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Quote of the Week
"The persistence of plastic waste in the world is an assault on wild
space and what lives there, and a theft from humanity of a basic right
to experience nature in the raw. "
--Marcus Eriksen, 5 Gyres
Conservation Calendar
Save the Date
May 21—May 24
Nature as Inspiration
an environmental film festival
This Memorial Day weekend, VCS and the MV Film Society bring French actor and filmmaker Jacques Perrin
to the Vineyard for a spectacular film festival, showcasing his films
and the natural beauty within. Films include five of his more recent
films, including the North American premiere of Night on Earth, as well as the Academy Award-winning classic Cinema Paradiso.
The festival will also feature an opening night gala on the 21st,
panel discussions with local environmentalists, live music and comedy,
and other special guests. For more information or tickets please see the
Film Society's website, or contact them at info@mvfilmsociety.com or (508) 696-9369.
Earth Day Gardening
Wednesday, April 22, Edgartown
Two opportunities to celebrate Earth Day with gardening! From noon to
3:00, you can help the Edgartown School's Farm and Garden program
prepare the school's garden for the coming season (see poster
for contacts). Or for some lighter duty, the Edg. Library will be
starting new plants at 2:00. Call the Library at (508) 627-9534 for more
info.
Short Films: Sustainable Vineyard
Wednesday, April 22, 7:30 to 9:30 pm, Vineyard Haven
The MV Film Center hosts a free showing of Sustainable Vineyard, and
episodic documentary series focusing on the people and projects that are
helping to make our island more sustainable. The screening includes
three films: The Secret Life of Conch, Goatscaping, and The Story of Seeds. The films are each 10-16 minutes long and will be followed by a Q&A with people featured in each episode. For film descriptions and to register for your free tickets, see website.
Arbor Day at the Arboretum
Friday, April 24, 1:00 to 3:30 pm, West Tisbury
Join the staff of the Polly Hill Arboretum for the annual celebration of
the role of trees in our lives. Tree planting demos, a special tour of
the current exhibit " Vanishing Acts: Trees Under Threat," and a tree give-away are all planned. More info at (508) 693-9426 or website.
Volunteer Day at Felix Neck
Saturday, April 25, 9:00 am to noon, Edgartown
Mass Audubon holds a statewide volunteer day this Saturday, with a variety of activities across their 16 properties. Check the website
or call (508) 627-4850 to learn more about the three projects at the
Felix Neck Sanctuary, register, and then help them tackle the spring
to-do list.
Horseshoe Crabs: A Story of Beach Trysts and Blue Bloods
Tues, April 28, 5:00 to 6:00 pm, West Tisbury Library; Thurs, April 30, 6:00 to 7:00 pm, Oak Bluffs Library
Join Susie Bowman and Fred Hotchkiss for a slideshow and discussion of
these fascinating animals who have found themselves threatened due to
their very popularity —
traditionally as bait fish, but now also as major resources in the
pharmaceutical and medical device industry. Susie and Fred will also
discuss ways to get involved in the Horseshoe Crab Citizen Science
Survey Project. (Image: embroidered mola from Panama, courtesy John Pearse)
Sustainable Book Club
Wednesday, April 29, 5:30 to 6:30 pm, Vineyard Haven
A reading group sponsored by Felix Neck and all six town libraries
dedicated to discussing the connections between people and nature. The
book for this meeting is American Catch by Paul Greenberg. Free, for more info call (508) 627-4850.
Guided Walk: Tiasquam Valley
Sunday, May 3, 1:00 to 3:00 pm, Chilmark
Join Lank Bank staff for a guided tour of their Tiasquam Valley Reservation on Middle Road. For more information call the Land Bank office at (508) 627-7141.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Local News
The Art of Conservation Returns!
Why does water matter to you?
