By Sydne Moody
and Dan Rahn
University
of Georgia
One of the perks of living on an island is easy access to the
beach. Naturally, people at St. Simons Island, Ga., weren’t happy
when health officials posted beach advisories banning swimming.
Then 15 high school 4-H members decided to do something about it.
And their efforts are not only helping officials understand the
problem but are attracting international attention.
The problem started when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
changed the bacterial indicator for marine waters, said Elizabeth
Cheney, beach water quality manager for the Coastal Resources
Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
New test
Cheney said the EPA began requiring tests for enterococcal
bacteria instead of coliform bacteria. When the CRD changed its
weekly tests of the beach water to meet the new standard, their
readings were sometimes high.
Enterococcal bacteria are associated with human and other animal
feces. They can cause gastrointestinal and other infections. No
one knows why the levels are high, Cheney said. They weren’t even
sure where the water on the beaches came from.
That’s where the 4-H group came in. 4-H is the University of
Georgia Extension Service’s youth development organization. When
Cheney called for volunteers to help run some tests, the group’s
4-H advisor, Robi Gray, called her back.
Eager volunteers
“They had me come out and talk to them,” Cheney said. “And they
just ran with it.”
The club members, who call themselves the Sea Monkeys, set up an
experiment to trace the marsh water flow with oranges. They
wanted to know where exactly the marsh water behind the island
drifted.
Citrus fruit’s tough peel withstands the beatings of rocks and
seagull beaks. The teenagers gathered 280 oranges and other
citrus fruits, many of them rejects donated by grocery stores.
They painted the non-orange fruit with special wildlife-safe
paint to make the fruit easier to spot in the water.
The launch
On the ebbing high tide at 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 18, the group
launched the “Orange Tide” fruit in two places, Black Banks River
and Postell Creek. They marked the Black Banks River fruit with a
black band.
“Having to get up early and walk the cold beach was my least
favorite part,” said 17-year-old Will Prince.
Within a few hours, though, they spotted oranges between Landsend
and East Beach. They found more Dec.22 in front of the King and
Prince resort and the boardwalk on East Beach. They were still
finding them Dec. 26 as far away as Sea Island.
“Walking on the beach searching for the oranges and knowing I was
helping my community was my favorite part,” said Charles
Thompson, 15.
Phase 2
Now, the students will expand their test during the May 25 spring
tide, the highest area tide in the lunar cycle. But this time,
the UGA Marine Extension Service will test the marsh water for
enterococcal bacteria at the drop sites.
Using Global Positioning System software donated by ESRI, the
students will also put the data on orange locations into graphs
and maps. They plan to use 600 fruits, too, and add another
launch site in a larger marsh area farther into Postell Creek.
A source tracking study proposed by UGA scientist Peter Hartel
could add another key to solving the problem by tracing the
origin of the bacteria.
High hopes
The students’ project is one of nine accepted in the Earthbound3
Challenge, an international competition open to any student
group. The club will compete with two groups from Kenya and
others from Australia, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina,
Pennsylvania and Texas.
The group is optimistic. “Using GPS is the key to the Sea
Monkeys’ experiment’s winning,” said Angelina Tebarts, 15.
The 4-H’ers are collecting fruit for their May experiment. If
you’d like to volunteer or donate fruit, contact Gray at (912)
634-1682.
(Sydne Moody is a student writer and Dan Rahn a news editor
with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.)
