster gear that is derelict or washed up on the beach. Ms. Theresa Torrent listed some of her organization’s biggest challenges and they are as follows: How to cleanup areas with high impacts from lobster traps and associated gear, how to effectively (including covering costs) remove debris from a rocky coast and islands, how to keep volunteers engaged in Coastweek, and how to best work with partners who were not interested in collecting data. The Maine Department of Marine Resources definitely has their work cut out for them!
Despite many challenges, Ms. Theresa Torrent and the Maine Department of Marine Resources have also had many successes. From their early count this September, they had over 80 cleanups which had nearly 3000 volunteers who collected 6,548 pounds of trash over a span of 87.5 miles. It is also interesting to note that of those 3000 volunteers, 1,421 of them were kids! Similarly, Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge had a cleanup in 2015 at Petite Manan Point Beaches that filled FIVE 30-yard dumpsters with trash. That year, they had over 19,000 pounds of trash collected. They have also had success partnering with local organizations. This is their second year successfully collaborating with and being sponsored by Portland Radio Group and both of their stations WCLZ and Coast 93.1.
While they have had many successes, the Maine Department of Marine Resources is constantly striving to do better. They want to continue to focus on what individuals can do in their daily lives to reduce trash with the focus on single use plastics. They also want to continue to build ocean stewardship and increase awareness on the impacts of microplastics and to increase the efforts at the Cleanups to gather materials of all sizes. Additionally, they strive to continue to find ways to increase the capacity to remove derelict gear from Maine’s mainland and island coastal habitats
Before Ms. Theresa Torrent left, we had a class discussion about our Implementation Plans and enjoyed bouncing our ideas off one another. Ms. Torrent seemed to really enjoy hearing from us, and even wrote many of our ideas down. She gave us her own experience with a recent trend “Skip the Straw”, and admitted that even the most environmentally aware people have trouble skipping the straw 100% of the time. It takes very active engagement to avoid a straw every time you order a single use plastic beverage container, but she gave us hope in telling us that in some cases, restaurants are not opting to give out straws upon request only.
Before Ms. Torrent left, she gave us all some awesome gear, including bags, hats, reusable water bottles, and stickers! All of the gear represented or mentioned the recent campaign “A Trash Free Sea Begins with ME”, or referenced NOAA’s Maine Department of Marine Resources in some way. Everyone was very excited to show off their new gear, and I hope to see everyone with their gear around on campus!
Class seemed to fly by, and in the second half of class we debriefed about the recently due Soundscape Assignment and split up into groups for our final group projects. Dr. H seemed overall very pleased with our efforts on the Soundscape Assignment, as unfortunately many people had issues using the software, Raven. Overall, the assignment was very important and provided us with a good idea as to how human and marine noise interacted, how the program Raven works, and how we can learn to better analyze data in general. While the assignment could be frustrating at times, it was a great experience getting comfortable with Raven and learning more about what Dr. H has dedicated a lot of her life’s work towards. Then, the last thing we did in class was break up into small groups for our final projects. There were four options to choose from, and between our class we started some great discussions about the possible directions each of our projects could go in.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned so far from being in Pathways of Pollution, it is that awareness is one of the most important steps towards limiting pollution! There are so many choices that we can make in our day to day lives that can help reduce marine and terrestrial pollution, one of which is becoming more educated! Whether is spreading the word about pollution awareness, fully participating in class discussions, or listening to a plethora of whales talking to each other in the Caribbean, pushing yourself to learn as much as possible is one of the most advantageous things an individual can do to help limit pollution on a global scale. So skip the straw, do your homework, and most importantly, be passionate about what you’re learning. It might just help save our planet.
Students from ENV 398 Pathways of Pollution pose their their new marine debris awareness gear, courtesy of Ms. Theresa Torrent (Photo credit: Dr. Heather Heenehan
By: Hannah Buckley
This week our class time was divided into two different sections. First, we were introduced to the waste characterization study that we will be doing in April by Alethea Cariddi, the Sustainability Coordinator at UNE. For this study, our class will be working with students from ENV 240, a sustainability lab taught by Alethea to try and determine how feasible it would be for UNE to get rid of the many dumpsters on campus and replace them with compactors. Compactors would allow for the waste produced to be weighed so that we could keep data on how much waste our university produces and then determine how we can reduce that in the future. To do the study, we will be going through all of the waste accumulated in the dumpster by the Champlain resident hall on campus and the recycling bins in each of the halls that use that same dumpster. There will be two days worth of waste that we will be sorting into categories like solid waste vs. recyclable material. This will give us an idea on how much material that is thrown in the dumpster as waste that could actually be recycled or composted.
