Ethan Cruz

Bronx, NY

Ethan Cruz is an 18 year-old apprentice in the environmental science program at Rocking the Boat. He is the principle investigator on their water quality project, specifically looking into the pollution caused by the combined sewage overflow (CSO) at multiple locations on the Bronx River. Ethan takes weekly samples from the Bronx River testing for enterococcus and other water quality parameters. He is interested in a suspected leak at one of the sites that discharges raw sewage even in the absence of a rain event. In addition, Ethan works on a number of other projects including monitoring microplastics, air quality, shorebirds and urban coyotes. He also helps with the seaweed (Gracilaria tikvahaie) farm a the mouth of the Bronx River and on several wetland restoration sites along the river. Ethan is an incredibly bright and driven researcher. You can always count on him to be the first one to stick his hands in the mud, pull up a line or do any task a given project may require. Because of his commitment to environmental activism, Ethan’s Global Ambassador work with Plastic Ocean Project will be collecting microplastic samples in the North Atlantic Gyre this April. He will be comparing the microplastics he find in the Bronx River to what we find in the North Atlantic Subtropical gyre. Welcome aboard Ethan. We look forward to expanding your knowledge base.