Day 194 - Feb. 7, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2 pounds

728.3 pounds total

I often scan the blogs I read for their latest entries when I sign into blogger. The Bag Monster had a great post about ONE MORE GENERATION. I've known about this brother and sister dynamo-duo but have not taken the opportunity to write about them. So with a nod to the Bag Monster, let me also cover some of the amazing environmental initiatives that Olivia - 9 1/2, and Carter - 8 have been up to. 

This post from their site caught my eye, "Plastic...it's what's for dinner." 

    

They started OMG with their primary interest being to save wild animals after they "adopted" a cheetah. Their involvement in caring for endangered species led them the issue of banning single-use bags in their own community, and keeping them out of their house too. If you care about wild animal welfare, this is a logical next step. 

Since becoming aware of the need to stop using plastic bags, they have talked to their mayor in Georgia, teamed up with the creators of BAG IT, and come up with a great skit called, "Captain Re-Use fighting off Princess Plastic." 

"Plastic, it's what's for dinner," is packed with great videos about singe-use plastic bags. Please head over to their site, read up on them, and show your support for kids changing the world.                                                                                                                                                                     

The people who live in Southern California have it pretty good. Few would argue with that seeing this stand up paddle board surfer enjoying the sunset from the water on Super Bowl Sunday when even Dallas was under snow only a few days ago. 

But life here is not all about fun in the sun. One trouble that we share with the global community is trash. What do we do with all of the tons of trash that's generated from our 15 million or so LA area residents? I have found that recycling is a slippery slope with one fact circulating through my mind more than most - WE SELL OUR PLASTIC TO CHINA. Yup. When you put that water bottle in the blue bin it is like giving it a one way ticket to Asia. Ugh. Or at least that is how I feel. 

But to be fair, here is an article from the LA Times that ran last week, "Trash: Southern California's mission to clean up the confusion." I'm not sure that the article did that for me, but I'll let you decide for yourself.

Wait one minute, didn't I JUST put this picture up only a day ago? Isn't this a mistake? 

Every person that I noticed walking to work through Clover Park this morning had their lunch in a plastic bag.

I find a bottle almost every time that I go out onto the sand. 

Right after I took this picture, I looked down and saw a dead seagull. The gull looked perfectly healthy except for the way that it was titled forward onto the sand with its wings folded underneath him. Did it die from eating too much plastic crap and Styrofoam? I didn't know what to do at first. It felt wrong to leave the gull to be raked over in the morning by the beach tractor. I couldn't put it in the trash can behind me, that felt worse. I hesitated to touch it. Don't feathers have mites? The only answer seemed to be bringing the bird to the ocean. So I did. 

Day 193- Feb. 4, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

1.4 pounds

726.3 pounds total

This is the first of 5 straws that I collected off of the beach last night in 20 min.

Harry of the Flotsam Diaries has done it again! In a series of posts about recycling called, "The Triangle is a Lie" he has illuminated the not-so-green practice of recycling plastic. His latest installment - "Recycling the Myth" is a mind blower that I will have to go back through to absorb. Thanks to Harry, we can read his meticulously researched posts navigating the quagmire that is recycling, and come out the other end feeling a little less dooped by the whole thing. I'd go so far as to say that recycling plastics is the best sold green washing campaign out there. Before you disagree, read this.

Last night Team Marine had a meeting where they watched a recorded talk given by oceanographer Joshua Willis. He works for at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena CA studying among other things, "The role of the ocean in the Earth's climate system under global climate change."

I didn't stay to watch the entire talk with Garen sick at home, but what I did hear made me revisit the undeniable fact that Global Warming is directly linked to the warming of the ocean. "If you want to heat up the planet you have to heat up the ocean," says Willis. And with 70% of the Earth covered in ocean, it doesn't take more than a second to see his point. 

Here is a post on the JPL blog that equates global warming with betting titled, "It's a Sure Bet." I recommend taking a minute to read it. 

"HOW INAPPROPRIATE TO CALL THIS PLANET EARTH WHEN IT IS QUITE CLEARLY OCEAN." - Arthur C. Clarke

I hope that Wallace J Nichols excuses my paraphrasing here, but something that he said to me came to mind last night while watching Josh Willis's talk. J Nichols said to me, "However big you imagine the ocean to be, it is bigger. The ocean is way bigger than we could ever imagine." Being reminded that it covers 70% of the Earth's surface, I'd have to agree with him. As much time and energy as I spend thinking about the ocean, I had never thought about it the way that J Nichols put it. Maybe you haven't either?

