Ocean Stewardship: Education & Outreach

Students from Benicia, California, presented results of their albatross diet investigations

View student art, essays, and teacher comments about the Albatross activities

Free Resources for Educators and the Community

Please contact Carol with questions about the activities and/or any problems accessing files:
email: carol at oikonos.org (415) 868-1399

Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds
Supplemental Activities for the California Coastal Commission Science Activity Guide

Background

Plastic marine debris impacts many seabird species. Black-footed Albatross are opportunistic ocean surface feeders and depend upon finding food on the ocean to feed themselves and their young. Adult Black-footed albatross often mistake floating plastic debris as food and ingest huge quantities of plastic bottle caps, plastic fragments, discarded cigarette lighters, and plastic toys which unfortunately, they also feed to their chicks on remote islands.

Far-ranging seabirds are indicators of change in marine ecosystems and can highlight distant threats caused by increased human use of coastal and open ocean ecosystems. Because the continuing escalation of global marine debris warrants enhanced efforts to take action on many levels, our educational outreach will contribute to these efforts by providing tangible tools to educate the public about marine pollution and encourage them to participate in pollution prevention activities.

What is a bolus?

As part of the digestive process, many seabirds such as albatrosses and petrels throw up pellets, known as "boluses" that contain fish bones, squid beaks and other indigestible material. Now, the researchers and students are finding other strange material in these boluses. Discover what seabird boluses can tell us about our oceans through the activities and resources below.

Left: Laysan Albatross adult feeding it's chick on Kure Atoll, Northwest Hawaiian Islands.
Right: Stomach contents of an albatross chick found dead on Kure Atoll. Weight of stomach was 370 grams, of which 270 grams were plastic (including two cigarette lighters visible in photo).
Photo courtesy of Irene Kinan.

The following activities were made possible with funds from the California Coastal Commission's Whale Tail License Plate Grant Program, with matching funds from Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

The Teaching Activities supplement "Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds" curriculum developed by the California Coastal Commission available free from this website:

http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/waves/waves1.html

Thank You to the Bolus Collectors and Student Responses

These stinky, fascinating boluses travel from albatross breeding colonies in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands and Guadalupe Island in Mexico. We thank the following people for giving students this unique opportunity:

• Cynthia Vanderlip - State of Hawaii, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Kure Atoll Biologist
• Bill Henry - Island Conservation & Ecology, U.C. Santa Cruz, Guadalupe Island
• John Klavitter, Ann Bell, and Beth Flint - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, Pacific Remote Islands NWR Complex
• Papahanaumokuakea National Monument
• Charles Moore - Algalita Foundation

Students from Benicia Middle School, California

"Thank you for the wonderful ocean pollution program. I learned that plastic never completely biodegrades; it just breaks up into smaller pieces. I also really liked dissecting the bolus from the albatross. I was really sad to learn that albatrosses eat plastic. Thanks again for the wonderful program. It really makes me want to clean up everywhere!"

"Thank you so much for teaching us about how much plastic is in the ocean and how many birds eat plastic. I knew that it was a problem, but I didn't know it was this bad! After estimations (because we didn't completely dissect our bolus) we concluded that 83% of our bolus was plastic and/or unnatural items. I was amazed! Because of your presentation, I feel I need to help these birds too."

"Thank you for inspiring me to clean up the place and save the Earth! Here are some interesting facts I learned: 1) the albatross does a cool dance before mating 2) they eat lots of plastic (of course) 3) the parents regurgitate their food for their chicks. Thank you!"

"I enjoyed learning about the Black-footed albatross and Laysan albatross. I loved dissecting the bolus and was surprised because there was a lot of plastic, squid beaks, fishing line, and rocks. I will tell people that litter on the street can affect seabirds because the stuff gets into the storm drains. Thank you very much for coming in and sharing information with us. I will now be more aware about what I do!"

Classroom Reports to Bolus Collaborators - 2008 (7 MB) and 2009 (3 MB)

Campus Trash Survey Activity

Make a difference locally by monitoring school campus trash and documenting improvements.

Survey Form and Excel spreadsheet with automatic result graphing

Readers Theater script: "Auntie Moana Saves the Day "

A Readers Theater script for middle and high school students to read aloud and learn about an effect that marine debris can have on wildlife. Two versions: Hawaiian Pidgin and Standard English Created by Barbara Mayer, M.S. Barb is a science educator with 20 years of classroom instruction, curriculum development, and web resources. View her website.