The VCS environmental art contest — The Art of Conservation —
returns this spring. We encourage every high school student from MVRHS
and the Charter School to express their thoughts on this question
through their artwork: painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, and
other media. Prizes for winners will be awarded at our awards ceremony
May 24th at the MV Film Center, but for now, the most important fact is:
All completed artworks are due May 14
View (and share!) the poster here, and make sure to check out last year's art!
Winning works and artist's descriptions:
A lucky volunteer poses with Andrew Jackson on the beach. (Photo by John Best)
To the over 200 Islanders who helped make the 23rd annual
Earth Day Beach Clean-Up a great success, but unfortunately were not so
generously compensated, we instead offer a hearty "Thank You!"
There were a total of 212 bags of trash collected from 22 beaches, but
that doesn't even count the extra large items like fishing nets, rope,
big plastic barrels and bait buckets, microwaves, chunks of Styrofoam,
deer carcasses, and far too many dead birds. The five most common types
of trash were the usual suspects: bits of plastic & polystyrene,
balloons & strings, plastic bags, liquor nips, and cigarette butts.
It was a mild surprise that the historically strong contender "bottles
& cans" slipped out of the top 5, but we're sure they'll make a
comeback.
Perhaps the oddest of the common finds was dog poop . . . bagged in
plastic! It is hard to understand the motivation to go to the trouble of
bagging it up only to leave the whole thing on the beach. If you have a
guess, feel free to share — we can't form an advocacy message about bagged dog poop until we know what people are thinking!
For the 3rd consecutive year, the Harbor View Hotel
graciously hosted over 100 people for lunch, with extra food donated
from Sharky’s, Isola, and The Wharf. A good time was had by all,
especially the younger generation who left with the brand new "VCS Island Adventure" book, a questing adventure game designed to encourage kids to explore their natural surroundings.
Read more about the history of this annual event, what we find, and why we do it at the new Beach Clean-Up page.
Other News
Lost and Found: Ocean Science and Plastic
Beach clean-ups are not just about protecting the beaches themselves. This year (like every year since the annual event began in 1992)
a very large portion of the trash collected was some sort of plastic.
As a class, plastics are the most vexing of ocean pollutants, more
persistent than most garbage, and more universal than oil spills and
point-source chemical pollution.
Public awareness of the problem has grown in recent years, in large part
due to interest in (or revulsion by) the five “Great Garbage Patches”
of the world: huge collections of plastic circulating in a vortex (or
gyre) created by large-scale ocean currents. In recent years, various
ideas and technologies have been suggested to clean the garbage patches;
unfortunately though, none to date survive serious scrutiny, whether on economic or scientific grounds.
Beyond the impracticality of cleaning the garbage patches, more recent
research suggests that a focus on these awesome vortexes of plastic may
greatly underestimate the real problem. The total amount of plastic in
the ocean, while ultimately unknowable, is easily millions of tons
simply based on the amount input over the years. However, recent
expeditions attempting to measure the amount floating in the great gyres
have found much smaller numbers. One study published last June
estimated the total amount at a maximum of 40,000 tons, or less than 1% of all the plastic in the ocean. Another recent study came up with 250,000 tons, yet another very large number that nonetheless comes in well short of the total.
So where did the other 99% go? The best-case scenario, according to Kara
Law of the Woods Hole Sea Education Association, is that a large
portion is sinking, attached to organisms (or their feces) and being
buried on the ocean floor. Some of it is simply in transit to its next
trashy destination — garbage patches are constantly spitting things back out, some of which finds its way to another gyre, some to a distant beach.
But the newest explanation
for the missing plastic came from a completely unrelated study*.
Researchers found microplastics imbedded in the skin of their study fish
—
farmed salmon, but also wild haddock and carp. We’ve long known that
tiny microplastics are assimilated by microorganisms and work their way
up the food chain through the guts of larger animals. But if it can also
be incorporated into skin, there’s now no doubt the plastic has circled
back to our dinner plate — or at least the garbage can from which it began.
* but also a fascinating study,
finding the genetic equipment to produce chitin, the important building
block of fungi and insects’ exoskeletons, in fish and amphibians
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