Sea Education Association announces the Plastics at SEA: North Pacific Expedition 2012

Tomorrow, Wed. 3 October, the SSV *Robert C. Seamans* will set sail from
San Diego on Sea Education Association's (SEA) second research expedition
dedicated to the study of plastic marine debris, *Plastics at SEA: North
Pacific Expedition 2012*.  The crew of the expedition includes 31 SEA
alumni from classes W-10 to S-233.  The 2500-nautical mile voyage to
Honolulu will sail west into the popularly dubbed, ‘Great Pacific Garbage
Patch’, an area of documented high concentrations of floating plastic
where, according to models and recent observations, debris from the 2011
Japanese tsunami will also be drifting.  Scientific objectives include
documenting plastic debris concentrations and investigating the effects of
plastic in the ocean ecosystem.

We invite you to follow the expedition on our website
http://www.sea.edu/plastics/, which will be updated daily with multimedia
content including posts from award-winning author and journalist Jonathan
Waterman.  Jon will also be writing weekly posts for National Geographic
that will appear at http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/ as part of the
Society's "Ocean Views" news.

This year we have introduced a K-12 outreach page to our expedition
website, where students in ten partner schools from around the country will
submit questions that the expedition team will answer from sea.  A major
goal of this expedition is outreach and education to schoolchildren,
educators, and the public.

For more information, please see the press release below and at:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/sea-sea100212.php.

Sea Education Association announces the Plastics at SEA: North Pacific Expedition 2012