For all of the poor air quality we endure in the LA area, we are paid back in part with dazzling sunsets.

Day 192 - Feb. 3, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2.4 pounds 

724.9 pounds total

My friend, phenomenal photographer and print maker Mary Michel sent me a link to a Vimeo about the couple in Northern California who makes art out of the plastics that they find washed ashore on their beach. Richard Lang and Judith Selby have been at this for over a decade! I wrote about them in a recent post, with a link to this video, but it is so good that I had to mention it again!

One Plastic Beach from ANIMAL | ON EST MAL on Vimeo.

Here is a link to the couple's blog that chronicles their project that has been going on for 12 YEARS! That's right 12 YEARS. 

PLASTIC FOREVER

They collected 2 tons in one year off of their local beach! I wonder how long they were out there for at a time? I hope that it was for a lot longer than 20 minutes to get that much trash!!

Like Richard and Judith say, they are not cleaning their beach in the sense that what they collect will make a dent in the flow of materials to and from the water, but that they are curating it. I hope that I too can do the same in my own way with my photographs and posts. What a cool feeling to be connected to their work, and to the efforts of all of the motivated, and talented folks talking about this urgent issue. Their inspiration started from a walk on the beach, and so did mine. What would come to mind if you took a walk on the beach and asked yourself the same thing? What can I add to the conversation?

Day 191 - Feb. 2, 2011

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

3.2 pounds collected

722.5 pounds total

COMMUNITY COUNT - Day 109 

Dean Miya

trash collected for 20 min.

3.2 pounds

666.4 pounds total

Daily Ocean combined total - 1,388.9

This is the lifeguard's water bottle that was sitting out on the deck as he was shuttering up 26 for the night. My first thought was that it would be great to take a picture of it, but I hadn't even seen the RISE ABOVE PLASTICS logo that was on his KLEEN KANTEEN stainless steel bottle. The discovery was a huge bonus to me. Surfrider's RISE ABOVE PLASTICS campaign is tremendous. You can get involved where ever you live, coastal or not. Check it out!

The Wake Project interviewed me about The Daily Ocean recently. I hadn't heard of their organization before they contacted me, but now I feel the need to pass along a link to them so that you too can learn about their amazing efforts. 

"WAKE IS AN AWARENESS INITIATIVE THAT SEEKS TO EDUCATE PEOPLE ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF SHARKS, RAYS AND TUNAS TO OUR PLANET'S FRAGILE OCEAN ECOSYSTEM. WE SPEAK FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES."

Thank you to the Wake Project for taking an interest in The Daily Ocean. 

What kind of strange plastic bottle is this?

This startling fact is from the Britta Filter For Good PSA collaboration with the Sundance Channel:

"LAST YEAR THE USA USED ENOUGH PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES TO STRETCH AROUND THE EARTH OVER 190 TIMES."

My friend Danielle's short film about her cigarette butt beach cleanup in Wrightsville Beach N.C. is one of three winners at this year's Sundance Festival. Here is a great site to find out more about all three, the talented filmmakers who made them, and the inspiring stories that sparked the short films. 

Yay Danielle! What a pleasure it has been to see this grow! You are tremendous!

I want to thank Dean for coming out with me tonight. It was over nine months ago that he contacted me for the first time when he say this blog after recognizing the stretch of beach as the very spot that he surfed at most often. Since then, he has joined me several times, while also volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, Sea Shepard, and spending weeks down in the Gulf this past year getting up close to all the devastation. He inspires me. When you mention how cool it is that he does all of this, he simply says, "It can't be about me all the time."

We were talking about how depressing beach cleanups can be. As you can see from the pictures, the tide was waaaaay out, revealing a plethora of plastics and other soggy trash. We agreed after a minute or two that cleaning it up has to start somewhere. And further agreed that we find it very distressing that animals mistake this trash for food. 

Many jellyfish were stranded by the receding tide last night. I nearly picked up a jelly instead of the plastic next to it. They looked identical to me for a moment. 

