Day 136 - August 6, 2010

click on the above image for all the details

Come out tomorrow to see the OCEAN MEETS THE LAND festival put on by Randy of Shifting Baselines. Algalita, Surfrider, 5 Gyres, Plastic Pollution Coalition, and Joel Harper (who wrote this amazing children's book, "All Drains Lead to the Ocean," will be there.

life guard tower 26 - Santa Monica, CA

trash collected for 20 min.

5.7 pounds

556.8 total

We found two plastic bottle caps in the first 5 seconds of our collection. We named Day 136 - Day of the Plastic Bottle Top. We got at least 20 in 20 min.....

Does this make sense? How many sips of water do you get from a bottle this size? 3? Not like plastic water bottles make a whole lot of sense either.

PLEASE WATCH ,"THE STORY OF BOTTLED WATER." (It's about 10 minutes long, that's it!) Told by Annie Leonard who wrote, and stared in "The Story of Stuff."

Different plastic bottle, same size, and I deduce left by the same people since there was a little group of three waiting in the sand.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW TO DR. MARCUS ERIKSEN,

CO-FOUNDER OF 5 GYRES WITH HIS WIFE ANNA CUMMINS. THE WORLD IS PRETTY HAPPY YOU WERE BORN, ESPECIALLY THE OCEAN!

THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO!

BAG IT! A FILM FESTIVAL

COME ON OUT TO UCLA JAMES BRIDGES THEATER ON AUG. 22nd FOR A SCREENING OF "BAG IT" - HOSTED BY THE PLASTIC POLLUTION COALITION - AND OTHER SHORTS AND PSA'S ABOUT PLASTIC POLLUTION.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR AB1998 - THE BILL TO BAN SINGLE USE PLASTIC BAGS IN CA - AS IT PASSES THROUGH THE CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE THIS SUMMER.

click on the image above for all the details

Bag It Intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.

My friend Dean Maya came back from the Telluride Mountain Film Festival raving about this documentary that he and his wife saw. Thanks to Dean, I found out about BAG IT a few months ago. That's how this works. Word of mouth, friend to friend.

Community Collection Day 40 - Aug. 2, 2010

COMMUNITY COLLECTION COUNT

life guard tower 26 - Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

8 people participated

5.3 pounds collected

326.8 pounds total
It has been a colder, cloudier summer here in southern California. Here's half of our gang tonight heading out to collect some trash off the local beach:

Garen (my husband) - Department Chair of Life Sciences for Santa Monica College and Marine Biologist

Tracy, CEO and founder of Recycled Bride

Anna - hot shot lawyer now embarking on 5 Gyres next trawl across the S. Atlantic

Heather - local acupuncturist & holistic practitioner fr Live Natural Live Well

First trash sighting -- a plastic water bottle top.....

Part of the problem of plastics entering the oceans is that marine life ingest it as food. Here is a well thought out description of that problem from the 5 Gyres website.

Anna Cummins and Marcus Eriksen live in Santa Monica. We are very proud to have them as part of our community as they shake up the world to bring global awareness to the disasterous problem of Plastic Pollution.

We found a buried plastic bag in the sand. It took a lot of digging to unearth it.

When we got it out, it made me wonder what else is buried here in the sand?

For one thing, plastic that breaks down into smaller bits that then becomes mixed into the sand is a leading cause of beach errosion. The plastic is lighter than the ground shells, rocks, and other sediment in the sand. Therefor it makes the sand lighter, which means that it is carried out by the sea water faster....learn more at ALGALITA MARINE RESEARCH

I learned this the other night at a party for our friend Emily Penn who is moving to Brasil to work for Pangea Explorations and go on the S. Atlantic leg of the next 5 Gyres expedition. She has only lived here for a short time, but she made a huge impact on our community.

Thank you Emily. We will miss you!

You always have a home away from home in Santa Monica.

