Day 294 - June 17, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

3.5 pounds

1,111 pounds total 

3 cigarette butts

As I walked onto the sand, this plastic bag blew straight at me. That's my foot, stopping its run to the parking lot. I guess if this urban tumbleweed is going to take flight, I'd rather it head for the concrete behind me. 

My friend Kit gave me an LA Times insert called, "Water Stewardship." Surfer Rob Machado is one of the stewards interviewed. Here's a fact he relayed that if I'd read, I'd forgotten and may impact your choice to reach for a plastic bottle of water next time you're thirsty. 

"A little secret on plastic bottles is that it takes about 6 gallons of water to create each bottle of water, and that only 20% of those bottles are ever recycled." 

My friend Harry from The Flotsam Diaries blog does a great job demystifying recycling, or what we assume happens when we "recycle." Carreful, reading his posts are much like taking the blue pill in the Matrix....or is it the red pill. It's been awhile since I've seen the movie. But you get the implied idea, there's no turning back once you know...

For the first time since I started The Daily Ocean over three years ago, I crossed paths with another beach cleaner-upper while out on my collection. The first time you say? Yes, as far as I can remember I've never come face-to-face with someone out on the beach with a shared mission at sunset. 

As he walked toward me and I saw him bending in the sand collecting what I hoped was trash and not just sand dollars, my excitement grew. As he passed me, his plastic bag filled with trash in hand, I asked if he was cleaning the beach. He said yes, and asked me if I was too. 

Here's what cracks me up. All I could do is say yes, and thank you. I've engaged dozens of people on the beach who stop to talk to me. I tell them the name of my blog, I tell them how many pounds I've collected between two measly lifeguard towers (1,1111 lbs. to date), I chat. Tonight I was strangely tongue-tied. With a grin spreading ear to ear I contemplated calling it a night. He'd done the job. But then my curiosity told me to back track over the stretch of beach he'd just covered to see what he might have missed, or if more had washed up. Not as a critique of his cleanup, but as an excercise to see just how much crap is out here on a Sunday night. Sunday being a big beach day in the summer.

Tonight's 3.5 pounds of trash came from a stretch of sand cleaned moments before....

Day 293 - June 15, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

11 pounds

1,107.5 pounds total

0 cigarette butts

June Gloom is what the locals call this month. A heavy marine layer blankets our coast for a few weeks, making sunset seem like it's an hour before its time. 

After twenty minutes my bag was too full to continue even if I didn't adhere to a time limit. Gloomy would be one word I'd use to describe how I felt walking off the beach with 11 pounds of junk in less than half and hour.

I've avoided posting about last night's cleanup today mostly because it makes me revisit the dirty fact of 11 pounds in 20 minutes twice. My husband Garen reminded me that a post like this is even more urgent to share. This sentiment summarizes what I thought about while walking our dogs tonight. 

In the face of such an overwhelming problem (plastic pollution and trash in our oceans) action can only inspire change. The how, when, and who of which are largely out of my hands. But still, taking action has to be enough sometimes. This shot of our beach doesn't capture the bits of plastic wrapping and bags tangled in every inch of the seaweed washed ashore. 

I was too busy picking it up to get better pictures tonight. 

Three people stopped to talk to me because the trash was so noticeable, 

as if I would know the reason why. And there are so many reasons, 

too many variables for one short post, 

but the take home point is this, we connected person to person. 

I connect with you person to person whenever you read one of my posts. 

I'd like to think that each time this happens, a spark of change can occur. 

I stuffed this in the leg of my wetsuit yesterday morning while body-surfing. Lots of trash on the beach means lots of trash in the water too. I get a double dipping of it some days. 

Day 292 - June 13, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

8.5 pounds

1,096.5 pounds total 

0 cigarette butts

Summer is here! 

And with it, trash on the sand. There's also so much washing up on our beach right now that I cringe. My average weight per collection is 4 pounds. Tonight I doubled that and then some.

An unopened bottle of Gatorade that probably got launched overboard by accident and ended up here. 

In the recent BBC/Lonely Planet special, CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE host Dominic Bonuccelli uncapped a scavenged bottle of fruit juice taken off the bottom of Avalon Harbor in Catalina. He took a swig and lived to tell about it! 

He also hit the zip-line, taking in island vistas to steal your breath away before coming to Santa Monica. 

I met him when he came out for a Daily Ocean beach cleanup with me. 

They also stopped by Heal the Bay's Aquarium!

