Day 120 - May 10, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

3.3 pounds

480 pounds total

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! -

To everyone who sent out a message through twitter, posted to Facebook, or made a donation to get me to Sacramento to lobby on May 19th for Assembly Bill 1998 - CA Ban the Plastic Bag law that is in crucial need of support right now.

As I write this, my request for help has only been live on my site for about four days, and I have only 25$ to go before my trip is covered!! (I am an as-of-now unpublished YA author who quit my job in Sept. to hash out final drafts of my book-in-the-works of three plus years, "Calliope and the Heart of the Sea.) So as you can imagine, our family budget does not include impromptu political trips to the state capitol. Once again, a HUGE thank you!

My first find out on the beach today was a plastic bag, which only confirmed my need to go.

I saw the movie Oceans last Sunday night. For those of you who, like me, were disappointed by Disney's Earth, please have faith and go see this movie!

If, you are also like me, and have seen all of the Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and now the Life series, you will see new footage in Earth that will blow your mind. Yes, I am that much of a nature geek, and you know what? I also love Star Wars 4 - 6, Lord of the Rings the books AND the movies, and Star Trek. It is my personal view that people who are drawn to these complex stories are not "geeks" - they just have great taste!

Drinking straws, oh drinking straws, how I find you by the dozens, oh drinking straws.....

Mark Armen of Gulpable's message on plastic straws

Three cool things happened today out on the beach while picking up...mostly plastic trash from the sand.

1. As soon as I got there, 2 dolphins leaped out of the water close to shore while playing. Is there anything better than seeing that at the beach? I see dolphins there, but I've never seen them leap out of the water before at lgt 26.

2. I got a chance to talk to a woman briefly about The Daily Ocean and agree with her that one of the only things that brings us hope that we will stop the plastic pollution entering the oceans, is when we know that other people care and are doing something about it.

3. Mark Armen of Gulpable was running on the beach when he stopped me to introduce himself. Our mutual friend Lindsey Jurca of ECHS, and Surfrider had introduced us in an email. He is a fellow Santa Monica resident kicking some butt to find solutions to "micro litter entering the ocean." Find him on twitter, and at his website. And watch him above in the quick video we shot about straws.