Day 365 - Dec. 8, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

.6 pounds

1,333.1 pounds total 

1 cigarette butt

(Beth Dubber Photography)

Community Count Day 262 - 39 people

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

22.1 pounds

1,114.3 pounds total 

DAILY OCEAN COMBINED TOTAL - 

2,447.4 POUNDS OF TRASH OFF BEACHES WORLD-WIDE

Forty of us gathered at the end of the boardwalk at 3:00 p.m. last Saturday to do the 365th Daily Ocean beach cleanup. I set my watch for 20 minutes and off we went. The Daily Ocean has taken over 2,400 pounds off beaches around the world, twenty minutes at a time. 

Here's how we've done it. You can join us!

(Beth Dubber Photography)

My routine is to take a photo of lifeguard tower 26 to start my beach cleanup report when I update this website. Then I head to the waterline to snag what is just coming out of, or going into the ocean. 

Thank you to my friend Beth for taking some wonderful photographs of the Daily Ocean's 365th beach cleanup. Please visit her website to see her portfolio. She's a freelance LA based photographer.

Writing this post is bittersweet. Last weekend was incredible. We had a party with 80 - 100 people on Friday night. I knew community was one of the most cherished gifts I've received from doing the Daily Ocean, but seeing many of the people I admire and call friends in one place reaffirmed this. 

Looking out over the sand at the crew that showed up the next day was just as great. Like I said on Friday night, the Daily Ocean was a project conceived of for one person to clean their local beach, but I didn't do this alone. 

What did we find? As Bill Price Environmental Biology Professor from Santa Monica College where my husband teaches shows, more of the usual suspects; straws, styrofoam, cigarette butts, and wrappers. 

My friend Michael Yonke, who re-purposes found materials like wood and metal into incredible one-of-a-kind furniture, shows one of the top three items found in the ocean, candy wrappers. 

Michael recently awarded me a handmade coffee table. Read the post and check out his website. 

My friend Kou catered last night, meaning really he made sure the Izze's soda bottles got recycled and cupcake wrappers found the trash. He found a very strange object last time he was out on the beach with me, and today he's done it again. I am not sure what this dagger-looking object is, but I am glad it is off the sand and in the trash. I met Kou the year I mentored Team Marine more directly. I am still honored to be a partner. 

Find out what great environmental work Santa Monica High School's Team Marine is up to!

Laejohnie and Fernanda came out from Santa Monica College's Eco-Action Club. They are going to be doing Daily Ocean beach cleanups of their own. I'll feature their posts here and they will be the first school to officially join the Daily Ocean's next phase! Stay tuned for more information about that. 

(Beth Dubber Photography)

After our twenty minutes we weighed our haul. I'd let everyone know before we went out that it was December so we may not find a lot of trash on the beach since it hadn't rained this week and not many people were sunbathing. These are my favorite kinds of beach cleanups, when twenty minutes is dedicated to remembering my dedication to help the ocean and it is more of a walk than a trash collection. But individual effort added up it like it always does and we got 22.7 pounds of trash off the beach in twenty minutes. 

(Beth Dubber Photography)

Thank you to all of the people who took time out of their busy weekend to come be a part of this beach cleanup. A few days later I'm still delighted, relieved, and a bit melancholy to see this phase of the Daily Ocean complete. But there's a lot more to come! 

A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY FRIEND DANIELLE WHO WRITES THE BLOG IT STARTS WITH ME. She's committed to doing 365 beach cleanups in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina where she lives. Danielle has already done 170 cleanups, and taken over 50,000 cigarette butts off her local beach. Let's all cheer her on along the way!

IT STARTS WITH ME

I'll sign off this post with my last TIP TO HELP THE OCEAN - START.

That's right. Start whatever it is that you are inspired to do. 

Want to do a Daily Ocean cleanup in your neighborhood and write me about it? You are welcome to. Don't know where to start? Ask me, I am here to help - sara@dailyocean.org

I started with one solo beach cleanup in late March 2009 and look what developed from that. It's been a joy to see where the Daily Ocean has taken me so far. You'll never be able to predict just how, and who will help you along the way. 

Millions of people dedicate their working lives, careers, free time, thoughts, money and love to help the ocean every single day. Join us. There's always room for more people who care about the ocean. You're not alone. 

The ocean faces many environmental problems, but there are many, many solutions. 

Let's put our efforts into those solutions together. 

"INDIVIDUALLY WE ARE ONE DROP, TOGETHER WE ARE THE OCEAN." 

- Ryunosuke Satoro