Noyo Center for Marine Science celebrates World Ocean Day

Have you circled June 8 on your calendar yet? If not, perhaps you should. June 8 is World Ocean Day, and if you live in California, the Pacific Ocean is your big, generous, mostly benevolent but occasionally troublesome next-door neighbor. Like all the world's oceans, the Pacific is a source of vast quantities of food, the maker of countless jobs, a fantastic playground for millions, and the object of endless scientific curiosity. It is a neighbor worth knowing — and protecting.

Long taken for granted, the world is finally waking up to the fact that protecting our oceans is integral to protecting our own happiness, health, economic stability, and physical well-being. The oceans are a resource whose benefits we all share, even if some of us never dip our toes in the water. With these realities in mind, some of the world's leading environmental organizations proposed concerted international action to protect the oceans at the famous "Earth Summit" held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, which did much to raise global awareness about various environmental issues. In 2008 the United Nations formally recognized June 8 as World Oceans Day, throwing its weight behind efforts to utilize the oceans sustainably.

It will come as no surprise to North Coast residents that World Oceans Day is a very big day indeed for the Fort Bragg-based Noyo Center for Marine Science. The organization has been pitching in to promote ocean protection and coastal resilience through its many educational programs and outreach efforts. It will also host a range of public activities on the weekend following World Oceans Day.

A particular focus of the Noyo Center's educational initiatives this year has been to bring awareness to area schools about the terrible impact plastic waste has had on the world's oceans. By some estimates, over 14 million tons of plastic waste are in the oceans yearly! Not only is this waste unsightly, but it is also downright dangerous. Once in the ocean, the waste never really dissipates. It merely breaks down into smaller and smaller bits of microplastics. Marine creatures of all sizes eventually ingest microplastics—even phytoplankton (as demonstrated in our "Seeing Scientifically: exhibit at the Discovery Center Science Museum in downtown Fort Bragg), and have been shown to bioaccumulate in tissues and work their way back up the food chain, collecting harmful chemicals en route to your dinner plate. It's a daunting problem.

Noyo Center's Education Program Coordinator Sue "Magoo" Coulter and Bilingual Educator Michael Brito have developed a Talking Trash Again program to encourage area school children to think carefully about how the plastics they use and dispose of impact the ocean environment. The curriculum, of course, targets different grade levels. High School students receive a module entitled "Personal Choices and Consequences," in which they are taught how to perform their school trash audits and better recycle plastic waste, in addition to receiving a thorough grounding in plastic waste's environmental and health impacts. Middle School students receive a module entitled "Trash, Plastic, and You," which explains how plastic waste migrates from the home or school and ends up in the ocean. Elementary school students receive an introduction to the subject of trash and ocean health via a module entitled "Trash in the Class," in which children are encouraged to think about alternatives to plastics at home and in school.

So far, the Noyo Center education team has "talked trash" with students at Three Rivers Charter School, Dana Gray Elementary School, Fort Bragg Middle School, Fort Bragg High School, and Mendocino High School with their dynamic program on plastics. They’ve reached 500 students at these schools, raising awareness among students and teachers alike with information about this growing issue. The response has been very positive, with principals and teachers enthusiastically seizing the opportunity to carry out the program's launching point – conducting a brand trash audit. This entails laying school trash out on a tarp, with gloves and data sheets, tracking both the corporate brands and the types of plastics found on campus, experimenting with how different plastics behave in the water, and then discussing what happens when some of this waste ends up in the ocean. It has been a very eye-opening and olfactory experience, to say the least!

Since World Ocean Day is also a day of commencement for local schools, Noyo Center will celebrate World Ocean Day over the June 10 – 11 weekend with the following activities:

Saturday, June 10th:

Sunday, June 11th:

Each one of these activities represents a wonderful opportunity for you and your family to meet people, have fun and learn more about YOUR ocean. Interested in knowing more? Check the Noyo Center website at www.noyocenter.org or stop in and chat with a docent at the Discovery Center or the Crow's Nest.

Peter O’Donohue is on the board of the Noyo Center.

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