Day 248 - Jan. 30, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

1.6 pounds

933.2 pounds total 

My friend Danielle started her own Daily Ocean beach cleanup project after coming out with me in Santa Monica over a year and a half ago. She is doing incredible things! Her focus (although she picks up all trash along her 20 min. cleanup) is cigarette butts. She's collected a whopping 38,585 cigarette butts around her local beaches in Wrightsville N.C.!

Think they need to ban smoking from beaches? 

Good gravy that's a lot of ciggie butts!

Banning smoking on Wrightsville Beaches is coming up for a vote, and you can sign a petition encouraging the Board of Aldermen to do so. 

Please vote to ban cigarette smoking on the beach and then pass on this link through all your channels - email, twitter, FB, you name it. 

Let's get those signatures in! Join Danielle and Surfrider by taking a step in the direction of healthier oceans everywhere, and then pass it on! Thank you. 

In Surfrider's e-newsletter, "SOUP" they highlighted a New York Times article on BP's internal emails revealing they knew full well just how much oil was spilling into the Gulf from the beginning, and they kept it under wraps. I'm not surprised, but I still feel sick to my stomach. 

Here's the link. 

"Soup" (Surfrider) also provided a link to garbage trashing the shores of the Mexican Caribbean. I have seen this first hand having done at least one Daily Ocean cleanup in Tulum, Mexico. 

Seeing the LA Times photographer cover the problem in Mexico, which points to the much larger problem in the ocean, was encouraging. The article goes into more depth on the currents carrying the waste that then spit it up all over "paradise." 

Thank you LA Times for the relevant piece, and for focusing people's attention on ocean health, and the disposable plastics crisis our blue planet faces. 

Day 247 - Jan. 27, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

3 pounds

931.6 pounds

Community Count Day 190 - Mark Armen

trash collected for 20 min. 

3 pounds

911.5 pounds total

The Daily Ocean combined total - 1,843.1 pounds of trash off beaches worldwide 

Thanks to my friend Mark, my first night back since being home from Kenya was a total blast. It had been way too long since we'd been out on the beach together. I spent so much of my time chatting away that I forgot to take more pictures!

Mark is up to some seriously awesome, concrete, environmental solutions. He's one to watch. Here is just one of his creative projects. It's an inventive and catchy way to keep cigarette butts from entering out oceans, waterways and littering our streets - THE BAIT TANK. Check it out!

Being home feels great. I'm looking ahead to my last year of beach cleanups, and more than likely less than that. 

I started this blog in March 2009 (I don't do a beach cleanup everyday - my average is every three and my goal is 365 non-consecutive days), but this year I was away for more than one third of the entire year! That's right. Over four months of time spent out of town and far away! 

This makes carrying the momentum of The Daily Ocean a challenge, leaves me feeling behind, and creates the opportunity to ease up on myself with the proper reflection. I've changed since I formed my goals for this project, but I love getting out onto the beach, picking up the liter, taking the photographs and then sharing it with you. 

Bring on 2012!

The last shot of the night. Inspirational. The view, that is, not the photograph, so I thought it fitting to leave you with the news that - 


ALBERTSONS GROCERY STORE IS IN THE PROCESS OF VOLUNTARILY REMOVING PLASTIC BAGS FROM THEIR STORES! GO ALBERTSONS!


For those of you outside of CA, this is huge news and could be compared to whatever your home state, or countries largest chain super-grocery store is deciding to do the same. There's the WOO-HOO I was looking for. Here's the scoop if you'd like to read more.