<div>Tomorrow the SSV Robert C. Seamans will set sail from San Diego on SEA’s second research </div><div>expedition dedicated to the study of plastic marine debris, Plastics at SEA: North Pacific </div><div>Expedition 2012. The crew of the expedition includes 31 SEA alumni from classes W-10 to S-</div>
<div>233. The 2500-nautical mile voyage to Honolulu will sail west into the popularly dubbed, ‘Great </div><div>Pacific Garbage Patch’, an area of documented high concentrations of floating plastic where, </div><div>according to models and recent observations, debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami will also be </div>
<div>drifting. Scientific objectives include documenting plastic debris concentrations and investigating </div><div>the effects of plastic in the ocean ecosystem.</div><div><br></div><div>We invite you to follow the expedition on our website <a href="http://www.sea.edu/plastics/,">http://www.sea.edu/plastics/,</a> which will be </div>
<div>updated daily with multimedia content including posts from award-winning author and journalist </div><div>Jonathan Waterman. Jon will also be writing weekly posts for National Geographic that will </div><div>appear at <a href="http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/ ">http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/ </a>as part of the Society's "Ocean Views" news. </div>
<div>This year we have introduced a K-12 outreach page to our expedition website, where students in </div><div>ten partner schools from around the country will submit questions that the expedition team will </div><div>answer from sea. A major goal of this expedition is outreach and education to schoolchildren, </div>
<div>educators, and the public.</div><div> </div><div>We ask that you not only enjoy following the Plastics at SEA expedition online, but that you share </div><div>these links with everyone in your network. Post them on Facebook, share them with your coworkers, </div>
<div>your children, your friends, and your friends’ children. Tweet about exciting discoveries. </div><div>Please help us introduce as many people as we can to SEA and our incredible achievements on tall </div><div>sailing ships in the world’s oceans.</div>
<div><br></div>-- <br><div><font style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" color="#666666" face="verdana, sans-serif">Jill Tompkins</font></div><font style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" color="#666666" face="verdana, sans-serif">Development</font><div>
<font style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" color="#666666" face="verdana, sans-serif">Sea Education Association</font></div><div><font style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" color="#666666" face="verdana, sans-serif">PO Box 6</font></div>
<div><font style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" color="#666666" face="verdana, sans-serif">Woods Hole, MA 02543</font></div><div><font style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" face="verdana, sans-serif" color="#666666"><u>508-540-3954 x576</u></font></div>
<div><font color="#3333ff"><a href="http://sea.edu/" target="_blank">http://sea.edu/</a> </font></div><div><font color="#000099"><br></font><div><img src="cid:image001.jpg@01CD5E82.D8EC80F0" alt="Description: SEASignature">
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