Laysan Albatross chick requesting a meal from its parent. Photo courtesy of Cynthia Vanderlip

 Music to Inspire Marine Debris Prevention

Listen to Blue Gold by Aoede
Lisa Sniderman describes this song as her band's "coastal anthem celebrating our precious blue liquid resource-the ocean!"

Links for More Information and Resources

Marine Debris 101 - resources provided by NOAA

Please visit the Algalita Marine Research Foundation to learn about their dedicated activities to reduce marine pollution.

For more information on plastic pollution see Plastic Debris, Rivers to Sea Conference Redondo Beach, CA, September 7-9, 2005

Read "Seabirds as indicators of plastic pollution in the North Pacific"
by Hannah Nevins, David Hyrenbach, Carol Keiper, Jenny Stock, Michelle Hester, and Jim Harvey

Poster

"Where would the plastic go ?" presented in support of California coastal clean-up efforts (1.7 M file)

Stickers

To say "Thank You" for cleaning the beach, beautiful bumper stickers with seabird watercolors by Sophie Webb were distributed at central California beaches. Contact Oikonos if you are interested in receiving and/or distributing stickers.

Albatross Teacher Activity Packet from Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary

Black-footed Albatross consider Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary and its surrounding waters a fine destination for the abundant food resources. This migration activity uses data from a recent tagging study to demonstrate the incredible migratory paths these species makes during breeding season.

Activity includes; glossary of terms, background information, maps, data, and questions/answers for teachers. Download from their website or contact Jennifer Stock: email jennifer.stock [at] noaa.gov

Teacher Training - Students Track Albatross Across the Pacific

Marine animal migration and oceanography data from Oikonos' Albatross Research is used in classrooms with ACES - Animals in Curriculum-based Ecosystem Studies, an award-winning program meeting state-specific math and science process standards.

Bring the open ocean to your classroom by tracking albatross and other animals! For more
information on professional development, link to ACES here.

Download Albatross Mapping Activity (350 kb, PDF)

City of Benicia Water Education Program

The Pilot Program Plastics in the Ocean is now fully funded by the City of Benicia, California. This program uses results of Oikonos' albatross research to teach science skills and ocean stewardship.  It is taught to all 6th and 7th grade students, one 8th grade class and three High School Oceanography classes.

Download activities above

Since 2006 our ocean stewardship activities have been used by over 1,400 students in the east San Francisco Bay area. 

New Student art, essays, and teacher comments

Sealife Conservation

The 'Tracking Albatross and Tracking Trash' project has begun an exciting new collaboration with Sealife Conservation

The mission of Sealife Conservation is to inspire conservation of the oceans and marine life by fostering awareness of the marine environment through hands on experience, involvement, education, and research.

In 2007, Carol Keiper met David Robinson from Sealife Conservation and organized a student expedition on San Francisco Bay aboard the Derek M. Baylis, a eco-friendly research vessel. Students and parents participated in a Bay Ecology and Marine Debris sailing adventure.

The main goal of the 'Tracking Albatross and Tracking Trash' project is to support the City of Benicia's Water Education Pollution Prevention Program, by using albatross as ambassadors to teach about ocean stewardship. This work seeks to increase awareness of the connections between our individual choices in our own communities and marine ecosystems far from home.

Bringing Science to Life!

This year will prove to be quite different from the average school experience for the 4th and 5th graders at Alvarado Elementary School in Union City, California. For these inquisitive students participation in the B-WET (Bay Watershed Education and Training) program will bring science to life!

Carol Keiper from Oikonos will be a consultant and science advisor through 2008. Students will be monitoring debris and testing water quality in their adopted creek near the school and will also get out on a boat on San Francisco Bay and participate in marine debris observation and bay ecology cruises.

Plastic trash in Alameda Creek, their adopted local creek within walking distance from the school.

The focus of this program is to link our Albatross research to local creek ecology and marine debris. Creek monitoring proves an excellent method to disseminate knowledge of water pollution and marine debris through water quality analysis and debris removal and in so doing, students and teachers develop skills that will help to create interest in preserving the creek, SF Bay Estuary, and the ocean. This all lays an important foundation for creek and ocean stewardship!

The big question is: How can the Black-footed Albatross possibly be connected to Creeks in San Francisco Bay? Stay tuned…..

To see more photos of the creek explorations and teacher training, and learn about the program at Alvarado School, click here.

People - Please contact us with questions or feedback

Carol Keiper, Michelle Hester, and Sophie Webb, Oikonos
Hannah Nevins, Oikonos and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
David Hyrenbach, Hawai'i Pacific University
Jennifer Stock, Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary

Funders and Collaborators

	City of Benicia Water Education Program Bay Model