By Mary O’KEEFE

June 8 was World Ocean Day. According to NOAA, more that 80% of our ocean is unmapped, unobserved and unexplored yet it covers about 70% of the Earth’s surface and plays an important role including driving weather, regulating temperature and supporting all living organisms. Throughout history, the ocean has been a vital source of sustenance, transport, commerce, growth and inspiration.

There are regions of the sea that are difficult to reach and there is a high cost to exploration using underwater vehicles. There have been great advances in sonar mapping and other technology that has helped but there is still so much ocean.

“Unlocking the mysteries of ocean ecosystems can reveal new sources for medical therapies and vaccines, food, energy and more as well as inspire inventions that mimic adaptations of deep-sea animals. Information from ocean exploration can help us understand how we are affecting and being affected by changes in Earth’s environment, including changes in weather and climate. Insights from ocean exploration can help us better understand and respond to earthquakes, tsunamis and other hazards,” according to NOAA.

When we think of exploration teams we often think of scientists and specialists – “Dr. Livingston, I presume”-type of people, but actually a lot of exploration has been done by citizen scientists, like in 1940 when four teenage boys discovered prehistoric cave paintings in Lascaux in Dordogne, France.

And now ocean explorers and conservationists are reaching out to citizen scientists to help explore the oceans. One non-profit that is empowering people to not only explore the oceans but also the coastlines is Bleu (Building a Life of Exploration Underwater) World.

“Our mission is to build a network of ocean change makers with a passion for conservation and exploration,” according to its website.

The organization provides educational opportunities through expeditions for people to become citizen scientists.

“Our citizen science projects are a different way of collecting data,” said Bleu World founder Kayla Feairheller. “Sometimes researchers will go out and do their data collection themselves but you can also crowd source data collection by using citizen scientists.”

By teaching people how to collect and share data researchers will be able to get more information than just depending on one specific expedition at a time.

“There will be more inherent bias and risk in that but the way you analyze the data will account for that,” she said. “It is just a different method of data collection.”

Recently Feairheller, along with board members Jessy Shelton (full disclosure – she’s my daughter) and Olivia Hughes, has created expeditions that allow citizen scientists to dive off the coast of Catalina Island.

The organization was launched in January 2021 but just recently it applied for its official non-profit status. Although young adults, all three Bleu World members have spent years in conservation. Feairheller has degrees in math and computer science and has worked as a software engineer building coral restoration technology, Hughes’ degree is in biology with a chemistry minor. She also has a certificate from UC Berkeley in data science and visualization. Shelton has a degree in environmental science and resource management with an emphasis in marine sciences and has a background in non-profit organizations. All are scuba divers and have seen changes in the ocean in a relatively short time – five to eight years – while diving.

“Specific to California of the big things we have been seeing, and what we hope to start looking at through our expeditions, is an increase in sargassum, which is an invasive algae that actually will overtake kelp forest systems,” Feairheller said.

You may have heard of this sargassum seaweed blob that has hit the coast of Florida. A Florida Atlantic University study found that the 5,000-mile wide debris-filled blob contains flesh eating bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus. Okay – no science fiction reference needed for that; bacteria-filled blobs have been a basis of a lot of sci-fi and now it not only is on the east coast but the west coast as well.

“It spreads really quickly,” Shelton said. “[For the west coast] it originated off the coast of Japan, then pieces broke off. We’re starting to find it all over California.”

In California it is refer to it as “devil weed.” Instead of the one big floating blob, it attaches itself to rocks and other surfaces.

Bleu World and its expedition of citizen scientists will not only learn how to gather data on “devil weed” but other invasive species in the sea, along with studying the kelp forests.

Next week I will look more into invasive species being energized by climate change and human behavior that will and has affected our oceans.

For those who would like to join future expeditions and learn how to be a citizen scientist, whether it as a diver or on land, contact Bleu World by going to bleuworld.org.