Day 15 - May 11

Let's start with the good stuff. When I am out here doing this, I get to see colors like these on the beach.  One of many benefits from doing this project.
Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

est. lbs. today - 8

est. lbs. to date - 101

Does it alarm you too that I can pick up 8 pounds of trash in 20 min.?
Barefoot and beach go together like lemonade on a summer day.  But wait, you'd want to watch your step here. I should have put something next to these nails for scale. You'll have to take my word for it. They were sticking out of the wood about 3 inches. 
I guess if I had to choose where to find this, on the beach or on the sand, I'd pick the sand. I wouldn't like to be the surfer coming off their board, and stepping on this on the way out.

But, it didn't go back in the water this day. Small steps make me feel better.
I had two Seagulls follow me today.  I like this shot of one of them. I see real personality here, but maybe you just see a bird.  In any case, I like the photo, hope you do too.
Another beautiful view at the end of my walk.

Day 14 - May 8, 2009

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

est. lbs. today - 2.5

est. lbs. to date - 93
This post is graphic. I feel like I should apologize for showing detailed photos of tampons and poop. But here's the thing. We need to know that when we go out to the beach to surf, like the picture above, or let our kids swim, that there's stuff washing in there that carries a lot of bacteria. Biological waste is a problem at my local beach. So far, and I've been at this less than a month, I've found: regularly...

1. condoms, condom wrappers

2. tampons

3. syringes

4. band-aids

This is how close these items are to the water. Unfortunately, it most likely came from the water and washed up this far. Still, it is very close to going back in, except, I picked it up, with a plastic bag. Ugh.

Sorry. Let's assume this is DOG WASTE. Although, I've got to tell you, I had my doubts. And yes, this is the worst thing I've had to pick up to date.

Dog waste, (and there are no dogs allowed on this beach), is a huge problem. I'll leave one factoid here:

1 gram of dog waste contains 23 million fecal coli form bacteria (www.stormwatercenter.net)

And if you want to read more, click here. See the photo below. This one was close to be washed in, but don't despair, it didn't. PHEW!

Day 13 - May 5, 2009

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica

trash collected for 20 min.

est. lbs. today - 6

est. lbs. to date - 90.5

This post is a little different. I guess I forgot to take my usual beach shot to set the scene. After I'd finished collecting trash, a small flock of seagulls came and hovered over my head. If they weren't so beautiful, I'd be worried about the obvious. However, seeing these birds up close was amazing. I feel like people often overlook them for many reasons; one, they are common; two, they eat trash; three, they are considered pests that want your food. Take a look at the next few pictures. I hope you'll see them differently, at least here. 


Cute, but still trash.
I was in Orange County this weekend with friends taking their new puppies to the dog beach near Huntington Beach. We found our way to Rubio's Mexican Grill, and I got some water with my meal. As I looked at the bottle next to my two taco plate, I tried to place where I'd seen this bottle before. And then I remembered. On the beach, where plastic bottles don't belong. 

The top three kinds of trash found in the ocean are:

1. cigarette butts top the list.

2. candy wrappers, yup jolly ranchers etc.

3. fast food wrappers

Have you heard of the HUGE FLOATING TRASH ISLAND IN THE PACIFIC? Well, it's twice the size of THE UNITED STATES at the moment, Oprah recently covered this on her show 

click here to see pictures and a video.

A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said."

Part of David De Rothschild's voyage on the Plastiki, that I mentioned earlier in a post, is going to document it and take water samples. Here's the article I found the quote in, click here. 

Day 12 - May 4, 2009

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

est. lbs. today - 5

est. lbs. to date - 81.5
Just a beautiful shell someone hadn't disturbed yet when I saw it. 
Are plastic bags a reason to smile? Not if you're a turtle. They eat them thinking that they are their primary food, jellyfish.

"Besides plastic bags, the turtles had swallowed fishing lines, balloon fragments, spoons, candy wrappers, and more." That's a quote from this article. If you look at the article, you'll also see an incredible slideshow of Sea Turtles (one of my all time favorite animals), and some of the pictures include people helping them. It's not all doom and gloom folks. Nope, not at all.

Day 11 - May 1, 2009

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

est. lbs. today - 5

est. lbs. to date - 81.5

This is a picture I found attached to this article. Biologists have called for a ban on balloons. You can see why they might feel that way. I find balloons on the beach every day.

Here's a picture of a pretty blue balloon I found today. 

Day 10, April 30, 2009

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica

trash collected for 20 min.

est. lbs today - 2.5

est. lbs to date - 76.5
The view of the Santa Monica Pier. 

For information about our world famous pier at the end of route 66

click here
I'm just glad there's a cap still on it. Seeing this worried me. What can you say really, except that I've found some dangerous stuff on a beautiful day, with plenty of people walking around barefoot enjoying a stroll on the beach.

