Day 47 - August 23

Life Guard Station 27, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds collected today - 2 bags - 2.7/1.3= 4

estimated pounds collected to date - 258.4

The tide was waaaay out today. The way the early evening light was reflecting off the usually covered sand was beautiful.

Garen had to help me collect today because I had forgotten to change out of a skirt I'd worn to his parents house earlier in the day. A Marilyn Monroe impression was not what I was going for.
This is a seat cushion from a boat maybe? Someone had decided to stomp up and down on it, but not drag it to the trash. If I had added the weight of this out of place upholstery in all its water soaked glory, I would have shot the days tally up by at least 20 pounds.

Thanks to Surfrider's Soup, e-newsletter that I get weekly, there was an article about how our ocean temperature is on the rise. Click here for more info and to read the article from the New York Times.

"Average temperatures of waters at the oceans’ surface in July were the highest ever recorded, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said."
The Daily Water Bottle.

Well speaking of Surfrider above, they have a campaign called Rise Above Plastics. You can find out more about what they are up to at their monthly meeting tomorrow. I will be attending the 25th anniversary meeting Tuesday the 25th, at Duke's in Malibu off the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). Festivities start at 7pm, there's a speaker and music, and I will have a few minutes somewhere in there to talk about The Daily Ocean to drum up local support to come collect trash with me. You know you want to come!!!

You don't have to be a surfer to attend. I'm not, I just think that what Surfrider does for our beaches and oceans is something to be a part of. Seriously, if you are local, come along.
Lets talk about Global Warming again. A cheerful subject I know. There are many opinions about this topic, but few could argue anymore that it is not happening, and if you are one of those people you probably were not drawn to read this blog.

There is a cold water current that travels across the Arctic and keeps harmful pollution circulating thru that area. Because of melting Arctic ice and other factors mentioned in this short article we may have:

"WITHIN 60 years the Arctic Ocean could be a stagnant, polluted soup. Without drastic cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, the Transpolar Drift, one of the Arctic's most powerful currents and a key disperser of pollutants, is likely to disappear because of global warming."

This is actually Life Guard Station 26. For anyone paying close attention I usually lead my posts with an image of this LGS, but today chose a picture of LGS 27 instead. I collect between these two points. This was the way the beach looked as we walked out at 6:35 p.m. yesterday. Not bad.

Day 46 - August 19

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated trash collected today - 1.3 lbs.

estimated trash collected to date - 254.4
I was so excited on the way home from collecting today that I only weighed in 1.3 pounds. I called Garen to share my excitement. "Isn't that great," I said. His reply, "Yeah, a cloudy day in the middle of the week is good for the beach." Rats, I thought. I had just felt hopeful and was perhaps in shock that I had come away with so little trash that I hadn't had the chance to reflect when I called home. "Or, " he said, "your blog is working and no one's throwing trash on the beach anymore." HA! If only.
Sarah Fain, a fellow writer and blogger, left me this article to read on a previous post. Thank you Sarah. I said I would share. Here it is, click here for full article. It made me think about the price of bottled water to our environment, and to the communities that it comes from.

Read Sarah's blog, Starfish Envy.

Nowhere in Fiji Water's glossy marketing materials will you find reference to the typhoid outbreaks that plague Fijians because of the island's faulty water supplies; the corporate entities that Fiji Water has—despite the owners' talk of financial transparency—set up in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg; or the fact that its signature bottle is made from Chinese plastic in a diesel-fueled plant and hauled thousands of miles to its ecoconscious consumers. And, of course, you won't find mention of the military junta for which Fiji Water is a major source of global recognition and legitimacy.
This is not a great picture, or should I say that it falls short of illustrating what I meant it to. What I wanted to convey was complete overwhelm. Sometimes at the tide-line, the sea weed is pushed together and tangled with trash. Today I came upon a patch that was so thick with plastics and other artificial items that I picked what I could, and had to leave the rest.
Many people talked to me today. That isn't always the case.

- 2 people asked me what I was doing and asked to see what was in my bag. They commented that trash was everywhere, even on Mt. Mc Kinnley. I agreed, crest fallen, and walked away to pick up more. What else are you going to do?

- 1 person thanked me.

- 1 person asked if I had seen his lost head phones.

- 1 person said thank you as I handed them the Daily Water Bottle for it's cash refund. Her was diligently searching through trash cans for similar recyclables.

Day 45 - August 16

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Moncica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds of trash collected today - 4.5 trash, .9 recyclable = 5.4

estimated pounds of trash to date - 253.1
The Daily Water Bottle. If you follow my blog, you may be getting sick of pictures of single use plastic beverage bottles. Well, me too. Wish they weren't there to snap a shot of, but there's a multitude, and what better way to illustrate that than repetition.

