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Messages In The Bottles: Ocean Current Experiments With EcoVentures
Ocean water moves, and the currents rule the world. From climate and characteristics of your local ecosystem, to the temperature at the beach and seafood you eat, the direction and power of the world's oceanic currents is nothing short of amazing. That's why the ocean adventurers here at EcoVentures are running experiments to follow these currents as thy travel the world, hoping that our homemade drifters, or "Messages in the Bottles," are found one and reported back on one day so we can collect the data.
Have you ever tried to walk straight across the flood on a spinning merry-go-round? It's hard, right? That's because the rotation of the ride deflects your movement from a straight line and makes you want to veer to the side. This is something known as the Coriolis Effect, and our ocean currents follow the same pattern. Winds, which generate much of our ocean's currents, will experience this same Coriolis Effect and veer off to the side, moving the surface waters with it. This creates our currents. The phenomenon causes ocean currents in the Northern Hemisphere to veer to the right and in the Southern Hemisphere to the left.
| What does all this mean? It means that we can use this data to predict where currents should take our messages based on where we drop, or deploy or bottles. Most of of the bottles sent out by the kids at EcoVentures are deployed between Virginia and Massachussetts on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. With the help of some of our at-sea scientists, we're able to deploy our messages at an average distance of 50 miles from shore, away from the nearshore currents, surface anomalies and tidal influences. By getting past these local influences, our goal is to place our drifters close to the powerful currents of the North Atlantic Gyre, powered predominantly by the Gulf Stream, a current that moves more water than the Amazon River each day. This current flows along the east coast towards Newfoundland, then crosses the Atlantic Ocean where it splits in two directions: the northern part (North Atlantic Drift) heads towards Europe and the southern split (Canary Current) heads south towards Africa. |
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Did you find one of our bottles with a message from our young oceanographers?
Call EcoVentures today at +1 (609) 742-5656, or email us at info@EcoVenturesUS.com.
Please include:
Group ID and name of student who made the message (will be on message)
Where you found the bottle (City, State, Country)
What were you doing when you found the bottle
Any pictures or videos of you with the bottle would be VERY cool!
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Here's Our Bottles Currently Out To Sea:
2018 Spring Camp Session I
Group ID: Ospreys
Date Bottles Were Packed: March 28th 2018
Date Of Deployment: May 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 9
Location Of Deployment: 50 miles E of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Brady Lybarger, F/V Alaska
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2018 Spring Camp Session II
Group ID: Sharks
Date Bottles Were Packed: April 4th 2018
Date Of Deployment: May 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 12
Location Of Deployment: 50 miles E of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Brady Lybarger, F/V Alaska
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BOTTLES RECOVERED:
(1) In Corolla, North Carolina on June 13th, 2018
(1) In Outer Banks, North Carolina on June 14th, 2018
(1) In Rottingdean, Sussex, United Kingdom on August 21st, 2019
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BOTTLES RECOVERED:
(1) In Corolla, North Carolina on June 12th, 2018
(1) In Outer Banks, North Carolina on June 14th, 2018 |
2018 Summer Camp - Week 1
Group ID: Week1, Team Bonecrusher
Date Bottles Were Packed: June 21st 2018
Date Of Deployment: August 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 2
Location Of Deployment: 65 miles E of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Brady Lybarger, F/V Alaska
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2018 Summer Camp - Week 2
Group ID: Week 2, Team Ocean Explorers
Date Bottles Were Packed: June 28th 2018
Date Of Deployment: August 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 4
Location Of Deployment: 65 miles E of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Brady Lybarger, F/V Alaska
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BOTTLES RECOVERED:
(1) Offshore of McClellanville, South Carolina on May 21st, 20222 |
2018 Summer Camp - Week 3
Group ID: Week 3, Hurricane Hide-Yer-House
Date Bottles Were Packed: July 5th 2018
Date Of Deployment: August 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 6
Location Of Deployment: 50 miles E of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Brady Lybarger, F/V Alaska
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2018 Summer Camp - Week 4
Group ID: Week 4, Hurricane Hide-Yer-House
Date Bottles Were Packed: July 12th 2018
Date Of Deployment: August 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 6
Location Of Deployment: 50 miles E of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Brady Lybarger, F/V Alaska
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2018 Summer Camp - Week 5
Group ID: Week 5, Team Booooooorneooooo
Date Bottles Were Packed: July 19th 2018
Date Of Deployment: August 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 9
Location Of Deployment: 70 miles E of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Brady Lybarger, F/V Alaska
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2018 Summer Camp - Week 6
Group ID: Week 6, Team Dolphins
Date Bottles Were Packed: July 26th 2018
Date Of Deployment: October 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 5
Location Of Deployment: 300 miles NE of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Shawn Laughlin, F/V Nancy Elizabeth
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2018 Summer Camp - Week 7
Group ID: Week 7, Team Dolphins
Date Bottles Were Packed: August 2nd 2018
Date Of Deployment: October 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 3
Location Of Deployment: 300 miles NE of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Shawn Laughlin, F/V Nancy Elizabeth
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2018 Summer Camp - Week 8
Group ID: Week 8, Team Dolphins
Date Bottles Were Packed: August 9th 2018
Date Of Deployment: October 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 3
Location Of Deployment: 300 miles NE of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Shawn Laughlin, F/V Nancy Elizabeth
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BOTTLES RECOVERED:
(1) In Bailey's Bay, Bermuda on December 22nd, 2018
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2018 Summer Camp - Week 9
Group ID: Week 9, Team Basking Sharks
Date Bottles Were Packed: August 16th 2018
Date Of Deployment: October 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 3
Location Of Deployment: 185 miles NE of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Shawn Laughlin, F/V Nancy Elizabeth
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2018 Summer Camp - Week 10
Group ID: Week 10, Team Southend Slammers
Date Bottles Were Packed: August 23rd 2018
Date Of Deployment: October 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 2
Location Of Deployment: 225 miles NE of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Shawn Laughlin, F/V Nancy Elizabeth
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2018 Summer Camp - Week 11
Group ID: Week 11, Team Basking Sharks
Date Bottles Were Packed: August 30th 2018
Date Of Deployment: October 2018
Number of Drifters Deployed: 6
Location Of Deployment: 185 miles NE of Cape May, NJ
Deployed By: Capt. Shawn Laughlin, F/V Nancy Elizabeth
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