as we eco-road trip across this amazing
land we can’t forget the rivers we’ve
crossed and the waves crashing beside
coastal roads
more than 70 percent of our planet is
covered in water and more than 96 of
that is in our oceans unfortunately 14
million tons of plastic end up in the
ocean each year
that waste threatens not only life
beneath the surface but also up here on
land
so today we’re following
conservationists who are helping marine
mammals those that are suffering because
of our pollution how’s the man if you
look
whoa
and we get to see how some innovative
robots are catching the plastic before
it makes it out to sea well thankfully
we have this robot because we missed all
that i’m ginger z chief meteorologist at
abc news my family and i are hitting the
road to help rebuild and get a first
hand look at what it takes to save the
planet
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Crystal River
we begin in florida’s crystal river the
goal spot a sea cow an adorable mammal
that is currently threatened who are we
gonna see today
you know like the three of us we really
like outdoors just a little worried
about that
making fun of this hat but let me tell
you something i’m going to be the only
one
without a sunburned neck
who’s ready
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i feel like i’m just paddling a king
right now this kid you tired on our trip
down the crystal river we saw fish a
turtle turtle hanging on the log you
want to go say hi and even a pirate have
you seen any manatees today captain
jackie i did
but today we’re here to see the manatee
the florida manatee has lost more than
20 percent of their total population in
just the last year pollution from
leaking septics agricultural and
residential fertilizers are feeding
algal blooms which block out the sun and
kill much of the sea grass which is the
manatee’s main food source
of matthew look
this is not just to meet ben’s best
friends the manatees love them it’s to
celebrate them because they are having a
tough time on the other side of florida
yeah big time issues with water
pollution
so we are going to see something that is
threatened right now and that’s why
they’re so important and we have to be
very careful around them
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i thought yes you could see your body
maybe she’ll come over and say hello
conservationists have stepped up efforts
to rehabilitate the manatees that are in
need of help even releasing this healthy
manatee back to its natural home today
this was a great adventure this is
awesome and i did not get a sunburn on
my neck
Inner Harbor
next we’re off to baltimore’s inner
harbor to meet an innovative googly-eyed
garbage eating robot that’s helping save
our oceans we are about to do what
gentlemen we’re gonna meet mr josh deal
mr trash wheel the inner harbor water
wheel affectionately known as mr trash
wheel sits at the outlet of the jones
falls river that’s where we found john
collette the engineer behind this
innovative contraption welcome aboard mr
trash wheel
this is the jones falls river it drains
a big section of baltimore county and
baltimore city and when it rains all the
trash that’s on the streets and in the
parking lots and in the alleys gets
washed down into the storm drains and
eventually into the river
and the river brings it down here this
is really the last chance to get it
before it spreads out all over the
harbor and the chesapeake bay and
eventually into the atlantic ocean can
you see a minute we sure can when do you
guys want to do it
he’s moving let’s see we got it we got
it we got it so what do you see in there
miles it’s um recently in buttercups yup
and that is so great that it’s not gonna
go into the harbor into the ocean right
to date mr trash wheel has collected
more than two million tons of garbage
and debris that would have gone into the
ocean and mr trashwheel’s super green he
runs entirely on renewable energy on a
day like today when we don’t have a lot
of flow in the river the solar panels
charge batteries batteries power pumps
and the pumps dump water up into the
buckets of the wheel and the weight of
the water turns the wheel the turning of
the wheel gives us the power to run the
rakes in the conveyor
age what do you think he sounds like
when he’s eaten
the success of mr trash wheel led to the
deployment of three other trash wheels
in baltimore alone and john and his team
are looking to build others on the west
coast and in central america
can you guys locate mr trashmail
yeah bye mr trash you’re doing your
thing stay hungry
Fort Myers Beach
to finish up we’re heading south to fort
myers beach florida to do some beach
cleanup with alex shules the co-founder
of four ocean
this is a group that around the world
cleans up 20 million pounds of trash
already four ocean has human crews all
over the world cleaning up trash from
beaches and oceans but now they’ve
teamed up with poorly marine to get a
robotic volunteer called the bee bot you
guys want to use a robot yes clean the
beach let’s clean the beach up i’ve been
wanting to do this with you all forever
you’re going to push this guy just
slowly forward oh yeah he’s rocking
so it uses tank tracks and drives around
the beach and it’ll skim the top surface
of the sand and it’ll collect plastic
and any type of debris that’s on the
beach look it
a candy wrapper you’ve got cigarette
butts you’ve got
bottle caps bottle caps lots of bottle
caps more wrappers well thankfully we
have this robot because we missed all
that
four ocean is on a mission to end the
plastic crisis that means not only
cleaning up but educating people about
the terror that single-use plastics have
created in our oceans
we sell products made with a portion of
plastic that we’ve collected from the
ocean this is actually the ocean drought
bracelet which has little micro
microplastic in the actual bezel and
that’s that it’s more of that
conversation starter so it not only
funds cleanup but also enables people to
have that conversation say what is that
this is my idea of family fun on the
beach i’m not joking
i’m so happy this is the best way
to wrap up an eco trip
it really did feel amazing to have the
family learning and working together
doing our part and we really hope that
you might join us because we’re all in
this together you guys give me big high
fives for cleaning up the beach high
five
you know who that’s from mother nature
well done and your mommy
and daddy and daddy
click on the links below to watch more
episodes of branching out
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