Day 161 - Oct. 10, 2010

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

4.7 pounds

650 pounds total

COMMUNITY COUNT DAY 59

Rachel, John, Siel, Heather, Barry, and Hanalea

Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

9.4 pounds

409.4 pounds total

"On 10/10/10, people at 7347 events in 188 countries got to work on the climate crisis" - for 350.org and we joined in down on the beach in Santa Monica.

Above is my friend Siel and blogger/writer extraordinaire who is the author of green LA girl and now contributes to the KPCC blog, among many others, where she wrote a really cool post about our 10/10/10 day.

Rachel, who is in the 8th grade in Crossroads School, came out to video the event for her class. I wish that I had a photo of her, but sometimes when I go out for a collection with other people I forget to take the pictures that I need! Sorry Rachel for not being able to represent you here today, BUT I can't wait to show your project on The Daily Ocean if you will permit me. It was a total blast having you there.
Our cleanup was the most serendipitous that I have experienced. My friend Heather - after not hearing back from me about that night's collection for 10/10/10 - called just as we pulled into the parking spot on the beach and was down to meet us in 15 minutes! Thanks Heather!

Find her here at LIVE NATURAL LIVE WELL and also follow her on BLOG TALK RADIO, she hosts a very compelling show about environmental issues, nutrition, people making a difference and a whole long list of inspirational guests.

The ubiquitous plastic bag.

We began our cleanup with just three of us until this wonderful women who drove all the way from Montrose (a good hour inland) walked up to me and Rachel and asked if we were the 350.org event. I didn't know that Siel had written about it online on the KPCC blog so it took me a minute to work it out that we must be who she was looking for. SO Hanalea joined in with gusto to expand our group.

Rachel on the left in the distance and Barry on the right

But then something happened that is a Daily Ocean first. Barry was at the beach to take in the sunset. He noticed an abundance of trash washed up on the sand which he then started to collect on his own. Then he saw that we were doing the same thing, and so he came over to me to ask if he could put his handful of plastic findings in my bag. I of course agreed and gently roped him in to joining us for the rest of the cleanup. He came along! And even stayed to create the 350 sign in the sand. A HUGE thank you to Barry for increasing our group to 5!

Hanalea, Siel, Heather, Barry, and me

Here is what 14 pounds and 10 ounces of trash looks like in a 350.org sign. Oh, and I may have mentioned that we found all of this in 20 minutes or less. Hanalea, Heather and Barry joined in around the 12 minute marker...... What 350 means can be found in the text below taken from the 350.org website.

"350 is the most important number in the world—it's what scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Three years ago, after leading climatologists observed rapid ice melt in the Arctic and other frightening signs of climate change, they issued a series of studies showing that the planet faced both human and natural disaster if atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ remained above 350 parts per million.

Everyone from Al Gore to the U.N.’s top climate scientist has now embraced this goal as necessary for stabilizing the planet and preventing complete disaster. Now the trick is getting our leaders to pay attention and craft policies that will put the world on track to get to 350."

Day 160 - Oct. 7, 2010

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

.5 pounds

645.3 pounds total

COMMUNITY COLLECTION DAY 58

Mark Armen - The Bait Tank & Danielle Richardet - It Starts With Me

Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.7 pounds

400 pounds total

Mark Armen and Danielle Richardet

On the right is my friend, and local environmental entrepreneur with a passion for sharks and saving fish, Mark Armen. If you haven't looked at his cigarette depositories that are reducing cigarette butt liter by 60% where they are currently installed in Santa Cruz and Capitola, then go check out his site. The Bait Tanks will soon be up on the Santa Monica Pier too! Yay Mark!

My friend Danielle contacted me in June after she opened an email from OCEANA about their OCEAN HERO AWARD. She felt inspired to email me, and our friendship began!

When she was out over the summer to visit an old college roommate with her family (3 amazing kids, and husband Aaron), they did a beach cleanup with me.