Tracy found this fork in the sand and claimed it as hers to collect. Luckily there wasn't much trash to collect tonight because of the cloudy weather we have been having and the lower temperatures. The conclusion that can draw from this is clear:

LESS PEOPLE = LESS TRASH

Here is Emily Penn and her friend Camden Howitt from Sustainable Coasts in New Zealand that is here in California for the first time. Welcome Camden!

Learn more about the cool work that Emily is doing here at Pangea's website.

Check out the super amazing coastal awareness organization that Camden works with here at

Sustainable Coasts, NZ

Thank you to everyone who came out last night. I think the last person that I have to mention is Denis. He is the creator of HIPPO WORKS for kids, "animals helping you to save the earth." Amazing work! Check it out!

Sorry that I didn't get a picture of you up here, but I really appreciate you coming to the beach to be a part of the Daily Ocean Community Count.

I ask local people who can join me at the beach, or folks who read The Daily Ocean who live elsewhere to do a Daily Ocean style beach cleanup and send me the results. I'll add them to our running tally of pounds collected and put up a post here to share your results. Just email me if you would like to contribute. Contact information and more information about the Community Count can be found on the home page of The Daily Ocean. Thank you!

Day 135 - July 29, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

3.7 pounds

551.1 pounds total

In the video at the beginning of this post you will see that this is not the only water bottle that I found on the beach today.
So many sand toys get abandoned. Do I sound like a broken record? Does that phrase even make sense to the general public anymore?

Well here is someone who finds plastics on the beaches and then turns them into sculpture.

Wren Harris - Washed Ashore - Newport OR

Rob from MERR inspired me when he sent me all of the fabulous videos of his kids collecting trash from Rehoboth Beach in DE. If you missed that post, here it is.

East Coast -- West Coast Trash Talk

The PSA below is very well done courtesy of the Plastic Pollution Coalition. Check it out!

Buried in Plastic PSA Plastic Pollution Coalition from Dianna Cohen on Vimeo.

East Coast -- West Coast Trash Talk

COMMUNITY COLLECTION DAY 39: JULY 25, 2010

Rob Rector of MERR - Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation - Institute in Delaware and I met because of Oceana's Ocean Hero Contest this year. We both loved being a part of it.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster (it's not just a "spill") happened during the contest. Many people felt devastated and helpless, (still do) but if they looked at Oceana's website they were directed to look at all kinds of ocean activism, most especially this year's winner IBRRC.

The International Bird Rescue Research Center are in the gulf right now helping oiled birds survive this tragedy. Here's a direct link to what they are doing. Their efforts are tremendous.

After the Ocean Hero Award Rob and I decided to try to find ways to work together. Here's one way that we came up with. We did a joint beach cleanup for the Community Collection Count part of my blog. Want to contribute? Leave a comment and I'll catch you up on what to do. It's pretty simple. You just do a Daily Ocean style cleanup near you, or while on vacation and send me your findings. Below are the results from our:

EAST COAST -- WEST COAST TRASH TALK (Rob aptly named it)

Last Sunday night, on our respective east coast and west coast beaches, at sunset we went out for about 20 minutes to see what we could find. Below is one of the many cool videos he sent me to introduce Nate and Maya - his ridiculously cute, and smart kids -

the Ocean Heroes of the night.

"The stats- Collectors: Maya (6) and Nate (4)

Time: 8:10-8:35

Area: 2 blocks on Rehoboth Beach DE

Amount collected: 6.5 pounds

Total: 321.5

Fun had: immeasurable" - Rob Rector, MERR

The picture above could be of the beach down the street from me. An orange peel and a plastic bottle top-twisty-thingy are everyday finds in California as well.

I found a plastic water bottle, and lots of gulls too. See my collection results for the day.

Ahh..chap stick. For me it was one of those plastic disposable objects that had infiltrated my life so seamlessly until I became aware of single use disposable plastics. Now I see them...and oh so many other objects like it.

