After two long days of diving, day six started off a little slower. We started day with a service project, a beach cleanup. Plastics and other marine debris can be extremely harmful to aquatic plants. Plastics take much longer to break down than most other materials. Often when a plastics are thrown away, they end up in the ocean some how. Once in the ocean, the plastic breakers down into nurdles, small tiny pieces of plastics, which eventually ends up in the stomach of smaller creatures. This travels up the food chain and in the end, all creatures have these plastics inside their system. The larger the animal, the higher amounts of plastic exist in that animal. Humans can impact the amounts of plastic going into the ocean. If we can reduce the amount of plastic even if it is something small, it will eventually add up. For example, choosing paper over plastic at a grocery store will help cut back. Another thing I noticed during the beach cleanup was the high level of trash left on the shoreline by humans. Humans can have a big impact on conserving our ocean and aquatic life. After the beach cleanup, we headed back to get ready for the Mount Kea excursion. Mount Kea is the largest mountain in the world if you measure it from the true base, 18,000 feet into the bottom of the ocean. Because of the geology of Hawaii and the hotspot, the mountain continues under sea level. Mount Kea is still an active volcano with an eruption schedule of around 4500 years. The last time the volcano erupted was 2460 BC meaning it is close to another eruption. Mount Kea played a major role in the history of Hawaiian traditions. At the summit, an alter is made for the Hawaiian culture and is only allowed to be visited by those practicing that religion. Surrounding the top 1,000 feet, many observatories are used for scientific research. The sky above about 8,000 feet is usually free from clouds due to the trade winds. This makes this one of the most popular place to build observatories. Almost all major nations are represented in the 13 observatories on the mountain. After the late drive back, I look forward to the last full day on the island.
