Day 204 - March 7, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2 pounds

764.5 pounds total

COMMUNITY COUNT DAY 115 - JENN & DENISE

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes twice! Once by themselves while they waited for me, and once with me!

2.5 pounds, 2 pounds = 4.5 pounds

707.5 pounds total 

THE DAILY OCEAN COMBINED TOTAL - 1,472 POUNDS OF TRASH OFF THE BEACH

I'm writing this post from Chile. That's how busy I was getting out of town over the last 12 days. It is hard to believe that I haven't written a post in in that time either. I'm not 100% certain, but I think that this is the longest I've gone since March '09 when I started The Daily Ocean. 

The city of Valdivia where we are staying is surrounded on three sides by river Calle Calle. There are a lot of people who smoke and put their butts out on the ground near the water. But I have to say that overall, they take very good care of the waterfront, at least the portion that we have seen. 

I want to say thanks to Jenn and Denise for coming out with me. I had a great photo of Jenn holding up a plastic bag, but it wouldn't stay rotated properly and I didn't want you to crane your necks.

Jenn and Denise said that they would come out to the beach at tower 26 for a few 20 minute cleanups while we are away. I love that. 

Instead of "Where's Waldo?" it's "Where's the straw?"

There have been a couple of straws to throw away along the river in the last day since we've been here. I stepped over a candy wrapper after lunch so I bent down to pick it up. It was cemented to the sidewalk with chewed gum. I tugged and it wouldn't come off. Garen said that the people behind us looked perplexed at what I was doing. I don't blame them. 

I need to learn how to say no plastic bag please in Spanish. We took our Empenadas to go from lunch and they came wrapped in styrofoam and plastic. UGH. We reused the containers at the farmers market by the river for fresh blackberries and cheese, but still.....

More sunsets and more birds I know, I know......but come on, this is a great view!

Rachel Savage, an eighth grade student from Crossroads School in Santa Monica filmed me last Oct. for 10/10/10 or 350.org INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE ACTION DAY

The video is up on YouTube. She did a great job! I think she's onto something here. Her instincts for editing and story composition are well above her years. Awesome job Rachel! I'm honored you chose The Daily Ocean as a subject. THANK YOU!

Have you heard that there is a website called BAG THE BAN? That's right -- not BAN THE BAG.

They use the same ridiculous arguments that we have heard again and again...

HilixPoly says if Oregon bans plastic bags that it will:

1. HURT THE ENVIRONMENT

- CRAP! THEY DIDN'T SPECIFY WHY, BUT I IMAGINE IT IS THE SAME TIRED ARGUMENT THAT OFFERING PAPER BAGS WILL INCREASE GLOBAL WARMING. 

IT IS NOT PAPER OR PLASTIC. IT IS NEITHER AND GO REUSABLE. 

This is a point totally lost on them and not even worth putting in bold, but a girl can try.

2. TOXIC LEAD AND HARMFUL BACTERIA - CONSUMERS BEWARE!

- MORE CRAP! THE BACTERIA STUDY WAS FUNDED BY THE PLASTICS INDUSTRY AND IS A COMPLETE FARSE. I CAN SITE MY SOURCE IF YOU CONTACT ME AND REALLY WANT TO KNOW

- LEAD - IN ONLY A COUPLE OF TYPES OF BAGS AND IT WAS THE LETTERING SO DON'T EAT YOUR REUSABLE BAG! THEY WERE PRODUCED BY DISNEY AND HAVE BEEN RECALLED OR BETTER - BUY ONE THAT YOU KNOW IS GOOD LIKE PROJECT GREEN BAG OR CHICO BAG. 

3. TAX BURDEN

- TOTAL CRAP! WASHINGTON D.C. BUT A SMALL FEE OF 5 - 10 CENTS ON PLASTIC BAGS LAST YEAR AND THEIR USEAGE WENT DOWN NEARLY 90% IN NO TIME. HOW LONG DO YOU THINK PEOPLE WILL BE BUYING PAPER BAGS IF THEY ARE CHARGED? THE COST OF PLASTIC BAGS IS EMBEDDED IN YOUR GROCERY BILL ANYWAY. PLASTIC IS NOT FREE EITHER.

that was a rant...and one to the choir. apologies, just couldn't resist

We are five hours ahead of Santa Monica. When the sun is setting on this beach tonight, I will most likely be in bed at our hostel which is operated by two sweet Chilean women who speak very little English, and take great care of the place. Buenos noches!

