MASIS Recycling Program Begins

This past Saturday, January 28th, 2012, around 45 students, teachers, parents, and community volunteers joined the SF Rincon chapter to commence their school-wide recycling program by painting 16 (14-gallon) blue recycling bins, 7 (95-gallon) recycling bins, 4 (30 gallon) recycling bins, and a wooden corral.  These bins were purchased by the chapter from AMEC PR with funding from a grant provided by NOAA.  The municipality of Añasco is cooperating with the chapter and the school to service the bins weekly and the chapter will be charting how much plastic and aluminum the school is recycling throughout the semester.  Surf industry companies such as Roxy, FCS, Gorilla, Creatures of Leisure, Nixon, and Rip Curl have donated products to the program to provide to students throughout the semester.  In fact, students will be competing against homerooms to see how much each class can recycle throughout the semester and the winning class will receive cool prizes from those aforementioned companies and a pizza party provided by the chapter.  This is all great fun for an amazing cause. 

Jorge Seda Crespo was the other school selected in the area to participate in this program and this Saturday, February 4th, 2012, we will be holding their opening event at their school.  In the future, the chapter hopes to work with more schools along the west coast from Isabela to Parguera to strengthen the recycling efforts on the west coast.  If anyone is interested in volunteering for Saturday's event please email Wess at wessley.merten@upr.edu. 

Contact Wessley Merten at 787-436-8300 or wessley.merten@upr.edu for more information on helping out in this coral reef restoration and marine debris removal and prevention effort.

Day 3: Surveying and Removing Debris in RMTP

Last Wednesday, January 25th, 2012, Captain Pauco Font and I took some more volunteers out on his vessel, "Mi Familia," to survey and remove tires from reef habitat in Rincon. In the morning we had 4 volunteers and in the afternoon we had 2. The morning crew was James Sethward, Ky Plamondon, Brian Hawes, and Ariana Piñero; the afternoon crew consisted of Rina Hauptfeld and Terry Norman. We removed a total of 10 tires, a metal rod, plastic, and clothing off of the reef.

The figure above depicts all the debris that was discovered on Wednesday's outing.  We only removed 10 tires of the 25 we found.  We also found some fiberglass boat debris, an old anchor, cable, and chain.  This will all be removed in future outings.

The figure above represents our boat survey tracks this past Wednesday (1.25.12). 

Contact Wessley Merten at 787-436-8300 or wessley.merten@upr.edu for more information on helping out in this coral reef restoration and marine debris removal effort.

Day 2 Rincon; Surveying and Removing Debris in the RMTP

January 11th 2012 - Marine Debris Removal Resumes in RMTP

        The morning crew.  Pictured L to R (James Sethward (PR), Adrian Massie (RI), Brendan Crawford (RI), Ky Plamondon (RI)).  This crew helped locate and remove 4 tires, a car battery, some cable and plastic debris.  Thanks fellas!

The afternoon crew.  Pictured L to R (Adam Steinman (ME), Theo Steinman (ME), and Jessa Steinman (ME)).  This crew helped us remove 4 tires previously located by the am crew.  Adam and I also scuba dove along a reef break and collected copious amounts of plastic debris.  Thanks for the hard work crew!

The diagram above depicts the location and type of debris the volunteers found and removed on 1.11.12.  The size of the symbols is not to scale.

The white dots in the diagram above depict the boat survey track that volunteers took aboard Captain Pauco Font's vessel while tow-boarding to locate the debris. 

Adrian Massie points out a tire debris field as he tow-boards in Reserva Marina Tres Palmas on 1.11.12

Adam Steinman, pictured here, places another piece of plastic debris in his bag as we dove along the reef in RMTP on 1.11.12

Outing Summary

Today was a great day on the water in the Tres Palmas Marine Reserve.  We had a total of 8 volunteers participate in the day's activities.  The morning crew was Adrian Massie, Brendan Crawford, Ky Plamondon, and James Sethward, with the pm crew being Adam Steinman, Theo Steinman, Jessa Steinman, and Terry Norman.  Between both crews, we managed to remove 8 tires, a car battery, clothing, a bag full of plastic debris, and mark more debris to be removed in our next outing.  The weather conditions were pleasant making for an enjoyable day on the water.  The near-shore visibility was good (~50') and made tow-boarding a lot of fun and effective in locating debris.   