Thank you to Nate, Maya and Rob for participating in cleaning up our beaches, but just as importantly for raising awareness about the trash -- mostly plastic and single use -- that is flooding the oceans. It's like the chap stick, once you see it, you see it everywhere.

Even if you don't live by the coast, all "drains" lead to the ocean eventually. In the meantime, if you look around your neighborhood, do you see plastic water bottles, cigarette butts, and plastic bags littering your streets? If so, want to do something about it?

Biggest object: A beach chair (I did not include this with the weight, though,as I left it in the trash there. No room on my bike).

They didn't even get to finish their Cherry Coke!

Thank you Rob for all the short videos you took of Nate and Maya. It really feels like we are all right there with you. I hope that the people who are reading this post enjoy them as much as I do!

Day 134 - July 25, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

4.8 pounds

547.4 pounds total

We really need to get some lids for the trash cans here in Santa Monica.

I picked all of this up, but how long did it take for the gulls to drag it back out?

There is a blog called Responsible Plastic that I would like to mention. It is written by David Mc Kay as, "an attempt to make sense out of the plastic in my life." His motto - "Nobody said it was easy..." In his latest post he asks himself just how far he is willing to go to get plastic out of his life?

Thank you David for asking yourself these hard questions, which in turn asks us to think about it too.

Here is a link to Team Marine of Santa Monica High School's Youtube channel. With over 20 environmental videos it is really worth checking out.

I'm getting psyched up to meet next year's new members, and see some familiar faces from 09-10, but I will really miss the crew that is off to college who are about to take the world by storm...one campus at a time! Good luck guys!!

This looks like an underwhelming piece of trash left on the beach. It's not even made from plastic! Shocker. Here's why I am including it in today's post:

I was collecting some trash around the people who were still on the beach, which always makes me feel slightly uncomfortable, but I just carry on. Anyway...I noticed the woman sitting behind this receipt on a towel, waiting for her husband to get out of the water, and perhaps wondering what the hell I was doing? Sometimes this happens...people will stare at me until I look up, then they turn away, or often say thank you.

So, I was hoping that she would pick up the trash in front of her when she left. I didn't want to bend down at her toes for her, I thought I'd give her a chance to clean it up herself since I was sure she had seen what I was up to.

But she didn't. This is not to shame her. Maybe she thought that I would get it, which I did. Maybe she didn't see it. I think that most people are used to a certain amount of trash on the beach. We've become apathetic to it. But seeing her leave the crumpled receipt in the sand made me think of a very important question, "If not me, who?"

If I leave the responsibility to the next person, who is to say they won't do the same?

If I want to save the ocean from trash -- mostly plastic -- then perhaps it is up to me?

If not me, then who?
Not Arrowhead. You may think I am being too hard on them for calling them out on their "Green-Washing" campaign, but am I? I don't think so. Especially after I watched TAPPED THE MOVIE and FLOW.

Day 133 - July 23, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

4.5 pounds

542.6 total
The Nautica Triathlon is coming up on Sept. 11 and 12th. Oceana will be there, and so will I. Interested in registering?

Check out their homepage here.

I'd like to do a beach cleanup with the participants, and volunteers. Want to join us? Let's leave Malibu a little cleaner as a small thank you for the beautiful environment that will provide the athletes with a chance to compete.
This sand toy stands out in stark contrast to the beach for more than one reason. Sure, it's neon orange, but it is also...plastic.
Visit the Smithsonian Ocean Portal Blog for tips on how to take care of the beaches and oceans we enjoy in the summer months.

"Actions that seem small, like dropping a piece of litter or cutting across a sand dune instead of taking the designated walkway, can add up to big problems when repeated by millions, or even dozens, of people. Our coastal waters are heavily impacted and face many threats on an ongoing basis. Surely we can show some respect by recreating responsibly when we visit in person."