In addition to sorting through the Champlain dumpster and accompanying recycling bins, our class will also get the chance to sort through all of the marine debris that we have collected on our own Freddy Beach! In class we brainstormed some ideas on what categories we could sort the pieces into and how we can educate our university about what we did, so stay tuned to see the products of our beach clean ups in a few weeks!
The second half of class was devoted to learning about NOAA's Marine Debris Program and specifically New England's marine debris program by the Northeast Regional Marine Debris Coordinator, Demi Fox. Demi reminded us that every single piece of plastic that has ever been created still exists on this earth. That is an insane amount of plastic that gets broken down into microplastics and microfibers that enter our waterways and harm wildlife and ecosystems. Even though the challenges surrounding plastic seem daunting (because they are!), there are still a lot of positive solutions to focus on! Demi just returned from the 6th International Marine Debris Conference in California where over 700 participants from 55 countries joined to discuss science and solutions to marine debris. This topic acted as a springboard for us to break into groups and come up with some local marine debris solutions based on NOAA's 2018 main action groups: consumer debris, derelict fishing gear, microplastics, and wildlife and habitat impacts. Kyle and Emily are pictured below working on our group's implementation plan on derelict fishing gear. We are developing a cooperative program to provide shore side recycling and disposal for old or damaged fishing gear in Portland and hopefully beyond!
Do you ever stop to think about what happens to the plastic straw you threw away after you finished drinking your morning iced coffee? What about the empty chip bag that you threw out on your way to class? One solution to problems regarding waste and litter on beaches is to simply reduce your use! Say no to the plastic straw next time or purchase a stainless steel straw instead. Go without the bag of chips and choose a piece of fruit that can be composted! Some solutions are as simple and easy as changing our everyday choices. What will you do to make an impact?
Kyle and Emily work on their implementation plan for shore-side collection of fishing gear. Photo Credit: Hannah Buckley
By: Dr. Heather Heenehan
This week we hit a four digit milestone with our marine debris surveys. As of yesterday morning we have now collected more than 1000 pieces of marine debris off of the Maine coastline (1,014 to be exact).
If you visit Marine Debris Tracker App's website and click on View and Get Data you can zoom in to Maine and see all of our data points (see screenshots in an earlier update below for examples). So far, the plastic and foam fragments are topping our list.
We had plans to visit the Wells Reserve for our monthly survey today but the snowstorm didn't get our memo and classes were cancelled... So we are trying to reschedule our March survey for after everyone returns from spring break. We have two more weeks of debris surveys on campus.
Stay tuned for updated counts or you can keep track of our efforts on the Marine Debris Tracker App's website.
If you or someone you know are cleaning up a beach near you, consider being a citizen scientist and collecting data in addition to debris using the Marine Debris Tracker App, or Ocean Conservancy's app called Clean Swell.
By Emily Murad
This week in ENV398 we began by troubleshooting some difficulties we have been having with downloading our files and operating the Raven Lite software. After successfully downloading the software and the terrestrial sound files from the Wells Reserve on to all of our individual laptops, we discussed some simple tools and methods in Raven Lite. We then discussed the various drawbacks and benefits of having such a large data set to work with, established some guidelines for moving forward, and determined what specific questions we wanted to answer as a class. It will be very interesting to see what comes of our study of the natural and anthropogenic sounds of event season at the Wells reserve. At the end of our class period we walked across campus to deploy a recording device by a dumpster on UNE’s campus as part of our collaboration with Alethea Cariddi’s ENV240 class who are working on a feasibility study of removing the dumpsters on campus.
The recording device installed near Champlain hall on UNE's campus. Photo by Emily Murad
Next we moved on from terrestrial noise pollution to marine noise pollution. This part of the class consisted of some lecture from Dr.H about her research in the field of marine noise pollution and discussion of various journal articles that we read for homework. Dr. H outlined her research experience for us by giving an overview of how essential sound is to marine mammals and then focusing on a few different case studies of marine species greatly impacted by noise pollution. Animals who live deep in the ocean can’t depend on light and visuals because sunlight can only penetrate to a certain depth. Instead they depend on sound to communicate with one another, find mates or food, determine their surroundings, and mark their territories. Because of their extreme reliance on sound, these animals are greatly impacted by anthropogenic sounds such as sonar or ship propellers.