As I type this they are picking up cigarette butts after lunch on Wrightsville Beach N.C. near where they live in Wilmington N.C.. Danielle has started a portion of her blog called, OUR DAILY OCEAN where she picks up cigarette butts from her local beach. She just got a text that Aaron, Chase, Claire and Henry picked up 403 cigarette butts in 20 minutes.....

She has collected 6,346 cigarette butts in 12 days. Time to ban cigarette smoking from the beaches in N.C.? It won't stop all the butts from getting in the ocean, but well...how can it not help???

I'm a little off my game these days. My brain fatigue has reached an all time high from editing my brains out for hours at a time on my desktop for the past couple of weeks. I must apologize for the picture quality of the photos in this post. They come to you courtesy of my crappy cell phone camera instead of my digital camera that I left at home with my brain when I left the house.

BUT I had to include the above photo even if it is out of focus because if you read how many pounds of trash we collected today you may be thinking, "Wow, an improvement!"

It's not.

We spent 20 minutes feeling overwhelmed at the confetti of plastic peppering the tide line. Most of the trash we collected tonight was the size of a bottle cap or smaller. That's still a big problem. Ah rain in LA breaks down the trash that dumps out of the storm drains and invades the coastal water.
Bottled water giving to the Rainforest Action Network is great! But bottled water is not. All I will say is please oh please see the documentary by Stephanie Soechtig (local hero) TAPPED.

Please oh please oh please watch this. I don't like to beg...

Day 159 - Oct. 3, 2010

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

5.4 pounds

644.8 pounds total

There must have been a big birthday party for someone who loved balloons recently.

I found a ton of the left over strings tangled up on the beach.

Next Sunday is 350.org 10/10/10 GLOBAL WORK PARTY. Author Bill McKibben's organization to combat Global Climate Change has set it up. People from all around the world - and I mean all over the freakin' world - will be people gathering to take action, snap some photos, and send in what they did to expand the 350.org's ever growing photo collection of concerned world citizens changing the international discussion on what to do about Climate Change.

I didn't know 7-Eleven sponsored Kiss? Are they still together? Must be Halloween time.

I'll be heading out to the beach with my friend, and fellow blogger Siel of green LA girl to time how long it takes to collect enough trash to create a decent sized 350 sign.

What's up with the 350 you ask?

350 is the CO2 parts per million in the atmosphere that scientists say is the "safe limit for humanity." - 350.org

We are now t 390 ppm - We have some work to do!

But the best part of this is that because of the LA Times article that ran recently on The Daily Ocean, a local student named Rachel sent me an email asking if she could film me for her "A Day in the Life," assignment.

Um..yeah! I don't really like to see myself in photos, etc. but I think it is the coolest email I got because of that article.

(No offense intended to others who may have reached out to me. I like talking to all of you.)

But I am especially psyched to be in Rachel's project. You bet there will be some photos from that next weekend on here.
Tonight was the first night in almost a whole WEEK that I collected! I feel like such a slacker, and I don't say this so that you leave me a comment saying, "No, no you do so much!" That would be emotional manipulation on my part.

I share this in part to alleviate some feelings of guilt, but also to celebrate that a few of those nights that I was away from tower 26 were because I got to go camping at the breathtaking place pictured above. I love California.

Oh, I may also be a wee-bit busy writing my brains out to finish a manuscript that is 3 years and 9 months in the making, but who's counting!

Day 158 - Sept. 27, 2010

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2.4 pounds

639.4 pounds total

COMMUNITY COUNT - DAY 57

Mark Armen - The Bait Tank

Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2.5 pounds

398.3 pounds total

THANK YOU TO MY FRIEND MARK FOR COMING OUT ON A DAY WHEN DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES BROKE ITS RECORD FOR THE HOTTEST DAY ON RECORD.

GO TO HIS Bait Tank WEBSITE AND SEE WHAT HE IS DOING TO SAVE OUR OCEANS.

