Day 108 - March 26

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.7 pounds

429.1 pounds total
There is a huge plastic bottle manufacturing plant in Corpus Cristi Texas called Flint Hills. In that city, the birth defect rate is 84% higher than the state average. I learned this from watching TAPPED. If you want to find out more, you can now buy it on DVD by visiting their website, and watch tons of free trailers too.

The fact I mentioned above is significant because when you buy #1 PET labeled plastic drinking bottle, you are not only ingesting carcinogens from the benzene and other chemicals that leech into your beverage, but you are contributing to the noxious gas emissions from the plant that is making those bottles, and poisoning the communities that live around their factories.

I've mentioned before that styrafoam is banned as a take out container in Santa Monica. But our city is at the end of the pipe, so to speak, meaning that the Santa Monica Bay receives all the trash from the storm drains for the entire city of Los Angeles where styrafoam is not banned.

This is a picture of what to me looked like beak marks and bird "bites" from porbably some foraging sea gull who now has a belly full of this stuff. But they aren't the only animals eating styrafoam. Check out 5Gyres blog to see a post about how some folks out to dinner, found stryafoam bits ingested in their clams. Wow.
I met a woman by phone yesterday, Sophie, when I was with Team Marine at SAMO high from

ACE - Alliance for Climate Education

Go to their site to check out their trailer, and sign up for an assembly on climate change to come to your school!

"ACE is a national nonprofit dedicated to educating America's high school students about the science behind climate change and inspiring them to do something about it—while having fun along the way. Founded in 2008, ACE is headquartered in Oakland, California, with offices in New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, New England, Denver, Atlanta, Houston and Austin."

Beverly's Florida Vacation Beach Cleanup

Community Count Collection: Beverly

location: Florida

day: 12 & 13 of 365

pounds collected: 5.06

total pounds collected to date: 119

Some of you who have been following The Daily Ocean may know that I invite people to collect trash off their local beach from anywhere in the world, and send me the information that I will then post on this blog, adding to the Community Count Collection Tally.

The 20 minute beach cleanup that I do can be done anywhere, that's part of the reason why I designed my project this way. If you feel inspired to action my reading The Daily Ocean then my hope is that you will take that enthusiasm out into your own community. When people see you collecting trash off the beach:

1. It may inspire others to do the same.

2. Which in turn will spark their curiosity to learn more about the problem of Marine Plastic Pollution, and trash clogging our beaches and oceans.

3. Lets you see first hand that many of the same items that we buy as part of our TO GO lifestyle, end up in the ocean and are ruining the marine ecosystems.

4. This first hand interaction with the huge problem of Plastic Marine Pollution, as my friends Anna Cummins and Dr. Marcus Eriksen describe it, lets you make more informed choices in your life to change from a throw away life style, to a sustainable one.

Remember, "When you throw something away, there is no "away"."

- David Bach, Author

One person who has taken to the idea of collecting trash off the beach for 20 min. is my friend Beverly who I met when she contacted me through this blog.

This is the 2nd time she has taken valuable vacation time to meticulously weigh, photograph and write about the trash she is finding on the beaches she visits.

Last summer we got a detailed account about her trip to Rhode Island, and this January we get to follow her as she explores, cleans, and spreads awareness during her Florida vacation.

I can't thank her enough. Every time I get one of her well thought out, beautiful, cohesive email attachments with text and pictures to post I think my heart swells a size. So thank you Beverly. You inspire me, and I know you will inspire those that will read your post below.

I'd like to mention a big thank you to Surfrider!

Beverly knows that I am a member of Surfrider here in California, and so before she visits her next coastal vacation spot, she looks up the local Surfrider Chapter for information. Every time she has done this they have provided her with a list of beaches, supplies, local information and support.

Surfrider works as a grassroots, community organization all over the world. It is just awesome to see her making these connections, so thanks again to the local Florida Surfrider Chapters that helped Beverly.

The Daily Ocean – Florida Beach Cleanup – 1/18/10

St. Lucie County, Florida – South Hutchinson Island
Waveland Beach and Walton Rocks Beach

South Hutchinson Island, part of Florida’s Treasure Coast, has a long stretch of beach that’s a pleasure to surfers, fishermen and beachgoers. I’m here this week and once again taking some time for beach cleanup while I’m on vacation. The local Treasure Coast SurfRider group recommended a number of beaches to visit and today I write about the first two. More to come later this week.