It was such a pleasure to be a part of TV programming making a difference. The episode gives you a taste of the natural beauty, and high octane outdoor adventure surrounding us in Southern California. But it gives you the tools and inspiration to make a difference as you travel along our awe inspiring coast. This lesson of leaving a place better than when you found it can be taken anywhere, and should. 

The program will re-air on BBC America 

- Sunday July 1, 8 AM 

- Wednesday July 11, 8 AM

- Sunday July 29, 9 AM

Over 5,000 kids attended Kids Ocean Day on Dockweiller Beach in LA. a couple of weeks ago! 

"Over 5,000 Los Angeles kids, teachers and volunteers form a massive kid designed shark and shield to say "Defend the Sea"from everyday plastic trash as part of the 19th annual Kids OceanDay Adopt-A-Beach Clean-Up sponsored by the Malibu Foundation,City of Los Angeles and the California Coastal Commission in Los AngelesJune 7, 2012. 

The kids are alerting the world about the need to protect the ocean from the everyday trash and plastic litter that flows down streets, killing marine life and polluting food resources."

KIDS OCEAN DAY - DEFEND THE SEA - the video

Day 291 - June 10, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

4.8 pounds

1,088 pounds total 

1 cigarette butt

I remember when Pringles hit the market! You could eat the whole can in one sitting. 

My mouth waters thinking about it.

Yesterday a BBC & Lonely Planet special called, CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE aired. They interviewed me out on the beach doing a Daily Ocean cleanup. A big thank you to the crew and producers who represented this blog so well. It was such an honor to be a part of. 

Thank you. Thank you. 

One email that really touched me from someone who saw the show was from a woman who recently moved from San Diego to Chicago. She's missing the ocean very acutely. Once the ocean is in your blood, it is crushing to be away from, at least this holds true for me too.

After seeing the cleanup, she got inspired to do Lake shore Cleanups - Chicago is a coastal city she pointed out. I hope she gets some comfort from walking the shores there, and connecting with the Daily Ocean community here. I'm looking forward to posting her findings. Thank you Renee.

One of the major reasons I do what I do is to reach you. I love hearing from people on twitter, or FB, or on comments left here on my blog. I really enjoy answering you, connecting one person at a time. 

Hearing that you've been inspired helps me keep going. 

After all, beach cleanups in a vacuum are not the solution. I see them as a teaching tool for change. 

You can only pick up the same plastic garbage time after time before it sparks a change in you to use less, learn more, become more active and inspire those around you. Anyone can do what I do. 

That's the point and the hope!

I find way to many of these. 

Not too many of these, although they are made from the same material. Most everything I find on the beach is made from plastic. Even cigarette butts are made of plastic acetate. 

From my dear friend Danielle's latest post on her amazing blog, "It Starts With Me."

"For in the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." 

~ Baba Dioum

Day 290 - June 9, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20  min. 

4.6 pounds

1,083.2 pounds total 

0 cigarette butts

While I walked along picking up trash, a teenage couple scooped up what they could and threw it my bag. "Thank you," they said as they carried on. This is one of the only times people have actively joined me when they saw what I was up to. 

Beach cleanups alone are not the solution. An awareness arises from bending down, picking up this stuff yourself, looking at it, and throwing it "away". 

Because in the "throwing away"(only there is no away) other questions form. 

Where is all this trash going even when put in a can? (buried in landfills most likely)

How long does plastic hang around? (forever...seriously)

I use this in my everyday life and it's ending up on the beach? (ziplocks!)

Where can I buy a reusable water bottle? (after seeing half a dozen in 20 min. left on the sand)

And OK so there IS a problem with plastic grocery bags. (I find one almost every time I come out)

 I'll buy a reusable cloth one next time I'm out. (Someone in line sees you make the change.)

I rarely post the totally icky stuff I find, but these next two pictures are too timely to ignore.

While in the water the other morning, I almost inhaled a band aid into my mouth. Yuck!

Trash of all kinds floated in on the tide late last week. As is my habit, I had my mouth open for a second in the water before seeing the little plaster float by my face. 

I shared my near miss with my friend Kitt. We agreed, totally disgusting and started to joke about how at least, "you didn't inhale a condom!"

"Or a maxipad. I find those too," I said. We laughed, knowing that both of these items would be a major bummer. Somewhere in the back of my mind I felt like the possibility of either was far fetched. How odd considering I've found them before. I don't recall finding both a condom, and pad on the same 20 minute beach cleanup until tonight. The funny, or not-so-funny point being my friend and I had laughed about the horrors of encountering these items only hours before.