Dr.H’s research studied the soundscape of a cove in Hawaii that was very popular with tourists due to its known location as a resting area for spinner dolphins. A soundscape is all sounds present in an environment at a given time. She used automated recording devises and techniques of Passive Acoustic monitoring (PAM) to determine what sounds were most prevalent in the cove and discovered both expected and unexpected sounds. These included sonar, shipping vessels, and even the sounds of a pressure washer from a nearby aquaculture farm. Our discussion then moved on from spinner dolphins to baleen whales. These are one of the most endangered whale species in the world and their migration paths are greatly interfered with by commercial shipping vessels. Our jigsaw discussion of the various journal articles we had each read from homework taught us that it is not only mammals who are affected by noise pollution, even zooplankton who are the base of the ocean food chain can be affected by seismic surveying.
In my opinion, the problem here is larger than sound. The root of noise pollution is at the root of almost all environmental problems – it’s about a lack of respect. Respect for the earth, for other species, even for other humans. For example, if we respected spinner dolphins, we would leave them be and let them rest instead of overcrowding their habitat with pollution and people for economic gain. This is not to say that we should have no interaction with other species because it is impossible to truly appreciate something if you are not allowed to experience it, but a respectful balance needs to be struck.
An intimidating but important take away from this week’s class was the fact that we are scarred and saddened by the state of our planet. As students of environmental and marine science we know more than the average person about the current and future fate of the planet and the animals that we love. While this can be extremely overwhelming and sometimes makes us feel hopeless, it also means that we have the responsibility to share what we know with the rest of the world. We are the leaders of a growing revolution that will hopefully lead to a sustainable earth that will be a fair place for all species to exist. In the meantime were just going to keep laughing so that we don’t start crying (and maybe we'll learn to speak whale).
GIF source: https://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdnpebZ6bQ1rkbqbko1_500.gif
By Liam Sullivan
One of the issues that people may not put much thought into when dealing with the environment is sound pollution. It is always there, and can sometimes be forgotten about when considering issues in the environment. For our class we addressed this issue by learning about how an increase in sound levels can affect the animals in the environment, but also how to record the sounds in an area using recording devices. This was done at the Wells Reserve with Susan Bickford (Stewardship Coordinator at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve) assisting with the set up and general background on the recording devices. The Wildlife Acoustics SoundMeter devices are used for getting an idea of the sounds in an area during 5-7-day deployments. The devices are programmed to record for 10 minutes at the half hour and hour marks during all periods of the day. The main reason this is being done at Wells is to study the soundscape of important habitat for wildlife, including the New England cottontail rabbit.
The other half of collecting data is, of course, analyzing that data. For this we are using the free software, Raven Lite. Since we set up our recordings that day, we used some of the pre-recorded Wells recordings and pre-loaded examples in Raven Lite to begin learning the process. This not only involves listening to the sounds being produced, but also looking at how those sounds register on the recording equipment and how Raven Lite can show you what you want to find without listening to the entire recording. This was most evident when the class was shown visualizations of sound called spectrograms. Since the point is looking for differences in the sound of the areas around the devices, this gave us examples of exactly what to look for. It turned out to be a bee that wandered close to the microphone. We saw how these differences in sound waveforms and spectrograms can be used to analyze recordings without necessarily having to listen to the whole recording. This is not to say that we won't be listening to to make sure nothing is missed, but it makes things easier when you know what parts to focus on.
As the day wound to a close we put up one of the two survey microphones, to compare how loud the area around the dumpsters at the Wells Reserve are compared to those on the school’s campus. One interesting point brought up by Sue was that the Reserve is on its off season, while the school is having its busy season and that this switches in the summer. This would make an excellent comparison between what areas are louder when and if this continues into the future. We want to see whether removing campus dumpsters would affect noise pollution since that is another aspect of having dumpsters on campus, they must be emptied (much to the dismay of the residents whose dorm windows are right next to these dumpsters). During this line of thought a question was brought up along the lines of “why are we doing this, wouldn’t it be easier to just say it will decrease noise and people will be fine with it?” The answer to this question being that aside from the feasibility survey, having a concrete reason along with supporting data to back it up will make it easier to change issues then just stating something that may or may not be true.
Heather Baron assisting with setting up the Wells Reserve recording device. Picture taken by Liam Sullivan
By: Dr. Heather Heenehan
One of the pieces of information my students said they wanted from our marine debris surveys was the position of every single piece of debris they pick up throughout the semester. They decided they wanted to be able to make a map with these data at the end of of our surveys. So we decided to use the Marine Debris Tracker App to gather those data and log our efforts to clean up Maine's beaches. As Heather describes in the post below, this week was our first week of action and with action, comes data points!
