Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Day 349 - Oct 26, 2012



lifeguard tower 26 – Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
trash collected for 20 min.
.5 pounds collected
1,293.1 pounds to date

7 cigarette butts



There’s a juvenile California Sea Lion in the water with us for the last few weeks. She seems to target the swimmers, and body boarders with fins. The occasional leash tug on a surfer isn’t out of the question, but her interest focuses on those of us who are more submerged than our friends standing on plexiglass. 

I keep my distance, and occasionally scoot behind a friend when she gets too close. She may look cute, but I’ve seen a Stellar Sea Lion skull before, and they’ve got teeth. Why am I telling you this under a photograph of yellow nylon rope?
Marine life entanglement claims millions of animals lives a year from our rubbish. When I picked up this rope I thought at least our playful young sea lion won’t get snared in this. 



Perhaps my example is an idealized benefit from conducting regular beach cleanups. Is it? What if we saw the impacts our modern world had on the natural environment around us in our day-to-day and acted from that place on a global scale?



“YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION, WELL YOU KNOW…
WE ALL WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD.” - BEATLES