Plastics Pollution in our oceans...

[svjobeth]

My wife Lisa is at sea aboard the tall ship SSV CORWITH CRAMER, as part of an expedition crew doing research on plastics pollution in the western Atlantic Ocean, in a region commonly known as The Sargasso Sea. The ship set sail from Bermuda on June 11th and will return to Bermuda on July 14th. You can follow the ship's progress and read the crew blogs at:

Plastics at SEA | North Atlantic Expedition | Sea Education Association (SEA)

[ulferlingsson]

Funny thing, I gave a class in oceanography in a Miami university, to non-scientist adults, and nobody had heard of the Sargasso Sea although it is straight out from here. In Sweden every kid learns in school about the Sargasso Sea. The text book talked about the ocean gyre and its center, which is the Sargasso Sea, but I have a feeling that name is not used as much in America as in Europe. It is important for sailors. Are sailors here more aware of its existence?

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by ulferlingsson

Funny thing, I gave a class in oceanography in a Miami university, to non-scientist adults, and nobody had heard of the Sargasso Sea although it is straight out from here. In Sweden every kid learns in school about the Sargasso Sea. The text book talked about the ocean gyre and its center, which is the Sargasso Sea, but I have a feeling that name is not used as much in America as in Europe. It is important for sailors. Are sailors here more aware of its existence?

Yes. But not just sailors. We learned about it's existence in geography classes as kids, as did our children in their schooling. But, it is probably fair to say that we did not delve deeply into its characteristics. Although, we certainly learned that it gets is name from the sargassum seaweed that grows in the gyre, and that it is an important nursery for many sea creatures.

[Kiltmadoc]

"the wide sargasso sea" one of the top 100 novels of western literature. Doesn't anyone read anymore?!?! Is geography no longer taught in schools??! I knew about the sargasso sea when i was in elementary school; and I grew up in California.

[wind_magic]

Originally Posted by Kiltmadoc

"the wide sargasso sea" one of the top 100 novels of western literature. Doesn't anyone read anymore?!?! Is geography no longer taught in schools??! I knew about the sargasso sea when i was in elementary school; and I grew up in California.

Are you kidding ? Where have you been.

29% of Americans aged 18 to 24 years old don't know where the Pacific ocean is.

11% of them couldn't find the United States on a map.

One third think the United States has more than a billion people in it.

And you want them to know where the Sargasso sea is ???

Source: National Geographic Survey

[sailor50]

And as adults we go on or watch educational shows like "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" for our continuing education. Yikes!!

[kd3pc]

Wind and the group....

really sad is that this group of less than stellar 5th graders, often want to argue/convince you that THEY are correct....

[ulferlingsson]

There is a saying that nobody is more convinced that he is right than a middle grade teacher. That may have a simple explanation. I took a PhD in Geography, so I have taught geography teachers. We didn't teach them the caveats; they are so short of time to learn what they are going to teach, so we just stuffed them full with information as if that was perfectly solid research result. Only those who were to take a BSc in Geography got to learn the limitations, too, of that knowledge. So, blame the universities for turning out know-it-all teachers... who don't really know much at all.