Does the funding go directly to you or to an agency? What is the accountability chain that the funding goes where you claim it will go? Just wondering as the last dive focused on collection was two months ago according to this blog and no future dives are slated.
Answer:
Good questions George.
The Cox Conserves award goes directly to Sustainable West Seattle, I have zero control over those funds.
With regards to dives posted here, that is partially just me getting busy and not blogging as much, sorry if i left you looking for things to do/read about.
I have spent the past couple months diving with Pacific Marine Research’s Marine Science Afloat program and mentoring some newer divers. Usually I encourage volunteer divers to come out when I am doing this but we were testing a new communication and semi-wireless video system so the dives were not always as straightforward as one would hope, and adding another person to the mix that is not familiar with what is going on was more of a potential safety issue, so i had to weight the risk/benefit ratio.
The Spring plankton bloom and sunnier days have brought summer underwater. With that comes a heavy ‘ground cover’ of Brown Algae such as ribbon kelp and LOTS of Ulva (Sea Lettuce) this covering makes it very hard to find batteries and trash. Instead we’ve been looking at beach clean ups and community outreach including both children and elderly.
There is one battery that I know of left to ‘clean up’ at the old seacrest marina site, and I have an idea of where it is but each time i’ve gone looking for it, it has eluded me due to the ground cover (or someone else has cleaned it and if that is the case, AWESOME!)
Some pictures and stories I have not been able to share because of the Cox nomination, such as bringing the tide pools to the elderly folks because the reporters were there and asked not to share pictures until the announcement was made.
We’ve been focusing on documenting storm drains this spring and then seasonal changes over the summer months, along with bringing the “visibility project” on line.
Thank you for your interest, I hope I was able to answer your questions… We are still out diving, documenting and sharing… Please feel free to email me with any more questions.
Some of my other randomness can be found here: http://diverlaura.wordpress.com/ stuff that is a bit more personal and maybe or maybe not related to diving, and more about my personal fun dives as opposed to cleanup and the likes. (but most likely about diving)