[S-C] SF Department of the Environment Brown Bag Lunch 02.19.03

[Emily Rogers]

Below you will find a notice for an upcoming Brown Bag at the Department of
the Environment.  For questions, concerns or suggestions for future Brown
Bag topics, kindly contact Nelly Sun (nelly.sun@sfgov.org) or call at
415-355-3703.


               DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT BROWN BAG LUNCH
                       Department of the Environment
                     11 Grove Street, EcoCenter Office


SAVE THE DATE:  FEBRUARY 19, 2003
12:00 pm, Departmentment EcoCenter Office

Captain Charles Moore, Algalita Marine Research Foundation:  "Move Over
Plankton, Here Comes Plastic"

Charles Moore, Captain of the oceanographic research vessel Algita, shocked
the scientific world in 1999-2002 with studies of Southern California
coastal waters showing small particles of photo-degraded plastic products
which outweigh plankton by a factor of 2.5 and that in the central Pacific
ocean, plastic is 6 times more abundant than plankton on the ocean's
surface. He will present film footage of his research voyages showing how
land-based post-consumer plastics and other sources of plastic debris in
the ocean have turned the Pacific ocean into what oceanographers now call
"the garbage patch."  His work, along with others that study the world's
oceans, show that plastic doesn't all end up in landfills or get recycled,
but it degrades in the ocean where it is becoming a major element in the
human food chain.

Captain Charles Moore founded the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in
1994 and organized the Australian government's first "Coastcare" research
voyage to document anthropogenic contamination. He was a coordinator of the
State Water Resources Control Board Volunteer Water Monitoring Steering
Committee, developed chemical and bacterial monitoring methods for the Blue
Water Task Force of the Surfrider Foundation, and helped developed
protocols for monitoring marine and beach micro-plastics with the Southern
California Coastal Water Research Project.  His latest 7,500 mile voyage
was featured in the U.S. News and World Report.

...................................................................
Nelly Sun
Department of the Environment
City and County of San Francisco
11 Grove Street, San Francisco,  CA  94102
w: 415.355.3703/f: 415.554.6393
Nelly.Sun@sfgov.org