It's all about the branding is the message of this picture I believe. Sure, less plastic, but here's a lovely fact:

AMERICANS USE OVER 50 MILLION PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES A YEAR, WHICH TAKE 700 YEARS BEFORE THEY START DECOMPOSING.

I got these facts from a website called cafepress, you can design your own metal, reusable SIGG bottle there. Check it out. I may do it for the Daily Ocean.
Siel, of la Green girl blog, had a good point on friday when she interviewed me. Not all of the cigarette butts found on the beach are from people who are smoking them here. Urban run off is a big problem. When it rains, which is seldom here in Los Angeles, the contents from all the storm drains dump into the ocean. For example, if you empty your ash tray into the gutter in Pasadena (40 miles from the beach), eventually, it's going to get into the ocean. This system of drainage always strikes me as surprisingly short sited. Anyone else agree?

I'd like to see grates on all these openings in the street. That spray painted dolphin you see while walking along saying "Don't Dump Drains Lead To Ocean" isn't kidding. Wish it was.
Very expensive sun screen someone left behind that just got trashed.
I may have said this before, but the only way I feel comfortable taking pictures of people at the beach is by backlighting them so they become anonymous. If you follow this blog, you may also be getting tired of pictures like these. Sorry, I'm obviously not done taking them. I like these photos because it makes me remember how much people love being in the water, and that's a good thing.

Light + Water = Magic

The Daily Ocean Interview by Siel of green LA girl blog

Siel interviewed me for her blog. CLICK HERE to read her post about The Daily Ocean.

She joined me for Day 44 and was the first person to start the Community Count tally of beach trash and kick off the count down. 364 days to go. Who wants to join me next?

Day 44 - August 14

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

estimated trash collected today - 4.4

estimated trash collected to date - 247.7

NEW!!!

Community Collection - Siel of green LA girl Blog, came out to interview me and was the first person to collect trash as part of the Community Collection Pounds Of Trash Tally.

Come and join me, for real! Get in touch, email me, follow me on twitter - I "tweet" when I will be there - or collect at your own local beach and send me pictures, how lbs. you collected in 20 minutes, and your thoughts, I'll post it here at The Daily Ocean Blog.

community collection - Day 1 - 1.1. lbs. - 364 Days to go!

The Daily Water Bottle.
Siel helping me collect beach trash. She came out to see what I'm doing, and lend a hand.
OK - It is curious to me that people put band-aids on at the beach. The water renders them useless, but I'm assuming that this one was intended for use here. I think that together we found 4 - 5 used band-aids in the sand today. Yuck.
Forget something? When I smoked, I would sometimes save a half smoked butt for later, especially if I was running low in my pack. So much care was taken not to stub this out in a way that could not be salvaged later. It was carefully wrapped in the cellophane, but forgotten. I wish they'd taken as much care to take it off the beach with them when they left, as they did to save it for later.
Siel and I talked about the interconnectedness of all of our actions, and how this impacts our environment. We have the privilege of living in Santa Monica, CA. Our city is environmentally minded. This beach for example, is dragged daily for trash, the trash cans (there are 8 - 10 on average between Life Guard Stands) are emptied daily, and still I collect 1 pound of trash from this beach every 5 minutes, which will only be back the next day. So what is the answer? It is not enough for people in Santa Monica to take care of their beach alone, there needs to be awareness at the root of the problem. The root is global, we all impact one another.

For now the best I can come up with is spreading awareness and inspiration. If you are here reading this blog, this is my answer, what's yours?
This is a picture of the joint collection that Siel and I did. Having her come out with me made me examine every step of what I do. For example, I only recently committed to having a separate recyclables bag for plastics, and aluminum cans. Today when we finished I didn't feel good about using single use plastic bags to collect the trash in. These too can be recycled in most places now, and I thought that sending one more to the dump along with the trash might not be such a hot idea.

So I talked to Garen about it and he reminded me that I often pick up disgusting, or unsanitary things. If I were to use a canvas reusable bag to collect and then dump the contents into the trash can when finished, my reusable bag would get pretty nasty, pretty quickly. I could make the effort to wash it often I suppose.

If you have read this far, and have an opinion, what do you think? Leave me a comment.

