Thursday, September 9, 2010

Day 149 - Sept. 8, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
trash collected for 20 minutes
2.3 pounds
615.1 pounds total
I did something today that I had never done before. I stopped a couple on the beach that were smoking cigarettes and asked them to take their cigarette butts with them. I explained that it was illegal to smoke on the beach here in Santa Monica and that if the lifeguard caught them they would receive a 50$ fine (diverting responsibility because of my own insecurity..)

Their response: "I saw cigarette butts on the beach so I thought it was OK," they said with a thick eastern European accent. They clearly felt bad, and so I back peddled a little more explaining how toxic cigarettes were when they got in the water.
They thanked me profusely.
I walked away with a red face.
But I did this today because when I saw them smoking I couldn't help but think about my friend Danielle in North Carolina that has collected 1over 2,000 cigarette butts off her local beach in under 10 days.

I told the couple about this.
They looked stunned.
Before I walked away I added, "Imagine what this beach would look like if it were legal to smoke on it."
Oceana is coming to town this weekend for the Nautica Marathon in Malibu. I'll be there on Sat. at their table gathering signatures to stop Offshore Oil Drilling. Come on by if you are in the area. You can also sign Ocean's petition online. They need 500K signatures - let's help them out!
A dirty diaper on the beach is not so great to look at....but Adrian Grenier is, check out his Oceana PSA to help Bluefin Tuna below.

Adrian Grenier Wants To Stop Bluefin Tuna From Going Too Fast from Oceana on Vimeo.


I got in touch with an old friend who now lives in Brazil. He is going to do some sort of Community Collection for The Daily Ocean there and spread this beach cleanup revolution to South America.
Where do you live? Want to help me?
Leave me a comment or email me at thedailyocean@yahoo.com and thanks!

6 comments:

  1. Love it! Awesome post! One of my best friends lives in Brazil. Maybe she'll want to join your friend:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Why do we have such insecurities?? It's such a difficult thing to push past... but I'm so glad you did!! High five!! On that note, I've been having a lot more people come up to me and ask what I'm doing. On my last outing, it was a little boy... asking what I was picking up, why and why I was taking pictures. I just love opportunities like that :)

    As usual, love all the links...

    A friend of mine sent me the best (in my opinion of course) ad that she never ran... I'll send it your way... with some good news ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. RECYCLE: Thank you for blogging about this! What an important issue. It reminds me of the kind of stuff I often see at http://www.youtube.com/greenopolistv and it's always great to be educated and kept up to date on what's going on! Check out the latest video on saving the oceans of the world at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJVJavUg5Qw.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My Peace & Love Jewelry -

    Does your friend live in Rio? :D That would be so cool! Thanks for the comment!

    Sara

    ReplyDelete
  5. Danielle -

    OOOHHH I am curious now!

    Love those opportunities too! Two women clapped for me yesterday as I walked by them. I stopped to say thank you and tell them what I was doing. I don't think they expected to hear that I had collected over 600 pounds of trash. HA!!

    xo
    Sara

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the Youtube links. I will check them out. There is so much I never knew about recycling until I watched the movie BAG IT! Maybe you could google it and watch. It is astounding!

    thanks
    Sara

    ReplyDelete