Day 83 - Dec. 21

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds of trash collected today - 1.14

estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 365.05
This is what I saw when I got to the beach. Today was the Winter Solstice and the sun set around 4:48.
Then I saw this.

The top three types of trash littering our oceans:

1. cigarette butts

2. candy wrappers

3. fast food wrappers, and single use packaging

Our oceans are really suffering. Many ecosystems are. Obviously, I am particularly interested in marine environments. It is disturbing how much plastic trash and other items get into the oceans. This pollution is causing such a problem, that in my opinion, we do not even understand all of the consequences from it, and it is possible that we may not be able to undo what we have already done. In fact, unfortunately more than a little possible we will have to deal with these consequences for a very, very long time.

It is tragic that the cause of the devastation of marine life, marine habitat, and the negative impacts on human health, to name a few problems, are:

CIGARETTE BUTTS, CANDY WRAPPERS (plastics) AND FOOD PACKAGING! (more plastics)

Excuse my rant, but I find this very disturbing.
I see plastic every time I am out here collecting. I would estimate that plastic items account for 90% of the trash I collect.
And then there is styrofoam....my friend asked me if it is recyclable. I found many answers, but here is the most concise from treehugger blog:

"Seriously, if you want to recycle polystyrene in the US you are pretty much on your own. That's the bad news. The good news is that the Polystyrene Packaging Association maintains a partial listing of industrial entities that will accept waste polystyrene for recycling purposes. If you happen to live near one of them and can get your municipal authority to sponsor something (if a program is not already in place) you could be positioned to do something constructive."

Really, that is the best we can do? I know, how about not make the stuff.
I feel like I was extra opinionated today which is hopefully unusual for Daily Ocean posts. However, I do have strong feelings and ideas about ocean conservation and protection or I wouldn't be writing this blog. So please, bare with me for the occasional more opinionated post. There is a quote I am paraphrasing, from someone I can't remember, (helpful I know)

"If you're not disturbed, you're not paying attention."

A Day Without A Bag

Me, Anna Cummins, and members of the Compton High's Recycling Club sewing and decorating tank top-bags to hand out.

We turned the tank tops inside out and sewed the bottom up, then flipped it right side out, and hold the handles, vwa-la! a bag. REUSE. cool.
These plastic bag zombies performed to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to spread the message that single use plastic bags and other packaging are a horror. They are from the South Bay and really had their performance down. Being from the generation who got to enjoy M.J. at his peak, I remember watching the world premier of Thriller. I thought it was magic.

Here's a link to a newspaper article about the zombies if you want to learn more: click here

Come on, how cool right?

Can you find the silver glove?

The Plastic Pollution Coalition was there too. Dianna Cohen, one of four founders, had a table with great information about plastic pollution, cool shirts and bottles that would make a good gift during for the holidays, and some of her incredibly beautiful plastic bag paintings that she has been doing for 20 years.

For more on Dianna's artwork: click here or click here and click here

For how to get one of these reusable water bottles and for more information on the Plastic Pollution Coalition- click here

There is also a new video with Diana talking about refusing plastics. So cool, great work!
This is the "Green Santa" from Heal the Bay.

I love California.

For more information on their Day WIthout a Bag event - click here

It is the third year running. Looking forward to next year.

Thanks Heal The Bay!

Megan Kilroy of Team Marine

I'm going to do a little bragging in this post. I work with Team Marine of Santa Monica High. They constantly inspire me. Above is a photo from a newspaper article about the march we did to ban plastic bags in early Sept.. That was taken in front of the Santa Monica City Hall. Makes you smile, doesn't it?

That same weekend we headed out to the Santa Monica Pier to participate in Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots organization's, Day of Peace. Here is Megan, a member of T.M., showing the girls in the Peace Troop a water sample on loan from Algalita Marine Research Foundation, of the North Pacific Trash Gyre.

This is a clip from the Teen Nick Halo Awards hosted by Nick Cannon. Megan was a recipient this year.

She is quick to mention that there is NO WAY she would be getting awarded anything without

the rest of her friends on Team Marine and the Surfrider/Heal the Bay Teach and Test Club.

But....she is awesome and this week didn't really want to do homework one afternoon so she

went to the beach in Santa Monica near the pier and collected trash for 20-25 minutes

She collected 1 pound and took some good shots. Well, she took clear shots of disturbing amounts

of trash. Below is what she found on her walk that lasted for less than 30 minutes.

Fact - Santa Monica cleans it's beaches daily

Fact - Plastics Are Forever. Yup, they do not biodegrade but break into smaller and smaller pieces until you have plastic soup.

www.teammarine.org / www.teammarine.blogspot.com