Day 203 - March 2, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

2 pounds

762.5 pounds total

I learned about a CA State Senate Bill sponsored by State Senator Calderon, SB 915 that really bothers me. 

Sen. Calderon thinks that we need to give recycling plastic bags one more try. Nevermind the stark facts that in LA County ALONE we use 6 BILLION plastic bags annualy, and the current recycling rate is LESS THAN 5%. This is a startling low number. So, you would think that recycling the bags was a solution, right?

Well, for years the plastics industry has been trying to get people to recycle their bags, and guess what, they can't get the rate above 5%. Not to mention the fact that recycling these bags means, in many cases, bailing them together to send to the highest bidder from an aisan coutry where they will be melted down in open air facilities using  women and children who are paid criminaly low wages to sort through our mess. 

As the bags are melted, they leech their toxins into the earth, air and water supply of the county lucky enough to be on the receiving end of our garbage.

You can read the entire bill here. Calderon basically is a puppet for the plastics industry's wish list. I wonder if they are donating to him this year? Any one willing to make a sure bet?

Surfrider is again on the forefront of state environmental legislation that would ban harmful single-use plastic bags. Even if you don't live in Oregon, read this action alert and post it to your fb page because we are all 6-degrees-of-seperation away from someone living in OR who could add their postal code and send a clear message to their State Legislator that they are in support of a bill banning plastic bags. 

I found three single use plastic bags on the beach today in 20 minutes on a stretch of sand the size of two football fields back to back. How many would I have found in 40 minutes? I do these cleanups all the time, and they still alarm me. 

"Single-use plastic bags represent one of the greatest environmental catastrophes of our generation. It is estimated that 60-80% of all debris in the ocean is land-based plastic. Plastics take hundreds of years to break down at sea and most types never truly biodegrade. As a result, marine animals often get entangled in the debris or mistake it for food."

Let's end on a high note: "Good news for a change," said Fish and Game Deputy Director Sonke Mastrup."


An article in yesterday's SF Chronicle says, 

"California could see a return to a full-length coastal salmon fishing season this year with biologists forecasting a tripling of the fish's ocean population..."

Day 202 - Feb. 28, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.2 pounds

760.5 pounds total

Community Count Day 114

Richard Bayles (my dad!) Gretchen Pusch and Garen

trash collected for 20 minutes

3.8 pounds 

703 pounds total 

The Daily Ocean combined total - 1,463.5 pounds total 

Want to be part of The Daily Ocean? We could use your help! Details here.

Tonight was a special day for me because I had my Dad and his partner Gretchen out on the beach with us. They came all the way from NYC to hang out before we leave for Chile next Thurs. Did I say Thurs.? THURSDAY!! OH SH*&^T...I have one or two things to do before then.

Wallace J Nichols has a TEDx talk that I think is well worth the watch!   

"LIVBLUE - Live like you love the ocean." - Wallace J Nichols

Gretchen finds a friend on the beach. 

After we found a collective 5 pounds of trash in 20 min. on a windy winter beach, we watched the sun set behind the pacific. Gretchen said that it was much better than seeing the sun slip behind Weehaken, NJ back home. 

The last few pictures are a family photo album of sorts. These photographs capture one of my favorite sunsets.....ever.

Day 201 - Feb. 23, 2011

**my guess is that this pink plastic wrapper held a valentine's day gift**

life guard tower 26 (in the background...) - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2 pounds

759.3 pounds total 

This photograph was taken about twelve feet from the one that you see above it.

TAKE THE QUIZ: ARE YOU A DISPOSABLE BAG ADDICT? 

My friend Siel of green LA girl gets all the credit for posting about this quiz from the website called re-nest - abundant design for green homes. 

Answer honestly. "We've been there too..." 

How long to you think this plastic bottle has been tossing about in the ocean? There were micro-colonies of algae, a few shells in and on the bottom of the bottle, and other misc. sea life threads hanging on. 