Waveland Beach (2 lb.s, 1 oz. collected)

Waveland Beach is just a mile north of the St. Lucie county line, and is a guarded beach. Florida’s just warming up from her record cold spell, it’s a windy day, and the waves are rough and crashing – even the surfers are in today. This is a very clean beach, and as I walk along I find some pieces of plastic here and there but mostly natural items – a coconut and lots of shells. Pelicans are flying overhead, and sandpipers are running toward and then away from the waves. A crab scuttles along.

On the beach there dead fish are washed up every few feet, some fairly large. The birds are not touching them. It’s an uncomfortable sight. As I leave I ask a lifeguard, “Why are there so many dead fish?”, and he answers, “The water got so cold the past few weeks they couldn’t survive.” I ask, “Why aren’t the birds eating them?”. “They have been but there’s just too many.”

I walk back to my car and weigh what I’ve collected – 2 lbs., 1 oz. on this clean and windy beach.

Beach Cleanup Sighting from Balcony

I’m lucky enough to be right on the beach this week and I spend a lot of time looking at the beach from my balcony. This morning I spotted a couple walking along the beach with plastic bags, bending down every few feet to pick something up. I recognized what they were doing immediately.

“There are people doing beach cleanup out there!” I cried. “I’m getting my camera!”. I watched them for a few minutes and snapped a picture.

It was really nice to see someone picking up trash along a beach. I don’t know who the couple are, or how often they do beach cleanup, but if they’re responsible for the clean beach outside my balcony, I thank them for what they’ve done.

Walton Rocks Beach (3.0 lbs. collected)

Walton Rocks Beach is further north from Waveland Beach, and is a dog-friendly beach. I drive in along a smooth dirt road and wind around to the parking lot. The wind’s died down a bit today and there are cars and trucks in this lot. Surfers and families with dogs are heading to the beach.

This is not a guarded beach, and fishing is allowed. Today there’s more activity along the beach – the sun is shining and it’s warming up. Surfers and some swimmers are in the water, and people are sitting in the sun with their dogs. Farther up, fishermen are casting their nets into the surf.



This beach is also fairly clean, and there’s lots of sea life washed up on shore – a few fish here and there as well as crabs and a starfish. Lots of shells. I find a huge net with shells tangled in – too big to haul away. I pick up pieces of plastic, net and some plastic bottles as I walk along.

I wouldn’t mind returning to this beach; everyone was enjoying themselves on this first warm beach day in awhile – including the dogs. Walton Rocks Beach is a beautiful beach and a beautiful walk along the shore. In the end I collected 3.0 lbs. of trash.

Day 90 - Jan.19, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds of trash collected today - 7.5

estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 379.5

As you can see, the beach was very windy when I arrived. I collected trash for 20 minutes, but did not make it all the way to the life guard tower 28, which is my turn around marker.

Why? Because it has been raining in LA, and so the beach is stuffed with trash. Trash that has been uncovered by the wind that was buried under the sand, and trash that has washed up on the shore from Santa Monica Bay.
I usually link a bunch of articles, or organizations in my posts, but today I would like to talk a little bit about The Daily Ocean. Recently I was interviewed for an inspiring blog called Planet Connect, and since I am not practiced at being interviewed, so I realized after the fact that I could have clarified and stressed the message that I am trying to send with this project better.

Here is an attempt to remedy that:

I chased a sea gull away from this ball while it was eating the fuzz off.

WHY DO I DO BEACH CLEANUPS IF THEY ARE NOT THE MOST EFFECTIVE SOLUTION?

I collect trash from the beach for a small amount of time, in the same designated location, (my "backyard" beach if you will), to illustrate the point that there is a lot of crap littering our beaches!

It is not just a problem in places like the North Pacific Trash Gyre, the problem starts right here, where I live, where you live. 80% of the Marine Plastic Pollution that ends up in the ocean is blown in from the land. SO....

If you can see it by going to the beach yourself, picking it up, or by looking at my pictures, I am hoping that you will see the tragic fact that we are polluting our precious marine eco-systems with trash that is as mundane as a Cheezit's Bag, or an M&M wrapper, or tennis balls....plastic bottle cap lids, cigarette butts...the list is long, but PREVENTABLE.

* however, many of these seemingly inert pieces of trash are made of plastic, which turns out to leach toxins into the water, break down into smaller and smaller pieces that get into the marine food chain and back to us, and kill 100's of 1,000's of marine animals each year. Just to name a few of the problems from trashing our oceans.....

