Day 65 - Oct. 3

life guard tower 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica Ca

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds of trash collected today - 1.1

estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 318
My friend Judy sent me a link to this blog. The author set it up as a teaching tool for kids on such heavy topics as the Midway Atoll and Albatross Birds that are dying there by the thousands. They die from eating plastics, plastic tops just like this. Check out his blog, SOAR.
If this balloon had gotten into the water it would have been anything but a happy event. Marine animals mistake balloons as food that they then eat causing terminal blockages in their digestive system. This is a major cause of death in animals like sea turtles. There is a wonderful book that I may have mentioned called Voyage of the Turtle by Dr. Carl Safina. Click here for more details.
Wayne Sentman of the Naturefinder Blog has a very good entry on Albatross and living near the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch on the Midway Atoll near Hawaii. Please read it by clicking here.

Day 64 - Oct. 2

click on the box to find out more! designed by Net2LA


life guard tower 26, Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds of trash collected today - 1.9

estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 316.9

You've got to see what the Green Bag Lady is doing! She made me these bags especially for collecting trash on the beach, but she has made over 6500 of them and mailed them to people around the world for free if they promise to use them instead of paper or plastic. Check it out! Teresa's generosity is astounding, thank you and keep it up!
I was completely blown away when I received her package stuffed full with these two custom made bags for me, one for my neighbor who has been giving me plastic bags to use (which has been a great way to recycle them for her, thank you Diana), and many for gifts for THE BLOGGER BEACH CLEANUP OCT. 24TH. If you come, you may get one of her bags!
Rorschach or balloon? Or balloon as Rorschach test, you know the ink blot flash cards where you

are supposed to tell what you see instead just the blotch of ink on the page? Anyway.
Motor oil bottle, fabulous.

Have you seen this site? The Climate Community is doing great things. I met Dan today who is behind this project. It is wonderful to meet people who are curious, humble and passionate. Great work Dan, keep it up.
At the rate I am going I collect once every three days. This is a little too slow in my opinion. What has brought my average down is a week like last when I was just too sick to come to the beach, or when we went on our honeymoon. These events are understandable, and why I set the rule for myself that I will collect on 365 non-consecutive days, but I feel the need to try and step it up a bit. What a slacker I am, huh? I know, perspective is a tricky thing. Think a happy medium of stepping up and letting myself have a little slack is where I need to be. This elusive middle ground - balance.
It was so wonderful to be back on the beach tonight.

SICK IN BED 9/27 - 9/30

SINCE SUNDAY. WHICH IS GREAT TIMING CONSIDERING I WAS THE FOCUS OF A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE IN THE SANTA MONICA DAILY PRESS THAT RAN OVER THE WEEKEND.

IF YOU HAVE CHECKED MY BLOG RECENTLY AND SEE THAT I HAVEN'T POSTED A NEW ENTRY IN AWHILE IT IS BECAUSE I HAVE A COLD THAT IS REALLY KICKING MY BUTT AND I WILL HOPEFULLY BE BACK TO MY REGULAR COLLECTING TOMORROW. CROSS YOUR FINGERS FOR ME.

Day 63 - Sept. 24

Beach between Lifeguard Tower 26 & 27 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes.

estimated pounds of trash collected today - 1.2 trash/ .4 recyclable total = 1.6

estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 315

* I forgot to take a picture of the Lifeguard Tower 26! It feels strange to start my post without it.
The plastic in this picture appears almost precious because of the late afternoon sunlight. It's not.
It has been awhile since I found a single use plastic water bottle. I didn't miss them. I do like days like today though, when the weight of the trash collected is so low. Silly questions roll through my head like, "I should have picked a dirtier beach!" Well, this is my local beach, literally it is at the end of the street from where I live. I like the fact that I chose this strip of beach for just that reason.
In an email from Heal The Bay, they posted the results of Coastal Cleanup Day which was last weekend.

CCD 2009 - The Most Volunteers and Trash Ever!

Thanks to your help, Coastal Cleanup Day 2009 was a record breaking year!

At 69 cleanup sites all over Los Angeles County, we had 14,038 volunteers (a new record!) remove 298,686 lbs of trash and 1,726 lbs of recyclables for a record total of 300,413 lbs!

These numbers, extraordinary as they are, can't tell the whole story. Our hope is that everyone leaves Coastal Cleanup Day with a deeper appreciation for our ocean, rivers, creeks, and parks, and a better understanding of the problems they face.

If you follow my blog you may have had enough pictures of backlit children on the beach. I can't stop taking them. I apologize, but maybe you don't mind so much.

It is friday and we are headed to the beach to body surf before collecting Day 63's trash.

BLOGGER BEACH CLEANUP! OCT. 24TH

Siel (pictured above) of, green LA girl, came out to interview me in August and collect trash for 20 minutes.

We've put our heads together and decided to co-host an event in October.

THE BLOGGER BEACH CLEANUP, OCTOBER 24TH LIFEGUARD TOWER 26 OCEAN PARK, SANTA MONICA CA FROM 4:20 - 4:40

She has posted about it beautifully here.