Band-aids....one of my least favorite finds on the beach. Water wins the war over sticky adhesive yet there are plenty of people out to prove that theirs will hold where no other band-aid has held before.
This Sunday Rob from MERR (Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation) will collect trash off his local beach in Delaware that gets a lot of use in the summer months. I'll do the same here in Santa Monica and report back both of our findings here on The Daily Ocean.

MERR was a finalist in this years Ocean Hero Contest from Oceana. We connected through this honor, became friends, and have committed to working together in the future. Like minds have to stick together.

MERR is an incredible program. Rob said they recently found a dead Northern Right Whale though. Right Whales stay close to the surface and move slowly. Therefor they were named, the "Right Whale" to hunt for. Now it just means that they are casualties for shipping accidents. Very sad. But they take care of lots of other marine animals, spread awareness and ocean love. Check them out!

Day 132 - July 21, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

9.2 pounds

538.1 pounds total

COMMUNITY COUNT - DAY 38 - ANITA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2.1 pounds

315 pounds total
Someone lost their STORM TROOPER! Well, I have him now. He didn't end up as sea gull food.

While reading a back issue of ORION magazine, I came across an article called, "50 SIMPLE WAYS TO GET OFF -- If you are in love with the world, fall in love with trying to save it." Some of the tone of the article didn't strike a chord with me, but I wanted to share a tid-bit or two that did.

"I WANT YOU TO MAKE THE TIME TO FIND WHAT OR WHOM YOU LOVE - WHETHER IT'S SALMON, STURGEON, A PATCH OF FOREST, SURVIVORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, YOUR OWN INDIGENOUS TRADITION, MIGRATORY SONGBIRDS, CORAL REEFS, OR APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINTOPS - AND I WANT YOU TO DIG IN AND DEFEND YOUR BELOVED..."

- DERRICK JENSEN

"FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE IT SO THE WORLD - THE REAL, PHYSICAL WORLD - IS A BETTER PLACE BECAUSE YOU LIVED HERE."

- DERRICK JENSEN

After our 20 minutes of trash collecting my friend Anita said that it was harder to do this than she thought it would be. She mentioned that her quads hurt, although I usually find it's my back that takes the tweak of it all, but she also said, "It must be hard to enjoy walking along the beach if you did this enough."

And I thought about how I was happy that it was cloudy this week. It meant that not as many people would be out on the beach. That meant less trash streaming into the ocean. When I realized what I was thinking it made me a little bit sad.

Day 131 - July 17, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

13.2 pounds

528.9 total
13.2 pounds sent me around the park on my bike just after dark, which is not recommended, to blow off some steam. Then into my living room for a variety of sit-ups, crunches, push-ups and other energy releasing activities that made my dog further question my odd behavior.

One good thing about tonight's collection was a girl of about 12 came over to thank me saying that she hopes that she could do something like this in the future. Pretty cool. I told her to grab an extra bag when she went to the beach next time, thanked her, and gave her a big smile.

When I got back to the parking lot I wanted to stop strangers standing by their car smoking cigarettes to ask them if they could guess how many pounds of trash I'd found in 20 minutes. 13 pounds! I wanted to yell at them while probably adding an animated, "Can you believe that?"

I refrained.
Since the poundage and pictures speak for themselves here, I am going to infuse the rest of this post with some positivity. (Especially in light of the fact that the "oil cap" is "leaking" sigh :< )

1. One of my favorite blogs, Kiss My County, has come out with a post about Rachel Carson. The post asks us to think about whether or not the famed female environmental/writer/scientist would have been part of the newly formed BOEMRE (Bureau of Ocean Management, Regulation and Enforcement) or whether she would have turned in her Wildlife Fish and Game governmental uniform for a Greenpeace membership if she were alive today. Interesting to think about.....
2. My friend Keely works for Roots and Shoots in San Fransisco. Roots and Shoots is the environmental youth organization founded by Jane Goodall. Keely sent out an email last week to announce to her friends and family that,

"This week Jane Goodall celebrated 50 years of research that started in Gombe in Tanzania. This CNN video talks about Roots & Shoots and makes me really happy! I am very proud to be a part of her work." (check out the video - link highlighted in the sentance above)

I want to walk to entire coast of California in a couple of years. Check out the people who make it possible to find a trail from tip to tail. www.coastwalk.org Their website is the hub for all things Hiking Coastal California.