SO IF BEACH CLEANUPS AREN'T THE ONLY SOLUTION, WHAT DO WE DO?

I collect from the beach to illustrate how much trash is out there, even on a beach in a very environmentally minded city like Santa Monica, and on a beach that is racked for trash daily, and has on average 15 trash cans lined up between life guard towers.....I still found 7.5 pounds of trash yesterday in 20 MINUTES.

I use a beach cleanup as a vehicle to show the problem in a tangible way. I encourage participation in cleanups because I have found that it helps me to pick up a water bottle, or food wrapper and ask myself next time I am hungry or thirsty,

"Do I need to buy a Single Use Plastic wrapped product? It will end up in a land fill, or in the ocean. I just picked one up off the beach the other day! Could I just make it home instead and remember my reusable water bottle next time?"

In brings an awareness that your life style choices make an impact to see these items littering the beach first hand. Like I said above, the problem is no longer floating in some far away gyre, it is right in your hand.

OK - SOLUTIONS: If recovery at sea is impractical for many reasons, and one of the most obvious being that to sail out into all the world's gyres would leave a huge carbon footprint, then, as was said by - Dr. Marcus Eriksen, of Algalita, Livable Legacy, 5gyres

"The idea of "Recovery" begins and ends on land."

One organization I will mention that I like very much is the PLASTIC POLLUTION COALITION. Who, the other day, had an email discussion about changes to support that make a real difference in terms of Plastic Pollution, especially in the Marine environment. I'll pass some of them on below:

1. REFUSE Single Use Plastics. Sign their S.U.P.E.R. Pledge (Single Use Plastic Emergency Response)

Example - bring your own reusable shopping bag to the market. Do you really need a handy little plastic bag for those apples you'll wash anyway? If you want, go to Beth Terry's blog where she chronicles her two plus years of, "LIVING LIFE WITH LESS PLASTIC" on her blog Fake Plastic Fish. She brings organic cotton produce bags with her to the market.

2. ECONOMIC INCENTIVES PER PRODUCT: Another solution promoted by the PPC, and Dr. Eriksen explains it well here:

"One solution we advocate is an economic incentives to recover plastic waste on land. A post-consumer value, let's say 25cents/pound for mixed plastics, would keep the waste off the land, beaches, roadsides, out of trees and watersheds.

Improving recovery is key to solving this problem. Economic incentives per product (EPR) or per pound would work. Bring back the school paper drive, but for plastic. Recovery is essential, but it doesn't happen at sea."

3. Ban Single Use Plastics ( SUP ) - Get involved at the local level and promote the ban of single use plastic bags for example. Team Marine (a local environmental group of high school activists) is circulating an online petition to get our city of Santa Monica to mobilize the ban of plastic bags.

Learn about local hearings on topics like these being held in your area. Attend and comment when they allow Public Comment. The local/state politicians who hold these meetings want to know what you think.

Finally, here is a comment left on a previous post of The Daily Ocean by Dan of NEEF (National Environmental Education Foundation) who is in Washington D.C.. He talks about the successful implementation of a $.05 TAX on Plastic Bags in D.C.:

"Our plastic bag tax in Washington DC has made a major difference. NO ONE takes bags anymore at grocery stores, CVS, Target, etc. It's only $.05, but they're not out anymore. It's only been two weeks since it was enacted, but it's night and day here. I will hope to remember to report back when we get some stats from the city on the reduction in plastic bag usage. Downside - I am running out of my dog poop clean up supply."

These were just a few suggestions. I'd like to hear more from you. Leave me a comment if you'd like to share.

The problem of Marine Plastic Pollution is HUGE, but there are solutions. They require work, some personal sacrifice to change our life style, perhaps the donation of your time/energy to get involved in local government, or by belonging to an environmental organization that you believe is working towards these solutions.

But the more I learn about this issue, the more I feel like now that I know, this knowledge has become my responsibility to act. At this point, for me, it would be way more painful to not take action, than to start to be part of the solution. I hope that The Daily Ocean inspires you to do the same in your life.

