Day 186 - Jan. 16, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2 pounds

712.5 pounds total

Every once in a while, I like to dedicate a day's post to my fellow bloggers by sharing a bit of what they have been up to. 


I'll start with "The Flotsam Diaries - A chronicle of human debris. Washed up, blown in, left behind." written by Harry in Northern Maine. 

"In two weeks in the heart of winter on a quiet Maine beach, I've plucked up nearly 1,000 pieces of manmade garbage. Along 500 feet of tideline. Some may be remnants of summer's revelry; some has clearly washed in from many miles away. And it just keeps coming."

This picture reminds me of Daniel in North Carolina who has been collecting cigarette butts, and the other trash that she finds, off of her local beach. She has found 

13,470 cigarettes in 37 days

I'm speechless. 

 This band-aid got "washed" clean. Whenever I find them on the beach, I always wonder why people wear them into the water in the first place? Band-aids come off in the shower...

A blog that I've started to follow more recently has posted their take on the Oregon State Univ. press release issued by Dr. White that calls into question the actual size of the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." The woman who writes the blog, Bonnie, has been out with Algalita and 5 Gyres four times. I think that she has something to contribute to the conversation.

The Plastic Ocean Project 

The IBRRC - International Bird Rescue Research Center - is an amazing operation. Their first center sprung up in Long Beach many years ago. More recently, they have been treating the birds that are the victims of the BP Oil Disaster in Louisiana. They made their fundraising goal for the month of Dec. which is a good thing considering, 


"In 2010, we treated nearly 5,000 birds in our two centers – everything from pelicans to tiny sandpipers to lesser-known fulmars. Last month we also cared for a tundra swan that was found cold and weak in a farmer’s field."

Garen and I are approaching the count down until we head out with the 5 Gyres Institute to cross the South Pacific researching marine plastic pollution. 2011 feels full of promise and adventure. I hope that who ever is reading this finds the same.

This quote is about writing, but can be applied to many creative endeavors. 

"if you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. Lighthouses don't go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining." -- Anne Lamott

Day 181 - Dec. 27, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

by Sara and Garen

4.3 pounds total - 2.1 to the Community Count

(scroll down on the right side of my blog for more information on the Community Count)

706.6 total

769.8 Community Count total

**note - need to re-do the math on my friend Danielle's contribution - will get to that soon and re-post the total**
It was fun to have my husband Garen out with me today. We've been keeping a very low profile over the holiday.

The beach was a mess tonight from the recent deluge of rain we've had. Another storm is an hour north of the LA area as I type this. Winter can be a little depressing for beach cleanups. There's just so much that washes through the storm drains and down the streets into the ocean that then comes up onto the sand.

Mark Armen of Gulpable has a great video post about what he found in the LA rain off Venice Beach.
I'm out of touch with my online community so I took a minute before writing this post to see what some of my fellow friends/bloggers have been up to during this holiday season.

First up is my friend Danielle of It Starts With Me who is 33 Days into her own beach cleanup series called OUR DAILY OCEAN. She went out on Christmas Day with her family. What a great thing to do!

Harry of the Flotsam Diaries has a holiday message for us from Maine.

If you give a donation to the International Bird Rescue and Research Center before the end of the year your donation will be matched by a generous donor. They were on the front lines of the Deep Water Horizon oil disaster, helping distressed birds when they needed it most.
BEACHED ART: from my friend Anke in Germany who scours the coast of the Baltic Sea and makes incredible collages from her findings.

Speechless.

Day 139 - August 13, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.5 pounds

562.5 total

COMMUNITY COLLECTION COUNT

Day 43

Anna C. - Thank you Anna!

2 pounds

336.8 pounds total
I hadn't noticed that the front of our life guard towers said, "Proudly presented by: deepwaterhorizonresponse.com - Help the Gulf Coast" - made me smile to see this written.

One organization helping the birds affected by the BP oil disaster is the International Bird Rescue Research Center that is now in the Gulf on location, but their home base is "down the beach" in Longbeach CA.

Their founder and director Jay Halcomb won Oceana's Ocean Hero Award this year, and rightly so. On tuesday they released "62 clean, healthy Gulf oil spill birds..." into Atchafalaya State Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is far enough away from the heart of the spill, but will serve as a suitible habitat for the birds. Job well done everyone at the IBRRC!
Meanwhile -- at a press conference for AB 1998 today - Andy Keller of Chico Bag had this to say:

"Have you kicked your bag habit?" - Andy Keller, founder Chico Bag

A person in a lifetime will use 45,000 single use plastic bags. The average American uses 100 a year.....BAG MONSTER BLOG
"Plastic bags are not free. When you go to the store, the cost of the "free" plastic bag is embedded in your grocceries." - Lisa Boyle, Plastic Pollution Coalition

We use 19 billion single use plastic bags in California in one year! Holy S&^%T!!