Bonnie - of the blog The Plastic Ocean Project and ocean activist extraordinaire said to my friend Danielle who writes, It Starts With Me, that "beach cleanups are gyre cleanups." I like that. It makes a lot of sense. 

Who knows how long this plastic bottle kicked around for before it got spat back out onto a beach? 

Did it make it to the middle of the North Pacific Gyre and back? 

Well, the good news is is that it is out of the water now. 

If you have read The Daily Ocean before, you know that I have a thing for birds. Crows on the beach are my most favorite. Crows are quick witted, and gregarious. I imbue them with so much personality that when I see them on the beach I feel as if they must have come down for a purpose. 

Day 200 - Feb. 21, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.7 pounds 

757.3 pounds total

COMMUNITY COLLECTION DAY - 113

JEN & DENISE - thank you! (follow her on twitter, check out her nutrition knowledge)

trash collected for 20 minutes

3.4 pounds 

699.2 pounds total

DISCLAIMER - Garen got a RX filled from his doctor for a new seasickness medication that is supposed to make you sleepy. We were told to take one before our trip to make sure that we can function well while taking it. Today is my day and well...my post may be less energetic than usual. It made Garen sleepy-ish...It is making me VERY sleepy. 

Can you tell the difference between the photo on the right, and the photo on the left? (insert Jeopardy music here while I give you a moment)

The arm on the left is Denise picking up a black single-use plastic bag minutes before Jen, on the right, found her own. 

Same beach. 

Same day. 

Two people. 

Same destructive trash.

Oh look, another one! No, Jen did not drop hers on the sand and then step next to it. Nope. This picture was taken of a DIFFERENT black plastic bag only seconds later, which was lying next to a freshly made footprint that I saw being made.

Jen and Denise found this Flying Disc on our way off of the beach. We joked that it was their consolation prize from the ocean. 

This is a joint effort. To illustrate that point, I got contacted be a woman named Kanna who is involved in Sea Pulse films, and has a troop of Plastic Zombies. Yup, you read that right. Here is a link to the post she wrote for Valentine's Day, where she included a photograph of a balloon that I'd taken last year. 

Her project is extremely cool - Dance 4 Oceans

"Have you realize that so much plastic trash is ending up in the ocean instead of recycle centers or landfills? The last several years, I have had opportunities to help rescue marine animals along the coasts of Los Angeles. There are lots of animals are suffering from the entanglements and ingestion of plastic trash. I just couldn't stop thinking there must be a way to raise awareness of this problem. What if I walk like a zombie that was killed by plastic trash....? Yes. That's how the whole thing started!"

My friend Siel of green LA girl, who also writes for Mother Nature Network among many other blogs, wrote about a 20 Minutes a Day Challenge that was proposed by Michael Nobbs of Sustainably Creative.

I think he might be on to something...

"If you read my blog regularly, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of doing things in small chunks of time. It constantly amazes me how much it’s possible to get done working in this way and recently I’ve been looking back at some of the things I’ve achieved in regular small steps."

What would you do with 20 minutes? My 20 minutes has gotten 755+ pounds of trash off of the beach. Who knew?

Be part of Ocean Voices, a collaborative project between Wallace J Nichols and sound artist Halsey Burgund who along with the voices of 1239 voices and counting have creative a visionary project for the oceans. People from around the world have recounted their personal experiences with the ocean, and have then been set to music. You can add your voice!

And check out this video put out by NPR/PBS from July of 2010 at the Museum of Science in Boston that let's us hear one of their enchanting performances. 

This was the last item of trash we found when we were back in the parking lot. So this is the last picture in my post. 

Day 199 - Feb. 20, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

8 pounds 

755.6 pounds total

COMMUNITY COUNT DAY - 112 - DR. HEATHER LOUNSBURY

trash collected for 20 minutes

4 pounds 

695.8 pounds total

The Daily Ocean combined total - 1,451.4 pounds

There's only 17 days left until we fly to Chile to meet the boat to take off with the 5 Gyres Institute to sail to Easter Island, and then on to Tahiti. As you can imagine, this is taking a lot of my mental energy. SO...I thought I would share with you what the last bit of preparation looks like for us. 