Plastic or Canvas for my collection. I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Day 43 - August 13

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

estimated pounds collected today - 3.9

estimated pounds collected to date - 243.3
This is the first thing I saw as I stepped from the sidewalk, to sand and the wooden boardwalk to the beach beyond. The Daily Water Bottle....one in every collection, at least. I later gave it to a man going thru all the trash cans, and looking in the sand for recyclables. By our house in a neighborhood of Santa Monica called Sunset Park, people start going thru the trash at 4 a.m.. If they wake me up I get upset. But should I be? Of course no one wants to be awoken before dawn by clanking bottles and rustling trash, but out of financial necessity they are scraping together extra income and recycling in the process.
This is a picture of the tide line on the beach. Part of my "strategy" when collecting is to follow along where the water dumps seaweed, straws, plastics, balloons and other trash into a tangled pile. Sometimes it is hard to tell what is natural from trash, straw from feather. Unfortunately it doesn't take long to spot the garbage, but often twice as long to unravel it from the rest. Disclosure - some seaweed has gone straight into my bag, adding natural material into the tally of trash pounds, but only when everything is so intertwined it looks like a trap for some unsuspecting marine animal to get strangled in once the water takes it back to sea.
The Santa Monica Pier. Heal the Bay, a local marine conservation organization in Santa Monica publishes a beach report card. Can you guess what the beach around the pier gets? An F, almost every time. Heal the Bay is listed in my links section, or click here.
I get a magazine called Orion - Nature/Culture/Place. In the July/August 2009 issue I read something I want to share here:

On page 1 - From the Editors

THOSE OF US WHO PAY ATTENTION TO THE LARGER STATE OF HUMAN AND NATURAL AFFAIRS ARE BOMBARDED DAILY WITH TRULY HORRIFIC NEWS. IT COMES RELENTLESSLY, THROUGH THE MEDIA, FROM SCIENTISTS AND ACTIVISTS, IN CONVERSATION WITH FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS.

AS AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST PAUL HAWKEN DECLARED TO GRADUATES AT THE BEGINNING OF A COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS THIS SPRING -

"YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A HUMAN

BEING ON EARTH AT A TIME WHEN EVERY LIVING SYSTEM IS DECLINING, AND

THE RATE OF DECLINE IS ACCELERATING."

THERE IS A BLEAKNESS ALL AROUND US. THERE IS ALSO EXTRAORDINARY OPPORTUNITY TO REMAKE THE WORLD.

"IF YOU LOOK AT THE SCIENCE ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING ON EARTH AND AREN'T PESSIMISTIC, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND DATA," PAUL HAWKEN SAID IN THE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. "BUT IF YOU MEET THE PEOPLE WHO ARE WORKING TO RESTORE THIS EARTH AND THE LIVES OF THE POOR, AND YOU AREN'T OPTIMISTIC, YOU HAVEN'T GOT A PULSE."

Day 42 - August 9, 2009

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds of trash collected today - 6.4

estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 239.4

THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SUPPORTING THIS PROJECT BY SIGNING UP TO FOLLOW MY BLOG. YOU CAN TOO IF YOU SCROLL DOWN AND LOOK AT THE RIGHT HAND COLUMN. I AM THRILLED TO HAVE YOU ALONG.

THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST.
I have spent the last three days attending the SCBWI (Society for Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators) conference here in Los Angeles. I probably don't need to mention that I am full of inspiration, and completely brain fried. When I collected last night, I went a little wild with the photos and writing. This post will be longer than usual.
The beach is something you can interact with. It has a personality the way other environments may not. Sure mountains have snow, breezes blowing through tall trees, and other ways to interact with them. Sand moves in the desert, but the ocean has an immediate interaction with you when you step up to the waves and let them lap over your feet. That edge between sand and water is an unexpected world that can send you reeling back, knee deep in water that you thought would only be toe high. Enter further and it's a doorway to a new world. You are no longer a land creature, trading your sure feet for floating uncertainty.
This foot print happened as I was taking the photo of just the bag for my, "How many plastic bags can I photograph in 20 minutes?" game. Let me explain. I am aware that this blog is and will be repetitive, maybe even redundant. I think this sometime in the first five minutes of every collection. My thought process goes something like this, "How am I going to keep this interesting? If I see one more straw...People will be bored with this whole thing, I am, oh joy, another cigarette butt." Then I had an AH-HA moment. What if I tried to make a game out of seeing how many pieces of a certain kind of trash I could collect at one time. I know, it sounds like a demented game, but stay with me a moment longer. Maybe one day it would be straws. See how many I can collect, and take a picture of every one of them. Sure, those reading would scroll through ten pictures of nearly identical straws, but isn't that the point? The repetitiveness, the ridiculous nature of drenching our beaches in candy wrappers and plastic bottles over and over again?
Not a diaper and a bottle that our children need. Diapers, like band-aids, come off in the water. Why do we leave them on while taking our toddlers into the ocean?
Birds at the beach do what we do. They stand and play at that line of wave and sand. They fly up, like we step back, run away to keep from getting soaked. Except they also eat there, like we do not. We wouldn't like to sit at our table with a diaper, let's not leave one on theirs.
List of good things I saw at the beach today -

- A little girl planting her feet in the sand to see how deep they'll sink as a wave recedes.

