Drift Cards are in the Water for ANGARI Foundation’s 14th Lagoon Drift Experiment

Our citizen science experiment is underway, and we need your help! At 1:00 PM ET today, we and our partners initiated the 14th experiment in our long-term study of regional marine debris movement in our waterways. Over 150 Lagoon Drift citizen scientists including partners and volunteers from Cardinal Newman High School, Friends of Manatee Lagoon, Friends of Palm Beach, Independence Middle School’s SciQuest Academy, Loxahatchee River Center, Manatee Lagoon, Sea Turtle Adventures, The Benjamin School and the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 5-4, helped release our eco-friendly, yellow wooden drift cards into the water from seven different sites along the Lake Worth Lagoon and Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Beach County.

In the months leading up to the experiment, several schools and organizations, including Cardinal Newman High School, Friends of Manatee Lagoon, Independence Middle School’s SciQuest Academy, Sea Turtle Adventures and The Benjamin School, decorated cards in preparation for release as they also learned about ocean currents and marine debris. Drift cards were also decorated by community members during VoLo Foundation Florida Climate Week and Solid Waste Authority’s America Recycles Day.

Now it’s up to you! Spread the word, and be on the lookout for drift cards inshore and offshore along the east coast of Florida. If you find a card, please keep it and report the location, date and time found with photos of the card to [email protected]. You can see data and reports from previous experiments on our webpage. Thank you for helping us better understand our waterways!