- We found a house sitter last week! Jacob will be living here for two and a half months with our cat Meera. He was a member of Team Marine last year and took Garen's Marine Biology class last fall at SMC, so it feels great that we both know him. This was a big thing off of our minds. 

Garen has been talking to GUMP Station - a marine lab run by UC Berkley in Tahiti - about shipping our water samples to the lab in the US to be tested for nitrate levels. Apparently, we can find dry ice in Papeete, and we should just take the samples home on the plane. Another big thing crossed off of our list. 

Garen tested this prescription for Sea Sickness medication from his doctor yesterday to see if it makes him too drowsy. I have to try it out tomorrow. I'm doing too much driving today to mess with my level of alertness. This RX works for Garen, making him drowsy but functional. I am crossing fingers that it is the same for me. This would be another HUGE thing taken care of for us. 

We are waiting for a check from the Santa Monica College Foundation so that we can buy our plane tickets home from Tahiti in May. MAY! I think we found a flight that will allow us to have an 8 hour lay over in Oahu, which would enable us to see Garen's friends Angel and Judy. Angel married us. That would be cool. Cross fingers that the flight is still open in a few days when we pay our credit card down and can book the tickets.

Today I am waiting to hear from my dad in New York City who should be going into his Oncologist's office in about 30 minutes to go over his MRI, bone scan and another test whose name I don't remember.   
Hopefully, I will get good news that he can come out for a visit before he starts radiation. This is occupying the most space in my brain. He may be here Sat. of Sun. or he may not be able to make it....we'll see. Glad I get to distract myself with lunch at Thyme Cafe with Siel. 


This was a more personal entry than most, but I thought it might be an interesting perspective to read what two people are going through to cross most of the South Pacific. My hope was to make something that feels abstract and far away, tangible and relatable. 

Day 198 - Feb. 16, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

6.3 pounds

747.6 pounds total

If you have found The Daily Ocean, or read it regularly and have not stumbled upon The Flotsam Diaries then please check out its latest post - CROSSROADS. I hope Harry doesn't mind the comparison, but something struck me today while I was reading his blog. 

"Last March, I took the red pill. And there's no going back. Now I have to decide what the Flotsam Diaries will mean, going forward. I believe we're here to make a difference. And, somehow, I know this is a place where I can make a difference."

I started The Daily Ocean in March of 2009. Maybe there is something about March? When I started, I had no idea if this little blog would make a difference, but like Harry, I believe that somehow, "this is a place where I can make a difference." Thanks for the inspiration Harry. 

It was a very windy out on the beach. We had the odd rainy day today in Southern California which cleared the skies, brought the wind and made me nostalgic for the north eastern weather that I grew up in. Well, I was nostalgic for about10 minutes until I could no longer take pictures because my fingers were frozen. I knew that it would be chilly out there today, but I also know that there would be plenty of trash to collect because of the rain. And I was right. 6.3 pounds is 4 pounds above my winter average when we have had dry weather.

Heal the Bay is launching this cool new program - MPA WATCH - BE A MARINE PROTECTED AREA STEWARD. The first session is March 3rd at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium at 6:30 pm. 

"Become one of the first volunteers trained for Heal the Bay's new volunteer program, MPA Watch! Get started by attending training sessions which include one classroom training and one field training."

Garen and I are a BLUEANGELS for Wallace J Nichols. And here is one of the many reasons why. Only two months into the year, J sent out an email to his BLUEANGELS (people who support his work with tax deductible monthly donations of any denomination so that he can work for the ocean - the only thing he ever wanted to do)

Here are just a couple of the creative, innovative and outrageously cool projects that he has in the works.

After reading this list, you will want to become one of his BLUEANGELS too.

SEEtheWILD

BLUE MARBLES PROJECT &  THE BLUEMiND SUMMIT 

and much, much more!!

Thanks to Google Alerts, I found a blog that I've never read before that had included The Daily Ocean in a recent post. The title of the post is, "ONE PLASTIC BEACH DOWN, SO MANY MORE TO GO. This blog is written by the University of Oregon Humanities Dept.. I am glad to see the issue of trashing the ocean is taken seriously in the mainstream academic world. 

The moon over the beach in Santa Monica tonight.