expand the scientific knowledge in her 

 field, and her devotion to her work is 

 unsurpassed. The scientific community 

 could use more researchers with her 

 drive and zeal." 



A Sweeping Event 



Get out the gloves, trash bags and 

 data cards: Tis the season for Big 

 Sweep. 



The First Citizens Bank Big Sweep 

 is set for Saturday. Sept. 17, from 9 a.m. 

 to 1 p.m. at more than 450 sites from the 

 mountains to the coast. It is the nation's 

 largest statewide waterway litter pickup. 



Last year, this grassroots environ- 

 mental event attracted more than 12,000 

 volunteers statewide. In seven years of 

 cleanups. Big Sweep volunteers have 

 collected more than 1 ,000 tons of debris 

 from beaches, lakeshores, riverbanks 

 and creek beds. 



This year, cleanup sites have been 

 identified in more than 85 of North 

 Carolina's 100 counties. Volunteers are 

 needed at all sites. N.C. Big Sweep 

 Executive Director Susan Bartholomew 

 expects more than 14,000 waterway 

 stewards to turn out for this year's 

 event. 



To volunteer, call the MCI Big 

 Sweep hotline at 1-800-27-SWEEP 

 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays. 

 Hotline volunteers can direct you to the 

 cleanup site or county coordinator of 

 your choice. Individuals, families and 

 groups are all welcome. 



For children. Big Sweep provides a 

 firsthand lesson in aquatic litter and its 

 effects on the environment. Supervised 

 groups of youngsters from schools, 

 Scout groups, 4-H, churches and sports 

 clubs can join the cleanup. 



For adults. Big Sweep serves as a 

 reminder that we are all stewards of our 

 aquatic environments. Adult groups — 

 civic organizations, garden clubs, 

 church members, company employees, 

 neighborhood organizations and trade 

 associations — are also asked to lend a 

 helping hand. 



Besides bagging litter, volunteers 

 also record their finds on data cards 

 distributed by coordinators. Recording 

 each piece of debris helps Big Sweep 



organizers determine who's leaving 

 aquatic debris behind and how to direct 

 future educational efforts. 



Big Sweep strives to curb water- 

 way litter because it's unsightly, harm- 

 ful to people and deadly for critters that 

 live and feed in our aquatic environ- 

 ments. 



The theme chosen for this year's 

 cleanup event is "You are the solution to 

 water pollution." The upbeat, action- 

 oriented message will adorn all cleanup 

 event posters, brochures and T-shirts. 



This year's T-shirt is black and 

 available in adult sizes medium and 

 extra large. The title theme and Big 

 Sweep logo are contained in a rectangle 

 bordered by aquatic critters. All are 

 screen-printed on the shirt in vibrant 

 colors — yellow, green, blue and red. 

 The cost for the T-shirt is $12, and it can 

 be ordered from N.C. Big Sweep, Box 

 550, Raleigh, NC 27602. 



N.C. Big Sweep is the nonprofit 

 organization that coordinates the annual 

 waterway cleanup and sustains a year- 

 round educational effort to reduce 

 aquatic debris. 



For more information about Big 

 Sweep, call 1-800-27-SWEEP or 919/ 

 856-6686. Don't forget to mark your 

 calendar for Sept. 1 7 and join the First 

 Citizens Bank Big Sweep. 



Green Earns New Title 



David Green, Sea Grant's seafood 

 technology specialist, has been named 

 an assistant professor in the Department 

 of Food Science at N.C. State Univer- 

 sity. Green will also now head opera- 

 tions at the NCSU Seafood Laboratory 

 in Morehead City. 



As a result of additional state 

 funding, the seafood laboratory has 

 recently undergone renovations and 

 staff expansion. 



Exploring the Oceans 



Until recently, oceans were ex- 

 plored through sampling by surface 

 vessels or manned submersible vehicles. 

 But these ocean exploration methods are 

 slow, limited in the area they cover, 

 expensive and sometimes hazardous at 

 great depths. Consequently, the oceans 



remain a mysterious and largely unex- 

 plored frontier. Scientists are quick to 

 note that we know more about the sur- 

 faces of other planets than the ocean 

 depths. 



Researchers first tackled the prob- 

 lem by designing and building un- 

 manned tethered submersibles called 

 remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). In 

 many cases, ROVs work well and per- 

 form surveys, inspections and simple 

 work tasks. But ROVs have limitations. 

 The tether that connects the ROV to the 

 surface ship for power and communica- 

 tion is easily entangled and produces 

 hydrodynamic drag on the vehicle when 

 it operates at greater depths. 



Underwater explorers needed an 

 unmanned vehicle with greater mobility 

 and versatility. Hence began the work to 

 design and build a free-swimming or 

 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). 

 The Sea Grant Program at the Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 

 recently developed a prototype AUV, 

 Odyssey II. It was built with compo- 

 nents costing less than $75,000, weighs 

 350 pounds, can travel 170 miles at 

 depths up to 3.7 miles and is the first 

 deep-diving AUV to carry a sonar 

 system and two acoustic navigation 

 systems. 



During March, Odyssey II under- 

 took its first major scientific mission. 

 The vehicle was launched from a hole 

 cut in the ice at a site about 170 miles 

 offshore of Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's 

 northern coast. It made several runs 

 beneath the ice, conducting preliminary 

 tests and obtaining data on conductivity, 

 temperature and depth before piloting 

 itself back into a capture net at its point 

 of entry. 



In upcoming missions, plans call 

 for Odyssey II to study hydrothermal 

 vents on the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the 

 Washington coast and on the East Pa- 

 cific Rise west of Central America. The 

 ultimate goal of Sea Grant's work on 

 AUVs is to develop a network in which 

 many low-cost AUVs operating interac- 

 tively from remote sites will collect 

 oceanographic data over greater areas 

 and for longer time periods. 



24 JULY/AUGUST 1994 