A mother and son stopped me while I was picking up trash with my handy trash picker. Community service and city workers use them to cleanup the parks and beach. The mother wanted to buy one for her and her son. The beach was trashed. 4.6 pounds doesn't adequately show how every time a wave receded there was another piece or two of clear plastic wrapper to pick up. 

These wrappers even when wet and sandy weigh fractions of a pound. 

My bag was full after 20 minutes and I didn't get much past Tower 26. Currents, tides, wind, ocean dynamics that are too complex for me to understand deposit more trash on the beach than you can stand to look at every once in awhile. I wished for the tides to shift, the currents to take back their plastic bounty after I finished. Seeing exactly what is "under the surface" weighs on me. 

Sometimes I'd like to look away. 

But now that I know, what's my choice?

Action feels so much better than inaction. This is one promise I can make you.

Day 289 - June 6, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

6.8 pounds

1,078.6 pounds total 

3 cigarette butts

My friend Jess Cramp is "a scientist, pilot, diver, surfer, and conservationist" residing in the Cook Islands. Her mission: to create one of the biggest Shark Sanctuaries in the world!

Read an inspiring Q&A on Element's website as she becomes their newest guest blogger. 

You can also find her on THE MATADOR NETWORK'S  site. 

Matador is "an independent media company and nexus of travel culture worldwide." 

Jess is a solid addition to their ambassadors because she works to "produce tangible results....driven to take risks in life, not just in sports."

I really believe in Jess and the work she is doing. Take a minute to please nominate her for this year's OCEANA OCEAN HERO CONTEST. I was lucky enough to be one of the finalists two years ago. They work tirelessly for the ocean, and emphasize the need to help sharks. 

Jess and OCEANA - a perfect match! 

OCEAN HERO CONTEST

JESS'S INSPIRING BLOG - DESTINATION GLOBAL GOOD

JESS'S WORK IN COOK ISLANDS - PACIFIC ISLANDS CONSERVATION INITIATIVE

LONELY PLANET TV SPECIAL SUNDAY JUNE 10TH

This Sunday the 10th, I'm in the Lonely Planet special, "CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE."


Tune in at 10 AM EST on BBC AMERICA, or record it on your DVR. 


Pass the info. on if you feel so inspired!

Community Count Day - 229

Susie Stephen

Day 229 - May 25, 2012

Kailua, Oahu

2.2 oz (but 81 pieces of micro-plastics painstakingly excavated from the sand!)

Community Count total - 963.3 pounds

Community Count + The Daily Ocean combined weight - 2,035.1 POUNDS

This is the latest addition to our COMMUNITY COUNT - where people like you do a Daily Ocean style cleanup (20 min., photography and weighing their findings) to add to the 963.1 pounds already taken off beaches around the world. You can also do a collection in your neighborhood, rivers, lakes... since all "drains" lead to the ocean. 
Find Susie's beach report re-posted below:


"Dear Sara

I have been inspired! So much so that on Tuesday night my husband and I went along to a talk given by a local non-profit called B.E.A.C.H. who have recently been sponsored by Wholefoods in Kailua, here on Oahu.

http://www.b-e-a-c-h.org/index.html

Last week, May 25th, I went out on my first 20min beach cleanup, along Kailua beach, on the windward side of Oahu.

It was almost frustrating since most of the plastic on the beach seemed to be microplastic (it was tiny), but I collected what I could without a sieve!

It 'only' weighs 60g/ 2.2oz but in total I collected 81 pieces of plastic/ marine debris that ranged from a toy bucket to an aquaculture post/ piece (learnt that they wash over from Asia).

Please find attached a photo of everything on a plate - note the scrap of plastic that has nutritional information...

Interestingly I only found 1 cigarette butt!

Since finding your website, and going to the BEACH talk I've realised that the ocean plastic pollution/ marine debris issue is something, if not the most important thing I can integrate into a project I'm working on, which is a sailing expedition in 2014. I've uploaded a couple of beach plastic instagrams on to the tumblr blog for the expedition - which is more of an inspiration site (specific website coming soon!):

Sail our Seas - 

http://sailourseas.tumblr.com/ 

& 

http://sailourseas.blogspot.com/

Thanks again for the inspiration!! 

Are you doing anything for World Oceans Day?

cheers

Susie

twitter: @suzerose"


Susie's SAIL OUR SEAS project looks incredible! Connect with her on her blog by following the links above, or find her on twitter. 