Contact Wessley Merten at 787-436-8300 or wessley.merten@upr.edu for more information on helping out in this coral reef restoration and marine debris removal effort.

Coral Reef Seminars Continue at Jorge Seda Crespo

The students in the photos above are cheering because their school was chosen to participate in this year's school-wide recycling program challenge as part of the SF Rincon's reef restoration project.  The chapter purchased containers from a project partner, AMEC, who manufactures waste and recycling equipment, of which are being donated to the participating schools so the students can compete against homerooms to see how much plastic and aluminum material they can recycle in one semester.  Cool prizes will be given out to the students who excel in this program and the winning homeroom team will get a pizza party.  The two schools participating in the region with the chapter and their respective municipalities are Jorge Seda Crespo in Rincon and MASIS in Anasco.  


Contact Wessley Merten at 787-436-8300 or wessley.merten@upr.edu for more information on helping out in this coral reef restoration and marine debris removal and prevention effort.

Coral Reef Seminars Begin at West Coast Schools

Last Wednesday, the outreach and education component of the Surfrider Foundation Rincon's coral reef restoration project began at MASIS in Anasco, PR.  The morning included (4) 50 minute seminars which were given to 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 11th graders; in the coming weeks the rest of the grades will get to participate, too.  The students learned about the status of coral reefs around the world, coral biology, current and past restoration projects, and what they can do to help.  A performance goal for this portion of the project is to present this material to 500 students on the west coast and include them in new and/or enhanced recycling programs at their respective schools.  Besides, MASIS, other participating schools are Jorge Seda Crespo (Rincon's Middle School), Rincon's High School, and San Sebastian's Maximino A. Salas Middle School. 

A special thanks goes out to SF Rincon's chapter chair, Jim Crotty, for helping during the presentations! 


Contact Wessley Merten at 787-436-8300 or wessley.merten@upr.edu for more information on helping out in this coral reef restoration and marine debris removal effort.

Day 1 Rincon; Reef Restoration Program Recommences in Rincon for the 2011/12 Season

When you see this container be sure to use it to recycle!

This past Saturday more than 60 people participated in the chapter's first reef restoration event of the 2011/12 season in Rincon.  The activities included cleaning the beach from the Balneario to Steps, a nearshore survey of the Elkhorn coral colonies in the southern portion of the reserve, and spray painting recycling containers that are being donated to area schools and businesses to help increase municipal recycling and to prevent more debris from entering our oceans.  This is a pilot project that we are starting in conjunction with this year's reef restoration program in Rincon.  With project funds, the chapter is purchasing recycling bins, painting them, and donating them to whomever is interested in boosting their recycling efforts.  All Metal Container Equipment (AMEC) of Arecibo and the Municipality of Rincon is collaborating with us on this project.  If you own a business in the area, or are interested in helping to enhance recycling in our local schools, please contact us about getting some more containers. 

A special thanks goes out to All Metal Equipment Containers (AMEC) of Arecibo for providing us the containers, the municipality of Rincon for their collaboration in this project, Pratt Institute of New York, MAS Integrated School of Anasco, and Club 4H Urayo of Anasco, for all of your help this past Saturday.  You guys rock!

Saturday's stats:
60 participants
Collected 200 pounds of debris along the shoreline
Surveyed 1 km of nearshore coastline
Painted (1) 2 yard container and 5 95 gallon containers
Donated our first 95 gallon container to Club Nautico de Rincon

This is a photo of our beautiful freshly painted marine debris container.  The animals serve as a reminder to us as to why we are working to remove and prevent marine debris from entering our oceans.  

