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Site
Events - Gulf of the Farallones
Marine
Sanctuaries Fair
Teacher
at Sea
Marine Sanctuaries Fair
Celebrating the Bay Area's Connection to the Marine
Environment
Location: Pier Three, Fort
Mason, San Francisco
Date: Saturday, May 8, 1999
Time: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
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People of
all ages came on board the ship McArthur
so they could learn more about the
National Marine Sanctuary Program and the
Sustainable Seas Expeditions.
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The Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association
sponsored a marine sanctuaries fair and McArthur
open house. Marine organizations from throughout
the San Francisco Bay Area involved the public in
hands-on, interactive activities focused on the
marine environment. The goal of the fair was to
educate San Francisco Bay Area residents about the
National Marine Sanctuary Program and in particular
the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine
Sanctuary, Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary,
and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. We want
to involve the public in learning how they can
become stewards of our oceans and sanctuaries.
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Dressing
up in costumes to look like marine
"critters" was a popular activity at the
fair.
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The activities sponsored by the
National Marine Sanctuary Program include:
- •a tour of the NOAA
vessel McArthur
•photo opportunities with the "DeepWorker
2000" submarine
•interviews with "DeepWorker"
Aquanauts
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(top)
Teacher
at Sea
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Kathy
Soave, teacher-at-sea, shares a smile with
Ed Ueber, sanctuary manager, on board the
ship McArthur.
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A high school teacher from the San Francisco Bay
Area was selected to participate on the NOAA
research vessel McArthur during "Deepworker 2000"
dives at the Farallon Islands and Cordell Bank.
Kathy Soave, a science teacher at The Branson
School, was chosen for this position after a
competitive application process. Kathy observed the
dive operations, participated in sanctuary
research, and interacted with the scientists and
educators onboard the McArthur.
The goal of the project is to
promote oceans as a focus for public education,
build the basis for a learning community that uses
an interdisciplinary approach to explore ocean
issues, and to develop the skills and knowledge to
encourage active public participation in
monitoring, conserving, and sustaining ocean
resources.
Post-Mission Interview
with Kathy Soave
What are some of your
initial thoughts on your experience?
Teacher-at-Sea was an amazing
experience. I got to be a part of a lot of
interesting scientific research, got to see what
goes on with research, and see and be involved in
the deployment of submersible.
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The crew
works together to prepare Sylvia Earle for
her dive.
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I think one of the most
important things that I took away from this
experience is seeing what a great cooperative
spirit the Sustainable Seas Expeditions has
garnered with all the people involved. It was
pretty amazing seeing everyone who has different
goals and different views coming together and
bringing their expertise to some of the issues at
hand. It is exciting to see all of that energy
going into investigating the oceans and to be able
to involve myself on the ship and involve my
students on land in a student summit. At the
summit, the students were able to hear more about
the large scale of this expedition and, hopefully,
where it is going to take us.
Tell us about how you plan
to use the information that you gathered from the
Sustainable Seas Expeditions.
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Kathy
Soave on the deck of the McArthur at the
Gulf of the Farallones National Marine
Sanctuary.
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I have two major ways that I
hope to use the information that I gathered from
the expeditions. I am working on developing a
student monitoring program where a group of
students would be trained to carry on research and
monitoring of the intertidal zone in the Gulf of
the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. The
students could do this on foot, or some of the
students could do this in kayaks in the sloughs.
The data collection would happen on an ongoing
basis, probably four times a year. I'm going to
work with the people up in the Olympic Coast
National Marine Sanctuary so that we can develop
protocols for students to collect data in the same
way so it can be shared. We hope to have internet
access, sharing information back and forth between
that site and, hopefully, other national marine
sanctuaries. We have students interested in that
project already. It will be great to have baseline
data that we can build on and use to monitor the
health of the estuary.
In addition to that, I teach
marine biology at the Branson School, and I plan on
developing classroom activities that come from the
Sustainable Seas exploits. Some activities would
involve using a sub to do research, and others will
involve scientific research in general. I hope to
share this with teachers everywhere, for them to
include in their curriculum so that they help teach
science and make it exciting to students. I also
hope to bring to the foreground some information on
what is being done with ocean exploration, what can
be done, and convey that there is a lot out there
that still to be learned. It is pretty fascinating
and interesting, and I hope students get involved
in that.
What would you like to see
happen next year and following four years of
program?
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Kathy
would like to become a pilot of the
DeepWorker submersible in future
years.
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Definitely I am looking forward
to going out once a year for four years as the
Teacher-at-Sea with the Sustainable Seas
Expeditions to get extra parts of research and be
part of the play, hopefully as a pilot. And I hope
we can develop a program to bring a student out to
the ship to have a similar experience so we can
have a Student-at-Sea. I am working with Maria
Brown (from the Farallones Marine Sanctuary
Association) on that idea for next year. I would
like students to see what kind of research is being
done. We hear a lot about the negative impacts we
are having on the ocean and it is really hard to
find out what we are doing in a positive way. This
is one good way to say that this is just the tip of
the ice burg that needs to be done. This is basic
research, basic information that needs to be gained
before we can understand how the ecosystems work.
So my goals are to keep going out with them, learn
more, and bring it back to the public. I also plan
on giving some seminars at my school, not just for
students but for parents, and the Branson community
as well. I'm pretty excited about doing all of this
- involving students in a larger way.
(top)
For more information on
the education events at the Gulf of the Farallones
National Marine Sanctuary, please
contact:
Maria Brown, Executive
Director
Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association
The Presidio
P.O. Box 29386
San Francisco, CA 94129
(415) 561-6625
mcbfmsa@jps.net
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