- A boy of about 10 lying belly down in the sand pretending to be a sea turtle.

- A mother taking pictures of her children which will someday become their baby pictures at the beach.
If I had a wish for today it would be to remember what you felt like when you were a kid at the beach, (that is if you liked the beach then, or maybe you're still a kid, but I'm assuming if you've read this far, you like the beach). The wonderment and play that takes place there. Remember that and more so that we can work towards saving this place for future generations to experience the same amazing afternoons there that we had. Sand Dollars are more fun to discover than tampons, seriously.

Day 41 - August 5, 2009

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds of trash collected today - 5

estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 233

The Daily Water Bottle. Yesterday I came across a site that someone who is following my blog also follows. It is called 365 Days of Trash, "One man's attempt to throw nothing away for a year....and beyond." He has an article posted called, "Isn't it time to give up on plastic water bottles?" If you are interested, click on the article name above and read a thoughtful, concise, argument against single use water bottles.
This did not go into the water, but you get the point. In fact, Garen and I saved about 10 band-aids from entering the ocean today. I picked one up completely bare handed by accident, yuck! I am not sure why people enter the ocean with band-aids on, they do not stick! We labeled today, "Big Band-aid Wednesday", a reference to the beloved surfing move, "Big Wednesday".
We were up at Zuma today and saw dolphins twice, then again down here in Ocean Park at about 6:00 pm. Three dolphin sightings in one day made me very happy. I made a list in a recent post of all the trash items I collected in a day. To counter that with a positive list, here are all of the animals we saw today:

- 3 flocks of Pelicans in V formation 12 - 16 approx. in each group!

- Sea Gulls, at least three different varieties.

- Crows on the beach, (my favorite!)

- Dolphins - hard to know how many, you can see the same ones again and again.

- Humans - too many to count!! Many of them having a very good time.

What is this you may ask? It is a picture of the blue sky I saw above us at the end of our collection time. If only house paint COULD capture colors from nature. There is a brand that I can recommend, Fresh Aire House Paint. We have painted most of our house with it, and I am very happy with the colors. Exclusively at Home Depot, these paints to not contain V.O.C.'s, (Volatile Organic Compounds....toxins that get into the water when flushed, or washed down the sink). You can barely smell them, even with the windows and doors closed, and the AC on. I speak from experience.
Occasionally Garen, (my husband), comes out to help me on a collection. Other people, (friends and people who have found me online), have offered to help collect trash from the beach too.

The plan is: If you want to join in!

- collect trash for 20 minutes.

- take a few pictures (trash, something inspiring, where you're standing...)

- email the pictures to me along with the name of the beach, how many pounds you collected, and a little something about you.

- my email: sara_bayles@yahoo.com

I will start a Community Collection Count, people doing what I do, from anywhere in the world, connecting to this project via the internet, and spreading the word. Let's Do It!!!

Day 40 - August 3, 2009

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

estimated pounds collected today - 4.8

estimated pounds collected to date - 228
This is one of the first things I saw today on the collection. Quizno's disposable cups. Which made me think about the weight of the individual items I collect. I often collect pieces of trash that do not exceed a few ounces in weight. For example; a plastic lid, plastic water bottle, paper cups, cigarettes, thin miscellaneous clear plastic wrappers, and so on. For all of these items to add up to 5, or even 7 pounds, well you get the idea, that means I am collecting a lot of them to equal the daily weight. A disclosure: I often grab grosser items with the sand around it to protect myself. Cigarette butts, and band-aids don't need to touch my hands for me to be making my point. Some of the weight tallied is from the sand that ends up in my bag from collecting these things.
This is an accurate snap shot of what the ground looks like at the beach at the end of the day. I like to collect after 6:00 p.m. because there aren't as many people, and it is cooler. When I arrive lately, the beach basically looks like this for as far as I can see.
This morning when I logged on to my blog account, I saw that a fellow blogger had posted about me! She had found The Daily Ocean, and was featuring it on, green LA girl,

Please take a minute to look at her site, and support it. She gives environmental news for Los Angeles and beyond that is current, savvy and very much appreciated. Thank you for showing interest and giving support to my project!