<div dir="ltr"><h4 style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:15.555556297302246px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0.46666666865348816px"><u>For Immediate Release:</u></span></font></h4>
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<h4 style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt;font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;padding:0in;border:1pt none windowtext">Date: Sunday, January 19, 2014</span></h4>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><h4 style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt;font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;padding:0in;border:1pt none windowtext">Time: 1-2 PM</span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.35pt;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;font-weight:normal"><u></u><u></u></span></h4>
</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><h4 style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt;font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;padding:0in;border:1pt none windowtext">Place: <a href="http://www.sea.edu/sea_news/fall_lecture_series" target="_blank">Sea Education Association</a></span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.35pt;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;font-weight:normal"><u></u><u></u></span></h4>
</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;padding:0in;border:1pt none windowtext"> James Madden Center Lecture Hall</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;padding:0in;border:1pt none windowtext"> 171 Woods Hole Road</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;padding:0in;border:1pt none windowtext"> Falmouth, MA</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><h4 style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt;font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;padding:0in;border:1pt none windowtext">Free and Open to the Public</span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.35pt;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;font-weight:normal"><u></u><u></u></span></h4>
</div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><h4 style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt;font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;padding:0in;border:1pt none windowtext">Presented by Dr. Kara Lavender Law, Research professor of Oceanography, Sea Education Association.</span></h4>
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<font size="4"><b>Title:</b> Plastics at SEA: The science of ocean "garbage patches"</font></div><div style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:normal"><br></div><div style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:normal">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Presentation Summary<u></u><u></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">Ocean pollution by plastic and other man-made debris is a pressing environmental problem that has captured the attention of marine conservationists, anti-plastic activists, the media and the general public. Although the problem was first described in the 1970s, scientific attention to the topic has increased only recently and misconceptions about the problem are common. At SEA, students and scientists began collecting data on floating plastic debris in the 1980s. Since then SEA has collected nearly 10,000 measurements of plastic debris in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and research efforts have expanded to include dedicated research expeditions to the North Atlantic and North Pacific "garbage patches", as well as federally-funded research programs to study the behavior of plastic in the marine environment and its ecological impacts. Dr. Lavender Law will discuss the state of scientific research on marine debris in the world's oceans, with an in-depth look at the research carried out for more than 25 years by undergraduate students and faculty scientists on sailing oceanographic research vessels at SEA.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Biosketch<u></u><u></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">Dr. Kara Lavender Law is a research professor at Sea Education Association with a PhD in physical oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and a BS in mathematics from Duke University. With more than 12 months of sea time on oceanographic and sailing research vessels, Dr. Law’s research interests include large-scale and mesoscale ocean circulation, intermediate and deep water formation in the North Atlantic and its role in the meridional overturning circulation, and more recently the distribution and behavior of plastic marine debris.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Formerly on the teaching faculty at SEA, Dr. Law has taught oceanography to more than 200 students in 10 SEA Semester classes onshore in Woods Hole, MA and at sea in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Caribbean Sea. For the past several years Dr. Law has been researching plastic marine debris using SEA's 25-year data set consisting of plastic counts from nearly 10,000 plankton net tows that were carried out by more than 7000 SEA students and scientists. Her interests include understanding how ocean physics determines the distribution of plastic and other marine debris, and the degradation and ultimate fate of different plastic materials in the marine environment.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>About Sea Education Association<u></u><u></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">
<b><u></u> <u></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">For more than 40 years, Sea Education Association has offered undergraduate students a hands-on, field-based education about the world’s oceans. Offering fully accredited SEA Semester<sup>®</sup> study abroad programs at sea, SEA has sailed more than one million nautical miles since 1971. They currently own and operate two brigantine sailing research vessels in the Pacific and Atlantic, the SSV <i>Robert C. Seamans</i> and the SSV <i>Corwith Cramer</i>. SEA offers more than $1 million dollars annually in need-based financial aid and scholarships for SEA Semester students, and is located in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.sea.edu/" target="_blank">www.sea.edu</a>.</p>
</div></span></div></div><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div><font style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" color="#666666" face="verdana, sans-serif">Jill Tompkins, CFRE</font></div><div><font style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" color="#666666" face="verdana, sans-serif">Grants & Contracts Coordinator</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>
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