Students from MASIS

This is a picture of the group of architectural graduate students from Pratt enjoying their masterpieces.  The students graciously created all the stencils that were used on Saturday to paint the containers.  These same stencils will be used to paint more containers in the future.  

 

Having fun with stencils and spray paint all in the name of recycling

Club 4H Urayo of Anasco

Stoked to participate and protect Puerto Rico's resources for the future

This is a diagram of the survey a group of 15 snorkelers did this past Saturday.  I'm happy to report that all of the large Elkhorn colonies that I am familiar with in this portion of the reserve were debris free.  The only items we found were a block and a bunch of fishing line smothering a soft coral.  The fishing line was removed, but the block will have to be with the boat.   

Contact Wessley Merten at 787-436-8300 or wessley.merten@upr.edu for more information on helping out in this coral reef restoration and marine debris prevention and removal effort.

Day 4; Underwater Demolition at Cayo Ron

The tired but stoked demolition crew

 Last Thursday, a stacked  crew joined myself, Paco and Carlos of Monaquatics, and Captain Edwin "Pauco" Font to participate in the chapters' coral reef restoration project titled "Coral Reef Protection through Marine Debris Removal in two Marine Protected Areas (MPAs); Arrecifes de Tourmaline and Reserva Marina Tres Palmas.  The goal of Thursday's adventure was to demolish the boat hull by cutting it with a 36" underwater chainsaw and transplant additional corals from the rudder.  After an extremely long and arduous effort we were successful.  The chapter would like to thank Taino Divers for providing 9 tanks of air, Paco and Carlos from Monaquatics for providing 6 tanks of air, Surf 787 for providing a soft-top surfboard, Hector Ruiz from Reefscaping for his contribution of pre-mixed cement and other supplies to properly transplant the corals, Sean Griffin NOAAs' Puerto Rico reef restoration field coordinator for field oversight,  Shayne McIntyre from OnSafari as well as Omar Ortiz from Seagrant for documenting, DRNA and Idelfonso Ruiz for debris pickup, and lastly but certainly not least the Atlantis Diving Contractors crew of 4 Miquel Molina, David Jesus, Luis Colon and Juan Colon for the underwater demolition services they provided.  Thanks!!  Below are photos from the Thursday's activities.

Luis Colon of Atlantis Diving Contractors cuts a portion of the large boat hull.  The insets are different angles taken during his cut.  The lower image shows the boat hull in pieces at our drop spot in a wide open sediment area.  These pieces were subsequently lift bagged and brought onto the boat; it is not as easy as it sounds because some of them weighed 400-500 lbs! (photo: S.McIntyre)

Here I am swimming subsurface with a portion of the bow guiding it to our designated drop spot.  This was a bit more of a tame piece to move that only required the use of 2 50 lb lift bags, but you can clearly see it is much larger than me. (Photo S.McIntyre) 

  

The diagram above is a 3-Dimensional perspective of the debris field at Cayo Ron. The approximate size of the debris field is 3.2 acres and has been the focus of our efforts. The upper image depicts an aerial image of a portion of the western insular platform with the northwestern region of Cayo Ron displaying a bathymetry layer. The middle inset corresponds a different view of the bathymetry layer of Cayo Ron with the lower view representing the 3D line of sight at water level. This gives the viewer a unique perspective as to how the debris is depicted spatially in the backreef at Cayo Ron. Note: The objects are accurate in space but not in size. Waypoints depicted their whereabouts and their size was scaled relative to the recorded size of each piece/object and scaled using symbology in ArcGIS. The least accurate attribute of this image is the amount of surface the pieces are actually covering at Cayo Ron in the image. Future depictions will correct for this.

We have one more field day left for our work at Cayo Ron then we will be shifting our efforts towards Rincon.  If you would like to join us for our last field day at Cayo Ron to be held sometime during the week of 9/26 please contact me by email.  Thanks! 


Contact Wessley Merten at 787-436-8300 or wessley.merten@upr.edu for more information on helping out in this coral reef restoration and marine debris removal effort.