I'm going camping today, and I'm not going to buy bottled water. I'm feeling a little fanatical this morning as I amass all of our jars and OCEANA water bottles to fill with tap water before I head out.

I WILL BE AWAY UNTIL FRIDAY - TOTALLY UNPLUGGING FROM THE WORLD - NO INTERNET, NO POSTING, NADA.

I've just finished a draft of a YA book I've been working on for almost 4 years. I am stepping away so that when I come back I can take one more look at it before - here's where you knock on wood for me - I send it in to an agent. YAY!

Thank you for all of the emails that I got from people around the country after reading the article that ran in the LA Times last Sat.. I will be highlighting some of the lists, and accounts you sent me of the trash washing up/or being left behind on your beach.

I love to hear from people who read this blog, find it inspiring, or have a story to share about what they are doing. I would like to thank you so much for being in touch. Please don't hesitate to send an email, or leave a comment. I write The Daily Ocean to engage with people about how we are trashing the oceans, and what we can do in our own lives to change that. Let me know what you think!
It was the night of the water bottle. Mark and I found half a dozen in 20 minutes on a stretch of beach about the size of a football field.

CONGRATULATIONS TO HEAL THE BAY AND THE OCEAN CONSERVANCY FOR A RECORD BREAKING COASTAL CLEANUP DAY. OVER 14,000 PEOPLE TURNED OUT IN LA COUNTY ALONE!
People were in the water until after sunset. Like I said, downtown LA was the hottest day on record. I think the summer we didn't have this year tried to come in one day.

I'll be out Friday for another collection. Off to camp with my dog, and to sit on the beach myself.

Day 157 - Sept. 24, 2010

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

3 pounds

637 pounds total
Tony Barboza, a reporter for the LA Times, wrote a great article about The Daily Ocean. It is up online, but will appear in print in the Sat. edition of the LA Times. Feeling pretty excited, and honored right about now.

Thanks to Tony for writing a clear, well written piece about my blog and adventures since I've started writing The Daily Ocean.

Tomorrow is Coastal Cleanup Day.

Sign up with Heal the Bay to visit the beach and clean it up between 9 - 12. You can do yoga beforehand if you are an early riser, or sample food from local LA food trucks when you are done.

Organized by the Ocean Conservancy, and hosted in Southern California by Heal the Bay, Coastal Cleanup Day rallies tens of thousands of people to the coast's aide. Come along!

"Seventy percent of plastic found in the ocean is from watersheds, beaches, litter, or it blows out of landfills and finds its way to a river. Items we use everyday and would never even THINK would end up in the ocean are making their way to sea, polluting our waters and endangering marine wildlife."

- Kayla Coleman the Care 2 website
Siel of green LA girl wrote up a great post about CCD, highlighting BYO for CCD. Bring Your Own (bag and gloves) for Coastal Cleanup Day. Right On!

Day 156 - Sept. 22, 2010

Santa Monica Sport Fishing Pier (just south) - Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2.5 pounds

634 pounds total

Community Count Collection

Thank you to Arleen for coming out tonight! Find her on twitter at: ecogossip

Day 56

Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2.6 pounds

395.8 pounds total

Hey wait a minute? Didn't I take a picture of this plastic cup on Day 155? Oh wait - I did.

Are you an athlete that loves the ocean and wants to race for a good cause?

Then look for the annual Nautica Triathlon that is held in Malibu every Sept. and sign up next year. Oceana was there this month and they raised over 6,000 dollars to support the work they do protecting Sea Turtles, and getting Offshore Drilling stopped to name just a couple of their vital campaigns. They are the largest non-profit dedicated solely to ocean conservation.

I was proud to be a 2010 Ocean Heroes Finalist this year.

Please sign Oceana's STOP THE DRILL petition here.