After our surveys on campus (left and middle maps below) and at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve (far right map below) our class has picked up more than 400 marine debris items off the beaches of ME. When reporting this statistic excitedly to a colleague, they asked, "Is that good or bad?" My student Courtney replied, "Both! Bad that they're there in the first place but good that they're gone now!"
The screenshots are maps generated by the tracker app website with our data points. Zooming in on campus you can see all of the (247) pieces of debris we picked up (left map below).
And if you zoom in even farther (middle map below) you can actually see where that piece of debris was picked up and WHAT that piece of debris was (e.g. bottle caps, cigarettes, plastic bottles, etc.).
We will be visiting the Wells Reserve once a month to participate in surveys and will be collecting once a week on campus for the next six weeks. Stay tuned for updated counts on the amount of debris we log this semester or you can keep tabs on our efforts on the Marine Debris Tracker App's website.
If you or someone you know are cleaning up a beach near you, consider being a citizen scientist and contributing your data with an app like this one so your debris can be counted! Options for this include the Marine Debris Tracker App, what we are using for class, or the Ocean Conservancy's app called Clean Swell. If you don't need or want the position information I would recommend Clean Swell. Think about it, you can do something good for the environment and contribute data while you're at it!
Maps of the debris collected in our first survey on campus (left and middle) and at the Wells Reserve (right).
Screenshots from Marine Debris Tracker App website.
By: Heather Baron
Looking at past data from around the country on marine debris may seem less than interesting to the average person, but not to us! Our class has spent the past few weeks researching marine debris and the impacts it can have on marine and fowl life. After researching and getting a feel for how important these marine debris studies are, it was finally time to go out and gather data to answer some of the questions we have been longing to know the answers to! What type of debris will we find? What will be most common? Is this debris coming from the ocean or from the students of UNE? These questions and more will hopefully be answered through careful data collection and analysis.
This past week was very exciting for the students of Dr.Heenehans' Pathways of Pollution class; it was a week of action! The marine debris surveys are finally underway and went off without a hitch! Each week two students will conduct marine debris surveys on our local beach at low tide. On Tuesday the 13th the first marine debris survey was conducted on the University of New England’s Freddy beach by Emily Murad and myself, with the help of Dr.Heenehan. To properly track our data, we used the Marine Debris Tracker App to record the exact location where each individual piece of debris was found. During this survey the three of us collected 247 items in just one hour. These items included many plastic bottles, cigarettes, foam fragments, metal cans and even a buoy! All marine debris that was collected is stored in a bin located at the entrance of the beach for our class to keep track of the specific debris that is collected each week. We will then take all the debris we collected throughout the semester and categorize and count it at the end of the year.
Heather Baron and Emily Murad carefully surveying Freddy beach at UNE for marine debris. Picture credit: Heather Heenehan
Citizen science is an extraordinary method of involving the public in researching and collecting data in their local environments. Regular people who are interested in preserving and conserving their natural environment around them are taught the proper methods of data collection and observation methods, depending on the project. Citizen science is becoming more popular all around the world and has diverse projects that range from bird counting in New England to wildlife management projects in several countries in Africa. During this Thursday’s class, we got the opportunity to really dive into marine debris surveying. (pun intended) The entire class got to assist the Wells Reserve in their monthly Seabird Ecological Assessment Network or SEANET survey, making us all citizen scientists for the day! Our survey was lead by Lynne Benoit-Vachon who is the Volunteer and Visitor Services Coordinator at Wells Reserve. She gave us a quick run down of the beach and how we were going to move forward with the survey. She discussed the importance of our work today and how helpful it was to have more then three people surveying the entire beach. We were told to look out for any birds, dead or alive on the beach as well as marine debris. SEANET helps get a read on the health of an ecosystem based on its bird population, or the amount of deceased birds found. The sheets we had to fill out in the event we did find a bird are pictured below.
The SEANET form that was filled out when we found two wings of deceased birds.
One of the students holding up a found bird wing that was identified and measured for future data that will be used at Wells.
While at Wells, we found more than Lynne had originally thought we would, we found several pieces of small plastic, a few unidentifiably objects and several large pieces of rope; totaling over 100 items! As we neared the end of our survey we encountered two wings of different deceased birds. By using the form given to us by SEANET we were able to classify it better and narrow down the causes of death. By going out into the field and doing the work, seeing the debris and interacting with Lynne it puts our work and research into perspective. It is vitally important that these beach cleanups are conducted on a regular basis give the amount of trash the people produce and the amount that ends up in the ocean. Our class is ready and eager to see what the rest of the semester has in store for us!