Garen and I are buying our plane tickets to Chile this week. We leave the 10th of March from LA to fly to Chile to join a 5 Gyres expedition where Garen will research the effects of plastic micro-pollutants on plankton. If you would like to join an expedition with 5 Gyres find all the info here. If you would like to learn more about the one that we will be joining, and why we want to go with them, check out our story here. Hey, check out both if you feel inspired too! We hope you do.

Day 190 - January 27, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

1.7 pounds collected 

718.7 pounds total

looks like a boogie board leash to me if you can't tell

This week there was a lot of stirring the pot around reusable bags. BEWARE OF REUSABLE BAGS SCARE it could be called. A study was covered by the San Fransisco Chronicle that some reusable bags that had been tested had high levels of lead and other toxins in them. 

Well SAVE THE BAY - a San Fransisco based non-profit - came out with a statement in response that I will copy in part for you here.

"The State of California has laws in place to protect consumers from dangerous levels of lead in products and these laws must be enforced. Even so, very few reusable bags on the market actually contain lead, with the best choice being reusable bags made of canvas or cloth. Meanwhile, plastic bags – with their average use time of 12 minutes – litter our neighborhoods, clog our storm drains, and end up in San Francisco Bay where they degrade water quality and entangle and poison Bay fish and birds. Now THAT is something that should worry consumers." 

Go check out Project Green Bag. Bags made from organic cotton with very cool graphics by a man who really, truly cares about the environment. I think they are even made in San Fransisco....

I really love Chico Bags too. Andy Keller - the company's founder - had this to say about his bags.

I might also add that this man is someone who really, truly cares about the environment too. 

"ChicoBag is a leader in upholding rigorous lead testing standards, exceeding government regulations, to ensure consumer safety. ChicoBag™ utilizes third party testing on every single order. In fact, our products are lead tested three different times before they ever enter your home or business. We adhere to testing standards even more stringent than those set forth by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) for children's toys. In addition to the CPSIA standards, we go one step further to ensure our products also adhere to the more stringent lead standards for children's toys set forth in ASTM F963-07"

In short - know the company that you are buying the reusable bag from. We'd say that about any product, wouldn't we? Get a bag from either of these guys and you are good to go!

But to be extra clear on this issue Andy also clarifies one more thing for us regarding the article on lead in the bags.

"The current CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) standard is 300 PPM (Parts Per Million of lead).  This number will drop to 100 PPM on August 14^th, 2011 if technically feasible.  So, most of the bags mentioned in the article are below 300, but above 100 (Within the legal limit).  The few that are above 300 are not compliant and should be recalled.  These bags are made by companies with insufficient or nonexistent testing procedures."

With two bag bans passing in CA cities this week, does any one else think the release of this study is rather timely??  

I had the privilege of watching a pod of dolphins playing, and fishing at sunset tonight very close to shore. This is the only photograph that I captured one of their fins in primarily because I wanted to watch them with my eyes, and not through the lens. 

The sky really was this color.

This is a shot of where I was standing to watch the pod. It reinforced my desire to get the trash off the beach so that these local dolphins weren't gulping it down with their meal. I want to make sure that no marine animal has to eat the plastic detritus from our throw away culture ever again. It's a big goal, but a girl can dream big can't she?

Day 189 - Jan. 26, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

.6 pounds collected

717.6 pounds total

COMMUNITY COLLECTION DAY - 108 

JON AND MARK

1.4 pounds collected

663.2 pounds total

DAILY OCEAN COMBINED TOTAL = 1,380.8 POUNDS

I met up with John and Mark on the beach for a cleanup before we all went over to Santa Monica City Hall to support the city council in adopting their Single-Use Plastic Bag Ordinance. 

LAST NIGHT WE BANNED THE PLASTIC BAG IN SANTA MONICA!

It was a great feeling to see our community come together. There were folks there from Heal the Bay, like Kirsten James, and Director Mark Gold who gave a passionate 2 min. presentation to the council. Surfrider was well represented by Kat Nyugen and Julie Shultz, who won the Wavemaker Award this year for their dedication to Surfrider and the environment. Anna Cummins was there out front with Ban the Bag signs. She passed over some gyre samples from their research expeditions to Julie who was able to represent The 5 Gyres Institute as well by sharing these samples with the council members.