And to answer your question about World Oceans Day Susie, I'll probably celebrate by doing a beach cleanup!


Thanks for your inspiring addition to The Daily Ocean!

Day 288 - June 3, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. with Tamara - an SMC student and Tahitian citizen

3.6 pounds (1.8 for the Community Count tally totaling 2,034.9 pounds!!)

1,071.8 pounds

I have a section of The Daily Ocean called the Community Count. During the early days of this blog, people started to email me wanting to get involved. I created the Community Count. 

You can do a 20 min. beach cleanup (lake, river or inland), take pictures, send me the weight and I will add your findings to a running tally. So far people around the world have written to me about cleanups that total 963+ pounds of trash off beaches, out of waterways, and collected from their local communities. Look on The Daily Ocean's right-side column for other Community Count postings.

My friend Danielle who writes the blog, It Starts With Me has taken 37.5 pounds off her North Carolina beaches since February alone! She also focuses her 20 min. Daily Ocean cleanups on cigarette butts. We've been comparing how many I find on my local beach where smoking is banned and how many she finds on hers. 

Last night I found 17 cigarette filters. On average, Danielle finds a few hundred!!

If you'd like to get involved email me thedailyocean AT yahoo.com or stop on over to Danielle's blog and learn more about her Community Count focusing on cigarette butts. We'd love you to do both!

For me, it's about community one person at a time. Every time you bend down to pick up a cigarette butt, plastic water bottle or bag, I hope it is a reminder to watch for these "disposable" items in your own life. It's a clear picture of where they really end up, (on the beach, in the ocean, along your street, in your park.) And the ultimate empowering message in this is that if we don't use these products, they can't end up there harming our environment. Demand for these plastic products creates the supply. 

But who am I to do one little thing like refuse plastic bottled water? 

You are one more person changing the tide in favor of your health, your world, and the world for future generations. You have tremendous power. 

Now what if we all remembered that? Oh but we can....and we are!

Thanks Tamara for coming tonight. This funny picture is of her quick thinking when reaching for a pair of discarded boxers in the parking lot. Flip-flops as trash tongs. Nice!

Inspiring to meet you and you're welcome anytime!

Day 287 - May 30, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

3.2 pounds

1,070 pounds total 

4 cigarette butts

If the oceans could deliver a "message in a bottle" to us, the note might include the same information as you'll see in this beautiful video from OCEANA. 

OCEANA is the "largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation." 

OCEANA has won key policy victories in many countries. They focus on measurable outcomes in three main areas: STOP OVERFISHING, CONTROL BYCATCH, PROTECT THE NURSERIES.

"We can restore the oceans' vitality...ensure it remains bountiful and beautiful for generations to come."

"SAVE THE OCEANS AND FEED THE WORLD"

Please consider supporting OCEANA today.

Here's a clip from BLUE PLANET footage of dolphins teaming up to hunt. 

Who doesn't want to watch dolphins? 

Day 286 - May29, 2012

This is my dad. 

He's on vacation with his wife Gretchen in the Grand Caymans. I love seeing how relaxed, and happy he is. They deserve a fun break from their hectic NYC lives with all the various work and family related responsibilities they shoulder during their day-to-day. 

I also love that while out on the beach, they picked up the trash they saw. 

Gretchen's email said, "trash we picked up far too quickly." While I am sure this plastic junk colored their walk, they addressed it rather than dismiss the obvious. They're still having a good time on vacation, and while they're enjoying a much needed break, they're positively impacting their little stretch of beach.

Hope their example inspires you to do the same whether at home or at play. 

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

5.9 pounds

1,066.8 pounds total 

2 cigarette butts

This is an oldie, but goodie - TIM MUNCHIN'S CANVAS BAG MUSIC VIDEO

Could the solution to plastic bag garbage clogging our beaches and waterways be as simple as his song suggests? Watch the video and let me know what you think.

Summer is here, it's after Memorial Day, and the sun sets around 8 p.m., giving people a chance to get their toes in the sand after work. I really enjoy seeing people have fun on the beach, but I also know that with people comes trash. 

I see the direct connection every time I weigh my collection after 20 min. from now until about October. Let's all try to remember when we go to the beach this summer, to bring less stuff to loose in the sand, get tossed aside and forgotten. Once you're there, all you need are bare feet, a swimsuit, towel and if I can be so bold, a reusable water bottle to refill at the water fountain next to the bathrooms.