Orange Tide ride
By Dan RahnUniversity of GeorgiaThe Sea Monkeys could never have imagined how far those orangeswould take them.”I had no idea we would do more than just gather facts for localscientists,” said Nathan Potts, one of the Glynn County, Ga.,high school 4-H’ers who call themselves the Sea Monkeys. “Webecame the scientists.”At first, the group simply had been concerned about the waterwashing the St. Simons Island beaches. Health advisories hadwarned of enterococcal bacteria, and nobody knew where it wascoming from.So in December 2004, the 4-H’ers launched the first 280 orangesof their “Orange Tide Marshwater Tracking Study.” Working withlocal environmental scientists, they used the floating fruit totrack the flow of tidal streams.They trailed those oranges and later launches over the followingmonths. They combed beaches and searched from kayaks. They notedthe oranges’ exact locations with Global Positioning System gearsecured with a grant after the project began.Based on the group’s findings, environmental scientists focusedtheir searches and found enterococcal bacteria sources. The SeaMonkeys found an unexpected source, too: dog feces on thebeaches. They mounted an intensive public education campaign toturn that “brown tide” around.As the project progressed, awards started coming. Big awards.* In November 2005, the group won a trip for four to theEarthwatch Conference in Cambridge, Mass. There, they were nameda grand prize winner in the international Earthbound3 Challenge.The honor includes a $12,000 award that will send Potts, HarvestHale and Will Prince and their 4-H advisor, Robi Gray, on aresearch expedition in southern Spain. (Three students accepted$1,750 each in lieu of the trip.)The 4-H’ers will live aboard a refitted Norwegian fishing vesselfor two weeks in late June and early July. They’ll studydolphins, whales and sea turtles in the Alboran Sea during thedays and spend each night in a different port.* In April, the Sea Monkeys took top honors in the GeorgiaConservancy Youth Environmental Symposium. The award includes$2,000, a plaque and a number of T-shirts, guide books, waterbottles and other prizes.”YES is a wonderful venue for inspiring young Georgians to takeaction in their communities,” Gray said.* In October, four of the Sea Monkeys will go to SeaWorldAdventure Park in San Antonio, Tex. They’ll be honored there asone of eight national winners in the 2006 EnvironmentalExcellence Awards given by SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Fujifilm.The award includes, besides the SeaWorld trip, $10,000 to expandand enhance the project; a digital camera; trophies andcertificates for every student and group leader; T-shirts forschool and community partners; and an environmental partnershipwith the National Geographic Society.The biggest impact, though, may be where the Orange Tide projectis taking the Sea Monkeys next.Will Prince, for instance, had moved to Glynn County only a monthbefore the 4-H project began. “He had never thought of marinebiology,” Gray said. “But now he wants to be a marine biologist.”Before the project, Hale planned to become a music teacher.”After the study, I realized how much fun environmental sciencereally is,” she said. “I want to study marsh ecology.”Potts, too, intends to study an environmental science andengineering. “I’d like to work in an area,” he said, “where I canbridge science with other fields to solve problems.”The Sea Monkeys will go to the National 4-H Technology LeadershipConference in Lincoln, Neb., July 24-27. There, they’ll useexpertise they developed in the Orange Tide project to teachother 4-H’ers how to help develop community emergency evacuationmaps.”People from local and state organizations really like highschoolers getting involved and looking for solutions to communityproblems,” Potts said. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity tohelp my island be a better place.”(Dan Rahn is a news editor with the University of GeorgiaCollege of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)