Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Day 198 - Feb. 16, 2011


life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
trash collected for 20 minutes
6.3 pounds
747.6 pounds total


If you have found The Daily Ocean, or read it regularly and have not stumbled upon The Flotsam Diaries then please check out its latest post - CROSSROADS. I hope Harry doesn't mind the comparison, but something struck me today while I was reading his blog. 

"Last March, I took the red pill. And there's no going back. Now I have to decide what the Flotsam Diaries will mean, going forward. I believe we're here to make a difference. And, somehow, I know this is a place where I can make a difference."

I started The Daily Ocean in March of 2009. Maybe there is something about March? When I started, I had no idea if this little blog would make a difference, but like Harry, I believe that somehow, "this is a place where I can make a difference." Thanks for the inspiration Harry. 



It was a very windy out on the beach. We had the odd rainy day today in Southern California which cleared the skies, brought the wind and made me nostalgic for the north eastern weather that I grew up in. Well, I was nostalgic for about10 minutes until I could no longer take pictures because my fingers were frozen. I knew that it would be chilly out there today, but I also know that there would be plenty of trash to collect because of the rain. And I was right. 6.3 pounds is 4 pounds above my winter average when we have had dry weather.



Heal the Bay is launching this cool new program - MPA WATCH - BE A MARINE PROTECTED AREA STEWARD. The first session is March 3rd at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium at 6:30 pm. 




Garen and I are a BLUEANGELS for Wallace J Nichols. And here is one of the many reasons why. Only two months into the year, J sent out an email to his BLUEANGELS (people who support his work with tax deductible monthly donations of any denomination so that he can work for the ocean - the only thing he ever wanted to do)

Here are just a couple of the creative, innovative and outrageously cool projects that he has in the works.
After reading this list, you will want to become one of his BLUEANGELS too.



and much, much more!!




Thanks to Google Alerts, I found a blog that I've never read before that had included The Daily Ocean in a recent post. The title of the post is, "ONE PLASTIC BEACH DOWN, SO MANY MORE TO GO. This blog is written by the University of Oregon Humanities Dept.. I am glad to see the issue of trashing the ocean is taken seriously in the mainstream academic world. 






The moon over the beach in Santa Monica tonight.