I've talked about the BaitTank before. My friend, and sometimes fellow beach cleaner, Mark Armen has invented a cigarette depository that will soon be up in the cities of Capitola and Santa Cruz. Want to help promote shark conservation, save fish and dispose of the "#1 form of marine debris found littering our local beaches and coastlines: cigarette butts?" Then check out the post about Mark's BaitTank on the SAVE OUR SHORES BLOG - INTO THE BLUE.
I found a blog recently that chronicles an artist Anke, living on the Baltic Coast of Germany as she collects plastic and other trash from her local beach to make outrageously beautiful art pieces with it. Her blog is called BEACHED ART, you've got to see her work.
Another person I have talked about a lot on here - and who has her own column to the left on my blog chronicling her cigarette butt collections called Our Daily Ocean - is my friend Danielle who lives near Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina.

Her actions got the attention of a local non-profit dedicated to sea turtles. They have a blog called the Lumina News. In their most recent post, they talk about the liter that they picked up from their beach this summer. 569.74 bags of trash! That is a lot of trash.

It is likely that each bag weighs roughly 10 pounds - so their total would be - 5,697.4 pounds OVER 2 TONS!

Check out LUMINA NEWS here.

Ginger from the Sea Turtle Project recently collected 1.7 pounds of trash in a 20 minute cleanup because she was inspired by Danielle, who was inspired by The Daily Ocean.

Got 20 minutes?

Harry in Maine writes The Flotsam Diaries. Sadly, he broke all of his collection records during his last beach cleanup.

He diligently records his findings on his blog - "A chronicle of human debris. Washed up, blown in, left behind."

The Daily Ocean asks people to write in with their findings on their own 20 minute beach cleanup no matter where they live in the world. Whether you live in the NE, SE, or on the West Coast - the findings are the same - plastics and other liter clogging the oceans.

So far with the help of people participating in the Community Count Collections and my own Daily Ocean cleanups we are over 1/2 A TON OF TRASH and counting.

But not only that - we are connecting an ocean community, spreading the word, taking action and making a difference.

So I ask you - if we are finding the same thing everywhere, then maybe we need everyone to make a difference?

Join us. To start - it only takes 20 minutes.

Day 155 - Sept. 19, 2010

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

6.1 pounds

631.5 pounds total

I know that I have bought a few of these before. Not anymore, but I have.

I had the great honor of showing my photographs alongside some of the most inventive artists raising awareness about our trash, and plastic pollution problem working today.

We were all in the Sustainable Works 3rd annual fundraiser last Thurs. night which was a lot of fun.

The first artist I would like to mention is Marina Deb Ris. She has a website called, "Washed Up." Three words appear on her homepage - "BEAUTIFUL, STRANGE, UNSETTLING," and her work is just that. In her bio it says that since she moved to LA 12 years ago she has been running on the beaches, and collecting trash. She started to help cleanup, but then began to keep the trash that interested her to create some amazing pieces of art. Check her out here.

I've definately used that size plastic container to hold my hummus or some other food.

Another artist that I got a chance to meet last week is Julie Kornblum, a fiber artist whose materials range from cut up plastic bottles, vhs tape, and plastic bags. She is, "concerned with what we throw away." Her work combines the ancient techniques of basketry and weaving with, "post-modern" materials. The results are thought provoking and stunning. Here is a link to her website.

I can remember buying a bag of these exact chips.

Last but not least is Todd Bank whose found object sculptures are amazing visual examples of all the interesting, and sometimes unsettling, junk we intend to throw away or gather around ourselves needlessly. His website states, "artwork that transforms ordinary art shows into environmental exhibitions." He is also a writer, oil painter, and installation artist. Check out all of the amazing stuff he is up to here.

And although I haven't smoked in years, I have smoked many in the past.

So after I chased a sea gull away from the Organic Tortilla Chips Bag that you saw earlier in this post, I chased another one away from flying off with this pack of smokes. It seems fitting to give you an update on my friend Danielle's "Our Daily Ocean" project of collecting cigarette butts, and other trash items, from her beach in N.C. with her husband and three kids.

Can you guess how many cigarette butts they have collected in 11 days?