The students spread out on Wells beach surveying for marine debris.
A piece of unidentified rubber that was found during our class survey of Wells.
Lynne Benoit-Vachon explaining the process of filling out a SEANET form for a bird wing that was found.
Dr. Heenehan and Rose Karis attempting to identify a piece of debris found at Wells.
*All pictures above were taken by Heather Baron, excluding the ones who were previously given credit.*
By Roxanne James
As you all probably have heard by now Dunkin Donuts has made the decision to switch to double-walled paper cups by 2020. By removing styrofoam cups from stores it will help keep pieces of debris out of landfills and the ocean. Dunkin Donuts is one of the many food industries to become environmentally friendly. Coca-cola, Budweiser, and McDonald's are also some of the many businesses to have environmentally friendly packaging. This transition to eco-friendly products will help reduce the amount of marine debris in our oceans and beaches.
New Dunkin' Donuts cups will no longer be styrofoam. The new recyclable paper cups are to be used at every location by 2020.
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/39908901@N06/8639293426
This past week ENV 398 studied the marine debris and the amount of debris found on beaches. The class discussed the best way to survey a beach for debris. We as a group had to figure out what we wanted to achieve while doing a beach clean up every week and how.
Along with questions for the survey, the class figured out the best way to structure the survey. We as group planned on using an application called Clean swell. Clean swell is an application that allows people to track and record debris one has collected, track the total distance one collected one trash you collected, and keep a historical record of your cleanup efforts. Clean swell is an application that was made by the Ocean Conservancy. Along with clean swell, we plan to use an effective walking pattern found in our previous readings in order to find out what is ending up on Freddy Beach (UNE campus Beach). We collectively figured out we will need which included gloves, bags (both eco-friendly) and rulers.
Later in class, we had time to research debris found around Maine and globally. The sites we used were the NOAA Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project and Ocean Conservancy websites for both old and newer data. They all had different ways of posting where debris was located. Ocean Conservancy posted their top ten list of debris and their most amazing finds. Some of the items on their list include foam take away containers, food wrappers, and cigarette butts. Some amazing finds include toilets, a bucket of nails, and a piano (Ocean Conservancy, 2017).
Clean Swell Application to be used by UNE students.
Image: Screenshot captured from iPhone application
A question we posed in the class was how to keep debris out of the water. With debris such as take away containers and plastics constantly on our beaches and in our waterways there seems like no hope in sight, but with companies like Dunkin Donuts, Coca-cola, Budweiser, McDonald's and even Aroma Joes, there is hope. Let's also not forget about the thousands of volunteers that help clean beaches every day and help contribute to a reduced amount of marine debris. There is still much to do, and that is why UNE’s ENV 398 class will be having a weekly beach pick up to understand and analyze what debris is on our campus beach.
By Quinn Lawrence
We started off our class with a brief meeting with Alethea Cariddi, who is the sustainability coordinator at UNE. She discussed how we would help with a waste assessment on campus. We then Skyped with Dr. Kara Lavender Law, an author of one of our readings due for the week. Kara works for SEA Semester, where students spend a semester at sea studying the ocean and pollution.
The main focus of our discussion was what we are doing on campus to prevent pollution in our water. We also focused on how plastic gets into the water, and a common form of pollution, discarded fishing gear. We also discussed where plastic pollution is going when it goes into the ocean and its devastating results.
This discussion was a perfect segue into the most powerful part of the class, where we learned about the Albatross. There are about 3 million Albatross that live on Midway Atoll (see map below), the most remote island in the Pacific being 2,000 miles away from the nearest continent. The mother Albatross feeds her young by flying out to sea and bringing back marine creatures for the chicks. However, with the influx of pollution in the ocean, especially plastic, more Albatross are bringing back plastic for their young.
The Albatross on Midway Atoll are dying because chicks are consuming plastic waste. Piles of trash cover the island, but this the island isn't producing this trash. Plastic dumped into the ocean by other countries floats to Midway Atoll and washes on shore. It is impossible to find an Atoll nest or area of their landing grounds that doesn't have trash on it.
The main take away from class today was that our pollution is affecting countries and creatures that we might not even be aware of. Plastic dumped into the ocean will travel thousands of miles. It disintegrates and is eaten by unsuspecting creatures. As a global community we must look for solutions to our plastic waste disaster. It is difficult for a lot of people to understand the depth of an issue without being able to see the direct effects on their life. We must ask ourselves how we can stop ocean pollution, as it is harming species and ecosystems worldwide.
