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WCSH 6 News aired coverage on June 20, 2013, of marine sciences graduate student Michelle Slater and her advisor Pamela Morgan, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Studies, as they hurled oranges, lemons and summer squash into the Saco River as part of a “drifter study” that Slater is conducting in order to learn the ways in which water current patterns in the river may affect the propagation of a troublesome form of the plant species, Phragmites australis, which is invading southern Maine.

Slater explained one way that Phragmites can reproduce:  "One of the plant parts that can break off are called rhizomes, which are underground stems. They grow horizontally--not vertically, the way that you usually see plant stems growing--and they grow really, really thick. And so if they break off, they can end up starting a new plant.  We don't know how often that happens; but because we want to help in managing these plants, it's really important to know if that's a problem or not."

To find the answer to that, Slater and her team threw produce in the river at the locations of some of the largest Phragmites patches.  Each fruit or vegetable is marked with the study’s and a code unique to that piece of produce.  To find out where the river currents are taking the produce—and, therefore, theoretically, the rhizomes of Phragmites--Slater is hoping that whoever finds the fruits and vegetables will go to the website and enter the code of the produce that he or she finds.