I'd like to collect trash for 20 minutes a day while walking, keep it, and assemble a trashy sculpture at the end so that people can see a fraction of what lines our coasts, and what one person can do about it. Want to help?
The Smithsonian's Ocean Portal - is a wealth of resources on all things "Blue Planet." From music videos to sections just "for Educators." You will find amazing information here about the oceans. Brought to you by the National Museum of Natural History, the Ocean Portal is amazing!

Lastly - Danielle of It Starts With Me blog, sent me this link to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center 30 minutes from her house. They recieve no state or federal funding!

Who doesn't feel better by helping a sea turtle? Knowing that people are dedicating themselves to this work makes my day. It can even help me smile on a day when I collect 13 pounds of mostly plastic garbage off my local beach in 20 minutes, and learn that BP's "oil cap" is leaking.......

Day 130 - July 16, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

5.7 pounds

515.7 pounds total

COMMUNITY COUNT COLLECTION - Danielle, Aaron, Chase, Claire, and Henri

DAY 36

5.4 pounds

312.9 pounds total
Arrowhead water... There's a saying I learned growing up - "IF CAN'T SAY ANYTHING NICE, DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL." This phrase would apply to my feelings about bottled water. However, keeping silent about the damaging environmental impacts of bottled water is not an option.

- if you filled a plastic water bottle about 1/4th of the way up with petroleum, that is approximately how much it takes to make the plastic bottle.

- why do we continue to buy products that are used for minutes and their packaging sticks around forever ? (plastic is fairly new - 1970's - some estimates are 1,000 yrs. for breakdown, mostly we are learning as we go)......

- oh yeah - and it is 10,000% percent mark up to buy bottled water then fill up at the tap in your own house. buy lunch for 10$ or 1,000$

see TAPPED - the movie for more details.
Danielle - from Wilmongton NC - is a fellow blogger who I met online. Her blog - It Starts With Me - is great! She is visiting her college roomate for the week in Corona Del Mar so she braught her family up for the evening to have dinner, and come on a cleanup with me.

Thank you to her, her husband Aaron, oldest son Chase, Claire (pictured above), and Henri for joining me on the beach last night.

As Claire picked these glasses up her father said, "Not everything you find out here is trash, huh?" to his daughter who then turned and very nicely modeled her new find for me.
As we were collecting, the topic of finding "loaded" dirty diapers at the beach came up. I mentioned how I had written finding a dirty diaper into the story I am working on well before I found my first diaper on the beach in real life.

The one pictured above is diaper number 3 or 4.

3 or 4 too many.

From R to L - Henri, Claire and Chase with another find. A perfectly good umbrella. They also found many sandtoys that they are hopefully putting to good use today, and a beach towel.

Garen and I tried to go to the beach today.

First - we tried to go to the local cafe, "Rose Cafe" on the boarder of Venice and Santa Monica. The parking lot was full.

Excuse me - first we tried to go to the beach pictured above - parking lot full, then the cafe and then to "Lily's" on Abbot Kinney because there is cheap validated parking behind it.

Well save yourself the favor of following our lead and DO NOT GO TO LILY"S RESTAURANT. 50$, a horrible soggy snadwich, and a ridiculously long wait while we watched everyone else eat later, we got back in the car to go to the beach in Venice.

FULL

The beach back in our hood

FULL.

I love our neighborhood, but Southern California in the summer is SO crowded that Garen and I are dreaming of the day when we can move to a more remote part of our beloved state coast. We finally gave up, and came home....but it sure feels good to be back on The Daily Ocean. Going out again tonight to collect some more trash from our local beach.