Team Marine from SAMOHI was there in force. They have exams coming up, but they still found the time to write great 2 min. talks and show up for their city, and the ocean. I sat next to my friend Heather Lounsbury who has a kick ass acupuncture practice here in Santa Monica, and a very compelling Blog Talk Radio show as well! Mark Armen was there who has his Bait Tanks up on the Santa Monica Pier attracting cigarette butt liter, and keeping those toxins out of the bay. Jon Wouters was with us. He's been a big supporter of The Daily Ocean, so thank you Jon!

All of this is to say THANK YOU to all of the people who were with this issue back when the City Council first took it up in 2008. THANK YOU for those of who have shown up every time that there has been a hearing that would allow public comment. THANK YOU to our collective community of people who really give a shit about the ocean, the larger environment, their own health, the health of those to come, and who continue to give their time and energy to it all. I felt pretty proud to be a small part of it all last night. 

Mark suggested that we call out some of the brands/companies who should be responsible for their products. I agree. I think that Extended Producer Responsibility is a great idea. Broken down into very simple terms, it states that if you make a product that you are then resposible for the end of that product's life. Miriam Gordon who is the head of Clean Water Action in San Fransisco works on this a lot. CWA is a great group. If you don't know about them, check them out!

I don't think that someone took the time to cut out this fish shape from their chips bag. Jon found it, and pointed it out to me. Odd, isn't it? Not the kind of fish we want at the beach. 

I like the sun in the background illuminating Jon like some kind of beach angel. 

Santa Monica is a beautiful place to live. I am really looking forward to finding fewer plastic bags on the beach. Hopefully that will be a result once the Bag Ban is put into full effect by Sept., 2011.

TRASHED IN THE BAHAMAS

My neighbor down the street was in the Bahamas recently and here is what she found on the beach.

I didn't know that she was going to collect some trash off of the sand on her vacation until she sent me an email yesterday with this picture attached, which says it all. Every day, all over the world, this is what is washing up on our beaches. 

Solution? I try to phase out plastic packaging on my food. For example - I love Trader Joe's, but have you ever gone there and tried to avoid buying your food packaged in plastic? It is a difficult challenge! We go to the farmers market for our produce when we can. It is grown locally, it's healthy, and we bring our own bags to carry it home in.

Mary is an excellent photographer and print maker who shares a studio with her husband on Ocean Park Blvd. in my neighborhood. You can stop by there, or find her online. 

Mary Foster Michel

1616 Ocean Park Blvd. 

Santa Monica, CA 90405

WINNING SHORT FILM FROM SUNDANCE

"IT STARTS WITH ME" - a short film by Destin Cretton

My friend Danielle of the blog, "It Starts With Me," was featured at the Sundance Film Festival as a winner of the Brita Filter For Good Contest. I am so inspired by watching her in this brief film. 

She came out onto the beach in Santa Monica with me over the summer. This film is about the cigarette butt cleanups that she started when she got home. So far she has collected way over 13,000 cigarette butts off of Wrightsville Beach, in NC. 

What strikes me most about the film, is that you never know who you are going to meet, connect with, what inspiration sparks from that chemistry, and then all of the wondrous outcomes that develop because of these chance encounters. 

I am so grateful that they included a brief bit in the film on The Daily Ocean. A special thank you to the film's director Destin Cretton for including me in his project. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did. Here is how to find Danielle, and how to find Mark. Enjoy.

PROJECT GREEN BAG FOR DONATIONS!!

HOLA! WE ARE IN CHILE PREPARING TO SET SAIL IN A WEEK OR SO. 


WE HAVE NOT RAISED ENOUGH TO MEET EXPENSES SO A $10 DONATION TO OUR RESEARCH WITH 5 GYRES GETS YOU ONE OF THESE SUPER COOL BAGS!

 2 left 
ACT FAST!

PROJECT GREEN BAG

PROJECT GREEN BAG HAS KINDLY DONATED 4 BAGS AS GIVEAWAYS FOR YOUR DONATIONS TO OUR 5 GYRES INSTITUTE RESEARCH EXPEDITION

FOR A $10 DONATION, YOU GET YOUR CHOICE OF PGB BAG 

                                                                         2 BROWN

EMAIL ME TO RECEIVE ONE: thedailyocean@yahoo.com

Superior Quality & Standards

x Certified 100% Organic Cotton
x Printed with Eco Friendly Inks
x Made in San Francisco, CA. USA

x Reusable + Recyclable
x 100% Biodegradable
x Sweatshop Free
x Multifunctional
x Super Strong & Durable
x Machine Washable - (courtesy of the PGB website)

I FOUND A LINK TO THIS VIDEO ON PGB WEBSITE. UNDER 2 MIN. IT CAPTURES WHY WE ALL NEED TO GO REUSABLE. START BY MAKING A DONATION FOR YOUR PGB BAG TODAY!