Links:
A film relating to the Albatross and ocean pollution: http://www.albatrossthefilm.com/
The paper co-authored by our guest Kara Lavender Law about where plastic pollution comes from and how it affects the oceans: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768
Our class Skype session with Kara Lavender Law
Photo Credit: Dr. Heather Heenehan
The remnants of the skeleton of an Albatross, with the plastic contents of its stomach shown.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albatross_carcass_and_marine_debris.jpg
By Alison Higgins
This week we took our first trip as a class to the Wells Natural Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), where we met with Jeremy Miller, who taught us about the NERR System and the System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) system that he manages at the reserve. Jeremy helped us better understand the NERR system and the enormous amount of data they provide for the public.
The System Wide Monitoring Program that Jeremy coordinates is a series of monitoring stations throughout the reserve that collects data about the water quality and weather patterns. SWMP takes a sample every 15 minutes and is able to collect data for nutrient levels, turbidity, dissolved oxygen levels, pH levels and more, as well as a record weather patterns.
These monitoring systems are set up at all 29 estuarine reserves in the country, some collecting data as far back as 25 years ago. All of this data is sorted and made accessible to the public in a user friendly way. Anyone can access all the data SWMP has collected, and organize it in to graphs.
Jeremy showed us how to look up specific periods of time, and use the data to help explain abnormal readings. We split into groups and Jeremy gave each of us a scenario, with location, date range, and parameters and we had to use this information, SWMP, and outside resources to try and determine what was happening at the time to cause the unusual data.
This data helps use better understand the impacts outside forces have on coastal ecosystems. Runoff, pollution, extreme weather, flooding, and more impact these ecosystems and the NERRs around the country show us first hand, using SWMP, the effect all of these factors have on the water quality, which is crucial in these mainly aquatic environments.
Water quality determines what can and cannot survive in an environment, we are seeing changes in water quality around the world that are greatly influencing ecosystems, in most cases for the worst. Better understanding the aspects of water quality and how things like pollution impact it, allows us to recognize trends and hopefully use that information in the future to protect these threatened environments.
Links
National Estuarine Research Reserve System, Centralized Data Management Office
This was the scenario given to my group. Using SWMP and other sources we were able to determine there was flooding in the Mississippi area during the date range that caused massive fluxuation in pH, turbidity, salinity and DO%.
ENV 398 is one of the most dynamic and exciting courses that the University of New England offers in the sense that it is always something new and relevant. When I signed up for Pathways of Pollution, I didn’t really know what to expect. I figured we would talk a lot about industrial pollution and land-based catastrophes. Pathways of Pollution truly opened my eyes to an entire dimension of pollution that I had never before considered- marine pollution. Over the course of the semester, I have been made aware of a plethora of issues taking place in and around our planet’s oceans and it has made me consider my daily actions in an unprecedented manner. Hindsight is 20/20. Looking back now, it is easy to make the connection that what we do on land eventually finds its way to our oceans. But by taking this course and focusing primarily on marine pollution, I have realized that finding solutions to marine pollution absolutely means a more sustainable future and a healthier planet.
One of my favorite aspects of Pathways of Pollution was our visits to the Wells Reserve. Sue and Jeremy are so knowledgeable in their areas of expertise and it was truly captivating to have class time with them. Visiting Wells was just an overall great experience, and getting in the van and making the trip down to the reserve was some of the most fun I've had in a class. Jeremy had helped out in a previous class I've taken, Conservation and Preservation, and it was great to see a familiar face. He introduced us to NOAA's System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) which was one of the coolest applications I've ever used in college. SWMP (https://coast.noaa.gov/swmp/#/index) lets you look at any of the national estuary sites and collect data via graph or CSV file while looking at parameters such as tubidity, salinity, and depth.
SWMP data was one of the most interesting data sets I got to work with over the course of the semester. For our final project, my group looked at SWMP data from three areas that had been affected by hurricanes within the last year. One of the best parts about this project was how relevant these current events were. As climate change continues to "shake things up" across the globe, we are going to see an increase in weather and its severity. By looking at different parameters of the water at three sites in Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas, we were able to get a better sense as to how hurricanes affect parameters such as turbidity and salinity. Additionally, we got a better sense as to how long it truly takes for water parameters to return to normalcy. Below is one screenshot of the salinity levels at one of the sites in Texas after Hurricane Harvey hit.