And we have also listed it on the 350 website.

A group organizing internationally to get people to come out and act to help stop climate change.

Oct. 24th is my birthday and the International Day of Climate Action.

Won't you bend over and help us! We'll be collecting trash for 20 minutes.

There are prizes and incentives for all.

Lets get together and brainstorm how we can all do one small thing to change the way we live, and the world that together makes a landslide of difference!

Change starts with you, with us, come along and meet like-minded folks who want to make a difference. (Don't have to be a blogger to join us!!)

Day 62 - Sept. 23

Lifeguard Tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

estimated pounds of trash collected today - 1.5

estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 313.4
Is it a balloon, a jelly fish, or a creature from the deep? I think you know the answer....

My local paper is amazing, they run stories about beach closures on the front page.

From the Santa Monica Daily Press today : (they are running a story on The Daily Ocean in their weekend edition. Check their website to read it, they are an online paper too!)

BEACH CLOSURE
WILL ROGERS STATE BEACH Foul smell causes closure The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has posted warning signs advising swimmers and surfers to avoid the ocean for a half-mile north and a half-mile south of the storm drain located at Will Rogers State Beach, near Pacific Palisades....more

essay continued from Day 60 post:

But I do this for a few reasons. I feel better when I collect the trash, making it unavailable for marine life to get sick from. I find it enormously satisfying when I chase a gull away from eating a plastic bottle cap.
Sometimes I feel worse after collecting. If the sand is littered with trash that day, usually on Sunday nights, then I am depressed because sometimes I collect over five pounds in twenty minutes. Remember, the stuff I am collecting weighs ounces; cigarette butts aren’t heavy.

Here’s why I keep doing it though. This is my hope. I hope that people see what I am doing physically, or online and it inspires them to do the same. I hope that steady shifts in awareness sink in that cause people to change. And that all of this effort creates a slow and steady climax to the tipping point where people feel inspired to take action around whatever environmental issue they feel passionate about and that this passion becomes contagious.

Day 61 - Sept. 22

Lifeguard Tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds collected today - 2

total pounds collected to date - 311.9
Today was a wonderful, and strange day to be out here. Santa Monica Daily Press came out to photograph me for the weekend edition of their paper. They are an online paper, so if you want to check on Sat. and see the article, click here.

I think I forgot to take as many pictures, or pick up as much trash, but I am very excited they are interested in The Daily Ocean. Thank you SMDP!
I wrote an OP-ED piece for the LA Times, they didn't want to run it, but I still like it. I'll include it in this post starting below:

As We Say Goodbye to Summer How Are We Leaving Our Beaches?

Who can imagine summertime without going to the beach? Even if you don’t live on the coast, just the thought of a beach probably brings to mind pictures of summer. For millions of people the time they spend at the ocean defines the season. Many of us have early memories of being a child there, discovering waves, chasing sea gulls, and building sand castles.

September 20th was the last official day of summer. Over the past weekend thousands of us probably headed out to the beach to enjoy the final moments before fall arrived. Some of us may have participated in “Coastal Cleanup Day” last Saturday sponsored in part by Heal the Bay, and The Ocean Conservation. “Coastal Cleanup Day” is a an initiative to raise awareness about issues of Ocean Conservation, like the huge problem of Marine Debris, by inviting people to participate in a nation-wide beach cleanup.

You may have noticed that we are literally trashing the beaches. Marine Debris is one of the largest problems affecting the health of the ocean. You may have also heard about the North Pacific Trash Gyre, an island of floating trash swirling in the middle of the Northern Pacific that is now twice the size of the continental United States.

How does all this trash end up in the ocean? Storm drains from urban coastal areas lead straight into the water. Without grates over most openings to catch the larger pieces of trash, all the litter that lands on the street gets swept into the sea. And that’s not all. Motor oil, dog waste, pesticides and fertilizers end up in there as well. This is a design that has always concerned me, and strikes me as particularly insane.

But storm drains aren’t the only way these items are getting to into the water. We leave a lot of the same items behind right where we were, on the sand. Recently I saw a California Gull swallow a Bic lighter whole. I was just feet away, and unable to stop it.

As we say goodbye to the end of summer I’d like to ask how are we going to leave our beaches? I am not naturally optimistic. But even though that is often how I feel I think the real question on my mind is that, if you know what is going on, and have informed yourself of even a miniscule amount of the ecological research available, how can you not do something?

I chose to start a one-person beach cleanup as a way to begin. I head to my local beach and for twenty minutes at a time, pick up trash off the sand. It started as a way to protect my own mental health, and has developed into a blog called The Daily Ocean as a tool to raise awareness.

If the same trash appears daily why do I return? Am I really stopping the trash from getting in the water or littering the beach? No, probably not. Let me explain, the trash I take away will only be back the next day. Basically the same stuff will return, and when I say the same stuff, I mean exactly the same stuff. Cigarette butts, plastic water bottles, band-aids, straws, food wrappers, tampons, sanitary napkins, condoms, bottle tops, and the occasional discarded flip flop are the most frequent items I find. And I find them day after day.........

