Day 219 - Sept. 18, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park Santa Monica, CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1 pound

821.8 pounds total 

Susan, her son Simon and me

Community Count Day - 168

trash collected for 20 minutes

4.45 pounds (including one garden shovel with wooden handle and metal trough!)

842.55 pounds total

DAILY OCEAN COMBINED TOTAL - 1,664.35 pounds in - 387 cleanups

Susan and her family joined me for a beach cleanup Sunday night. I really like it when people are interested in coming out to the beach with me. It was their family's second beach cleanup of the weekend since COASTAL CLEANUP DAY was the day before. Here's an impressive stat. -

11,000 PEOPLE COVERED 86 MILES AND REMOVED 22 TONS OF TRASH SAT. SEPT. 17

The next morning after I took this shot, I was out in the water behind this very beach and found more balloons. I swam past the sets to the two green deflated balloons, grabbed them, swam back, popped them, and tucked them into my rash guard for later disposal. Balloons are not a party for the ocean. Animals mistake them for food, eat them, and get sick or die.

A question that Coastal Cleanup participants at Venice Pier asked me more than once as I was weighing in their findings for Surfrider was, "Where do we mark down Styrofoam? (on the CCD data card that Ocean Conservancy wants handed out to volunteers)"

answer - they don't have a place to mark Styrofoam. 

I find this odd. 

We instructed that they mark Styrofoam under plastics, but really O.C.? 

Let's acknowledge one of the most pervasive and polluting kinds of trash out their in the marine eco-system. 

Styrofoam - if balloons look like jelly fish, don't you think that broken down bits of Styrofoam double nicely for fish eggs? 

And fish eggs are food for just about everyone out there....birds, other fish...it's a long list. 

Why do we make efforts like Coastal Cleanup Day? See the photo above.

Th Daily Ocean Photography Exhibit at The Art Studio Gallery

me and my friend Siel who writes the amazing green LA girl blog 

Thank you to all of the people who came out to my opening on Sat. It was a lot of fun and we had a great turnout. I know that last weekend was packed so not to worry if you thought you could make it, but got sidetracked. The show will be up until Sept. 30. I will be gallery sitting a couple of times and will  let you know when on FB and Twitter. Also, we hung the show so that if you want to walk on by, you can see most of it from the street. 

The Art Studio Gallery - 1612 Ocean Park Blvd. Santa Monica 90405

Thank you to my husband Garen who tended bar. 

The trash that I collected from 4 - 20 minute cleanups the week leading up to the opening. 

My friend Kirsten James from Heal the Bay came by after a monster-long-day of Coastal Cleanup activities and then went to a Lucinda Williams show! Thanks for stopping by Kirsten! 

Another Heal the Bay champ - Natalie Burdick - showed up too! Thank you Natalie! Heal the Bay hosted Coastal Cleanup Bay in our area & were kind enough to post about the opening on their webpage

A kelp photograph hangs in the window of the gallery that can be seen from the sidewalk. 

I wrote text to go underneath some of the photographs. My friend Mary Michel (who put this show together with her husband Toby - HUGE THANKS!!) suggested that since I combine writing and photography, I do the same for the show. It felt right to see the two elements up together. 

Mary and Toby own and operate the Angeles Printing Studio on Ocean Park Blvd. Mary is a fantastic photographer and artist. Thanks to Mary for printing out all of the photographs for the show. 

This print is at least 2 feet by 3 feet. I love seeing it blown up to this scale. 

One of the most commented prints of the night. All of my photographs are exactly what I saw when I took them. I don't: 

- crop

-alter the color or lighting

- move anything before I take the shot

- what you see is what I saw

Sometimes the best shots are out there, ready and waiting for you to walk up and find them.

If you have any questions about the show or the prints in them: email me - thedailyocean@yahoo.com