Day 188- Jan 20, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2 pounds collected 

717 pounds total

Excuse my almost unbearably artsy photo thru the fence, but I like it. 

My friend Ronni sent me a link to today's post from, The Independent. "TRASH HOTEL OPENS IN MADRID." It is aptly named the Save the Beach hotel. This trashy hotel is constructed out of twelve tons of items found littered on Europe's beaches and is designed to "raise awareness of the plight of coastlines and seas around the world."

It was designed by a German artist - HA Schult. You've got to see this place!

Would you like to spend a night in the hotel? Well, you can! Book your stay here.

Garen and I were interviewed by a KTLA reporter on Tues. Our segment aired last night. I was pretty happy with it. It was the first time that either one of us had been interviewed for a TV station. If you would like to check it out, here is the link.

Harry, of the Flotsam Diaries in Northern Maine found a Toy Story Balloon. I found one recently on Day 181, which was on Dec. 27th. He has his posted for Jan. 19th, just less than a month after my west coast find. 

He makes a very good point in his most recent post. 

"All large pieces of plastic are trying to break up into countless small pieces of plastic. Given time, they'll succeed. Every balloon, bottle,measuring cup, shovel, glove, recycling bin, buoy, chunk of foam, or broken boat hull (!) that ends up in the ocean... it isn't really just one piece of flotsam. It's 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 pieces of flotsam, just biding their time."

I knew this, in fact I think about it a lot. I talked about it in our interview with KTLA that we can't go clean it up because these bits are too small to drag out. You'd take everything with it. 

SO then I realized that the popular myth that there is a "floating island of trash" out there somewhere was what I would rather have. We could search for it, find it, break it apart, and haul it in. Afterwards, we'd wipe our hands from a hard job done well. The truth is far more insidious, and deadly. 

The solution? We try to phase out as much single-use plastic products, and packaging as possible. It's a process, but one we are committed to. I have to. I see the detritus of our convenience culture underneath every beautiful pacific sunset on my beach. You may be thinking that these efforts are futile because the whole world isn't going to do this. Well, what if no one tried at all? What would the world look like then? And what if eventually, we all did? What would the world look like then?

My friend Siel, aka green LA girl, posted an interesting link to Freakonomics Radio: The Economics of Trash on her blog. The leading photograph in the article is of approx. 25 bags of bulging, black hefty plastic bags lining a NYC sidewalk on presumably, collection day. Underneath this image it says, "Trash: we rarely think about it - until we have to." In the post, you can find a podcast titled Trashed: How economics - and emotion - have turned garbage into such a mess." I haven't listened to it since we have a small-ish place and Garen, who got only 3 hours of sleep last night, is trying to get some shut eye as I type. But you can bet that this podcast is getting listened to tomorrow. 

Garen took his Winter Session Marine Bio Class from SMC to Palos Verdes for a field trip yesterday. It is the dirtiest beach I have seen around Southern California. It also has the best tide pooling. Those little creatures must be tough! Most of the trash is pushed up onto the rocks and dumped there as the water recedes from high tide. The students couldn't believe how many straws there were! I'm not a fan of straws myself. I try to remember to say, "hold the straw." I often add something to the effect of, "I know it sounds funny, but please, no straw." The thing that really gets to me about finding them on the beach, is that they wash back up basically in pristine condition. 

On Tues., Jan. 25th the Santa Monica City Council Members will pass, here's hoping, the Single-Use Carryout Bag Ordinance. You can see it happen live. Come to the City Hall on Main St. in Santa Monica at 5:30. I believe that there will be time for public comments. I should go back through all 188 days and count how many days I found a plastic bag on the same stretch of Santa Monica Beach in only 20 minutes of looking. Hmmm...I think I will. Stay tuned. 

I know that I take a hell of a lot of shots of the sunset on the same little section of sand. And often, these shots will include a sea gull. What can I say? I'm just mad about these little guys. They seem to me to be under appreciated, and viewed as pests on the picnic blanket. But I always feel like when I am out on the sand, that I am in their house.