(continued on Day 61 results post)

Teresa of Green Bag Lady, has contacted me and will be sending me bags to use for cleaning the beach, one for my neighbor who gives me single use plastic bags to collect in now, and a bunch for an event I am co-hosting with green LA girl ( http://greenlagirl.com/bbc/ ) more about the event in the next post.

She lives in Tenn. and has started a project/blog that gives reusable, beautiful, sown fabric bags away to people if they promise to use them instead of paper or plastic.
So far she has given away 6484 bags to people around the world. So cool!!

Thanks Teresa, click here for a link to her site.

Day 60 - Sept 20

Lifeguard Tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds of trash collected today - 5.8

estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 309.9
Ruby Slippers! There's no place like home. Garen and I spent over an hour in the water today at the beach in front of Tower 26. I had never swam there before, but we checked the Heal the Bay Beach Report card and saw that it was an A even though it is near beaches that have received an F rating.

And besides, I have collected some trash off that beach that I would rather not swim with. I couldn't resist the perfect body surfing waves that roll in there any longer, and it made more sense to me why surfers will risk dirty beaches if there is a nice wave there. Now I also understand why so many people go there.

The water in the bay is warm, especially in September here in Southern California. And the sandy bottom, where perfect surfing and body surfing waves roll in, makes it a really great place to play in the water. After having such a good time there today, I am even more determined to carry on with this project.
There was a festival on the pier today sponsored by the Roots and Shoots Foundation that was started by Jane Goodall. The students of Team Marine at SAMOHI (Santa Monica High School) brought their RETHINK sign to prop up in front of the stage. Their sign, which I have mentioned in this blog in an earlier post, is made from 37, 427 plastic bottle tops, that is 37,427 plastic bottle tops that have not made it in the ocean. Neither did this one.
An old boogie board, soggy, broken and left behind.
On the pier today I met a group of 4th graders and their parents who have formed an organization called PEACE TROOP. They used to be involved in Girl Scouts but have started to do their own thing, and today they worked for Surfrider. I was very excited to meet them. They are invited to participate in The Daily Ocean by coming out for a beach cleanup with me. And Team Marine will look into partnering with their elementary school in West Los Angeles. Today was a great day to be a part of things going on here in Santa Monica, and the greater Los Angeles area.
Hope you enjoyed today, it was the last day of summer. September can be an unbearably hot month here, but this weekend was just right. It is bittersweet to say goodbye to this season and enter into fall, but this is my favorite time of year. It feels full of possibilities, and full of forward moving energy to greet those possibilities as they develop.

Day 59 - Sept 18

THE STUDENTS FROM THE HEAL THE BAY/SURFRIDER CLUB AT SANTA MONICA HIGH SCHOOL STAGED A BAN THE PLASTIC BAG MARCH THROUGH SANTA MONICA TODAY. FIRST STOP WAS CITY HALL. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS
Lifeguard Tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica, CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds of trash collected - 1.3/.8 NO RECYCLABLES (Garen helped today, thanks!)

estimated pounds of trash to date - 304.1
Tomorrow is COASTAL CLEANUP DAY. Thousands of people will clean beaches and urban riverways leading to the ocean on both coasts and Hawaii. Will you join us? I am looking forward to seeing what it feels like to be with hundreds of people on my local city beaches between 9 - 12 on Sat. Sept. 19th sponsored by Heal the Bay.
I was recently contacted by Beverly, a reader of The Daily Ocean. This project has inspired her to do her own version when she goes on vacation to Rhode Island in a few weeks.

She has already called the local Surfrider chapter and composed a list of 6 different beaches to visit. She wants to see how much trash she finds on each kind of beach with varying numbers of beach goers. Beverly will share her findings with me and I will post them here as

THE FIRST PERSON TO TAKE ME UP ON THE COMMUNITY COUNT CHALLENGE.

You can do what Beverly is doing, and send me your photos, weight of trash collected and I will post it here. Thanks Beverly!! Her new website about saving the places you love will go live in a few weeks and I will mention it here with a link. Awesome!!
Our beach as ashtray. Ugh.
ARROWHEAD - I've been reading an article about FIJI water in the October issue of Mother Jones. A reader pointed it out to me and I have to say reading that, and watching the documentary FLOW has brought the issues of who is controlling the world's fresh water and the dangers coming from that to my attention. A main contributor to the dangers are bottled water companies and the environmental damage they cause by adding to the plastic garbage floating in our oceans after people throw their plastic water bottles away, the petroleum they use in making the bottles creating more carbon emissions that cause global warming and the human suffering caused by the companies diverting local water sources away from its people as it pumps their water out from under them causing drought and disease.

An excerpt from this article about Arrowhead - (owned by the Nestle company)

"Nestle is seeking a permit to pipe 65 million gallons a year from a spring in rural Colorado. When critics raised concerns about the effect of climate change on local water supplies, Nestle said it was "illogical" to base decisions on changes "many years in the future."

- HMMM the future is now.