Day 9 - 4/28/09

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

Collected trash for 20 min.

est. lbs. collected today - 6

est. lbs. collected to date - 74
David De Rothschild is sailing a boat made from lashing plastic bottles together from San Francisco to Australia. That's 11,ooo miles. To read more click here. It's called the "Plastiki"

Here's the crazy part, De Rothschild isn't the first guy to do this. If you want to read about the guys who sailed from Long Beach CA to Australia on 15,000 bottles, click here.

Both better ideas than leaving a bottle on the beach.
I'm always amazed when I find two shells still connected after getting washed up in the surf.

Break for Honeymoon in Hawaii

Garen and I went on our honeymoon to my favorite place, the Big Island of Hawaii. 

We were married on Dec. 6th, 2008 at Leo Carrillo State Park in Malibu CA.

Here is a picture of a Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle resting on the beach at the City of Refuge. 

The City of Refuge is a state park which is also called Honounou. 

Click here for a link to the park. It has some of the best snorkeling in the world. 

Day 8 - 4/6/09

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

collecting trash for 20 min.

est. lbs. collected today - 4 & 1 boogie board

est. lbs. collected to date - 68
"Eight out of ten plastic water bottles become landfill waste."

To read more click here to go to the Earth911 website, "making everyday Earthday"

Obviously some end up in the ocean, but not this one.
Because of this project, I get to see days end like this at the beach. Not bad, I think.

Day 7 - 4/5/09

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

est. lbs. collected today - 8

est. lbs. collected to date - 64
Do you see what I see? 

It looks to me like someone had a plate of food at a picnic, finished their drink, stood up and left leaving behind the paper plate, soda, and imprint of their bleeep. Really?

There are 10 -12 trash cans lining the beach between Life Guard Stations down at Ocean Park.

Day 6 - 4/4/09

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. today - 8 lbs. (two people - me and Garen)

trash collected to date - 56 lbs.
I'd like to document most major brands of fast food and candy wrappers. Then I think, "Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't find any? If I didn't find anything to pick up ever again?"

I can only hope. In the mean time, s'mores anyone?

Day 5 - 4/3/09

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

est. lbs. collected today - 13 (two people - me and my husband Garen)

est. lbs. to date - 48
I have found so many balloons. The problem is not that the balloons aren't biodegradable, they are. Most balloons are made from laytex, and laytex is made from the sap of rubber trees. The tapping process doesn't even hurt the tree. The problem is the strings that tangle more things into them, creating a hazard for turtles flippers and other animals to get trapped in the mess. Also, turtles mistake them for food, jellyfish, and that can kill the turtle. It gets stuck in the digestive system and eventually blocks them up, and they die. 
Of all the sea birds that I like, these Sandpiper's are my favorite. 

Day 4 - 4/2/09

This is just a scenic shot. It always amazes me how beautiful the water is. All I did was point and shoot.
Did someone forget something? Finding something like a pair of shoes makes me curious about the story behind them.
A glass bottle embedded straight up into a tangle of seaweed. Trash, and beautiful.

Day 4 - 4/2/09

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20. min.

est. lbs. collected - 12

est. lbs. collected to date - 35

Day 3 - 4/1/09

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

20. collecting beach trash

est. lbs. trash collected for day - 8 lbs.

est. lbs. trash collected to date - 23

Day 2 - 3/31/09

I found this trash bag on the beach, so I used this to collect today. 

Day 1 & 2 - 3/30-3/31/09

Day 1

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

20 min. of collecting trash - 10 lbs.

no pictures taken

Day 2

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

20 min. of collecting trash - 15 lbs.

I walk a straight line from the sidewalk to the tide line, and pick up trash.

What is my project? The goals & info.

The inspiration for this project came when I realized I could treat everyday like a beach clean-up day, instead of waiting for an organization like Surfrider to host one. I do belong to Surfrider, and I think membership to organizations like theirs is important. However, since moving closer to the beach - I live in Santa Monica, California - I decided to do something to help protect our oceans as often as I could. 

I can easily feel overwhelmed from reports about how the environment, and especially our marine environments, are suffering. They suffer from causes which can be traced back to human activity. These reports still frighten me, but I know that every time I drive down to Ocean Park, and collect beach trash for 20 min., I feel better. At least what I collected stayed out of the water for that day. 

This got me thinking; how much trash would I collect if I did this for a year? So I set a goal, here are the guidelines:

-Everyday I can, go to the beach and collect for 20 min.

-Do this until I have 365 days recorded, (days do not have to be in a row)

-Weigh the collection and keep a tally of the lbs. for one year

-Photograph what the beach looked like that day

-Photograph some of the trash I collected

-Photograph something beautiful  

This blog is a way for me to share what I find, thoughts I have collecting, and related environmental topics. I also hope to leave some inspiration here as well.