Day 87 - Jan. 5 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds collected today - 1.5 lbs.

estimated pounds collected to date - 368.37

community count day 11

trash collected for 20 minutes by Nancy Grass-Hemmert

estimated pounds collected today - 1 lbs.

estimated pounds collected to date - 113.9
Our friend Nancy came out with me today. She has made a goal to come every Tues. this semester. I think that is great, and it helps me stay accountable. Working alone, which I do now, whether it is writing or blogging can lead to tiny roadblocks of procrastination. It not only helps our beach, but it helps me to be motivated when I go out to collect with someone else. Thank you Nancy!
I know one of the people who started the site KISS MY COUNTRY, which is just the coolest blog. They interview people who are changing the world and ask them to talk about some of their favorite places. Kind of helps us remember why we care, and maybe why we do what we do.

Their latest interview is my fellow blogger and activist Beth Terry, who writes the blog Fake Plastic Fish. I have included a link to a YouTube video of her.

She said something in her interview with Kiss My Country that I totally agree with and will quote again here.

" People don’t want to feel bad about how they live – I remember how I lived. You have to reach people where they are.” - Beth Terry

Like Beth's amazing YouTube video says, Plastic is a Problem. I have some other friends who are sailing towards the Sargasso Sea to research the North Atlantic Trash Gyre. Yup. Did you know that there is a gyre, (or two), in every ocean? I didn't.

Anna and Marcus will be sailing there, stopping in Bermuda and then traveling to the Azores. They are so inspiring. Please visit their 5gyres site for a wealth of information, and inspiration.

"UNDERSTANDING PLASTIC MARINE POLLUTION THROUGH EXPLORATION, EDUCATION AND ACTION" - 5gyres website

Daniel, of the organization NEEF ( National Environmental Education Foundation ) emailed me, (you can too, thedailyocean@yahoo.com). He has an event coming up that I would like to share with you. National Public Lands Day.

NPLD is the nation's largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands Americans enjoy. In 2009, 150,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, removed trash and invasive plants, planted trees and restored our water resources. Join us for the next NPLD on September 25, 2010.

Sometimes the environmental problems we face feel so big that it can be overwhelming. I think that many people feel like just throwing their hands up, or ignoring the problems. I know that as much as I care about the ocean, I did for a while until I realized that even if the odds feel stacked against us, I promise you that action feels a lot better than inaction. I've discovered that I prefer to do something with what I know, but I believe that each person has to get there in their own time, in their own way. Whether it is following Beth Terry's lead and reducing the amount of personal plastic consumption, picking up trash off the beach, or in Anna and Marcus's case sailing into the Sargasso Sea to investigate Plastic Marine Pollution first hand, start somewhere. Do what you can, when you can. If everyone did, think about the difference we could make.

Day 80 - Dec. 4

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds of trash collected today - 1.4

estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 349.05
What's up wasabi?!!! Yummy chips. Well, there is a meeting in downtown LA this Thursday to:

" The LA regional water quality control board is considering adding a zero trash total maximum daily load (TMDL) for the Los Angeles River as part of the municipal stormwater permit. If passed, it would be a huge victory for the environmental community and significant step in controlling and preventing marine debris from entering our ocean."

I'll be there, and if you are interested in going just leave me a message in the comment section at the

end of this post.

I have to confess that I am a little out of step with my blog/project. Last week I only collected twice. I feel the need to re-energize my efforts. I think that stamina is important when I look at the goal I have set for myself with The Daily Ocean. I'm hoping that if I cop to my displeasure with my efforts here, I'll be able to get back on track a little more. Let's see.
I'd like to highlight a blogger and her blog that I think is realistic and effective in her continuing efforts. That is Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish. Check it out!
Dianna Cohen, one of the founders of Plastic Pollution Coalition, sent me a link to an article about how CU Boulder has begun discussing banning plastic bottled from their campus. They have also installed "Hydration Stations" for students to fill up their reusable water bottles. Anyone remember water fountains? Sounds like the same thing to me, and a good idea.

Here's the link to read more
G2 Gallery in Venice on Abbot Kinney has some seriously beautiful wildlife photography. Sat. night they had a benefit to help The Last Straw fundraise for their mission to go to the North and South Atlantic Gyre, a speaking tour down the east coast, build a boat from plastic straws and sail it across the English Channel and down the Siene and do this all in two and a half years. Anna Cummins and Dr. Marcus Erikson have started an organization called Living Legacy and this will be their first project. They have a cool new website too called 5gyres.

Anyway, G2 Gallery gives 100% of its proceeds from the sale of the artwork and photography to help environmental organizations. Cool place! Here's a link