.....I'll give you a minute.

Seriously, you will never guess - - -

But I can change what I buy. We all can.

5,395 CIGARETTE BUTTS IN 11 DAYS.

Day 154 - Sept. 15, 2010

lifeguard tower just north of the Santa Monica Pier - Santa Monica, CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.6 pounds

625.4 pounds total

Mark Armen on left

COMMUNITY COUNT COLLECTION

Thank you to - Mark Armen of Gulpable and The Bait Tank & Jon Frank from Oceana

Day 52

Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

3.2 pounds

372.2 pounds total

Jon Frank & Heather who volunteered at the Oceana table for the Nautica Triathlon

Mark and Jon competed in the triathlon in Malibu this past weekend hosted by Nautica. They joined me last night for a sunset stroll on the beach just north of the Santa Monica Pier to see what we could collect from the sand.

Mark said as we were collecting, "It's all cigarette butts, and plastic bottle tops."

We did find plenty of them. I've been weighing items of trash that I find most frequently to provide some perspective of just how many cigarette butts, and plastic bottle tops equal 4.8 pounds (last night's combined total).

Read on to see the conversions.

An empty plastic water bottle weighs approx. = .51 ounces

A cigarette butt = .01 ounces

A plastic bottle top = .08 ounces

4 lbs. = 126 plastic bottles OR 6,400 cigarette butts OR 800 plastic bottle tops....

Mark is saving fish, and Sharks while cleaning up the streets and beaches with his super cool Bait Tank cigarette depository. Soon you will be able to see them along the Santa Monica pier, and next the world! Sounds funny, but the entire world does seem to have a cigarette butt liter problem that could use Mark's Bait Tanks.

Check them out! Got somewhere you want to see them? Contact him for more information.

I will never forget watching a local sea gull gulp down a cigarette lighter in front of me. I tried to scare it off to take it away, but instead I succeeded in only making it swallow it down faster so that it wouldn't loose its catch. It was such a bummer.

Day 153 - Sept. 13, 2010

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.2 pounds

623.8 total

The world's heaviest Sumo wrestler, Yokozuna, was 620 pounds. He passed away in 2000.
Who's read, or seen, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? This is NOT the golden ticket. It is a Werther's Original candy wrapper. For the last two days I have seen these strewn across the beach, and even in my local park where I walk my dogs. This park is only 25 blocks from the beach. I find this curious, and well -- frustrating.

Right after I spotted the golden candy wrapper, I saw a sea gull pecking at the empty cigarette pack above. I chased him away, which is the only time I chase sea gulls, and grabbed the pack.
I have taken this shot about half a dozen times this summer. But I thought I would take it again to drive home the point that an empty single use plastic water bottle is such a common occurrence that someone who only spends twenty minutes on the beach will find one nearly every time.
This sign seems to really absolve the city of their responsibility to keep our water clean and free from polluted run-off. Which reminds me, a host of organizations like Surfrider and Heal the Bay will be holding a press conference at Surfrider beach on Thurs. to show support to finally ban septic tanks in the area that have been draining POO into the BU for decades. If you can't make it out in person on Thurs., you can sign Surfrider's petition online here. Heal the Bay also has a petition to ban septics. Sign both!
I may have only collected 1.2 pounds of trash. But this weight included two plastic bags poised to enter the ocean. Each bag weighs approximately 1 ounce. However it does a world of damage once in the water.
Above is bag number 2, which I found right after bag number 1. Within 100 feet of each other.
I love sea gulls. In my opinion, they are an under appreciated bird. I've taken lots of photographs of them during my collections for The Daily Ocean.

I will be showing many of those images at the 3rd annual fundraiser for our local green organization, Sustainable Works which is being held at the Writer's Boot Camp in Bergamont Station here in Santa Monica.

Lots of yummy food from Urth Cafe, a comedian host for the evening, and a slew of silent auction items you won't want to miss. Oh, and did I mention a bar? Here's the scoop on tickets.