Day 241 - Dec. 8, 2011

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA 

trash collected for 20 min. 

1.5 pounds 

913.8 pounds total

This Wednesday the 14th, Los Angeles City Council will vote on banning single use plastic bags in the city. Heal the Bay needs your support. Please visit their action page for more information. If you can make it downtown for the meeting, you'll be giving the environment an invaluable gift for the holidays. 

I'm going to try and make it although the cold that's been going around has settled thickly in my throat. 

With rain on the horizon, and a winter cold in my chest, it is unlikely that I'll be out for the 242nd beach cleanup anytime soon. This also means I'll be out of the water as well. With the approaching weather, I'm sure the waves were good this morning. After a wave drought this week, it would have been nice to get in today. They'll be other days, if I concentrate on getting better. 

At least that's what I'm telling myself right now. 

Mylar balloon in the foreground, deceased Grebe bird in the background. 

I'll end today's post with a comment Andrea left on Thanksgiving. It made my day to read it then, and still does. 

"I don't live near the beach but over Thanksgiving, we were at a beach in Milford, CT so we did some clean-up inspired by you. Found a bunch of mono filament and rope, bottles, plastic bits and pieces. No way to weigh it but probably around 6 pounds "

Community Count Day 189 - Arleen in Martha's Vineyard

It's getting cold on the East Coast. I can hear the cry, "GETTING!" from my friends back there. The point is, my friend Arleen still walks along the blustery beaches of Martha's Vineyard, and while she does she collects trash. She's done several Daily Ocean cleanups with me when in Venice, and a few on her own. A big thank you to Arleen for taking the time to share. Here are her latest findings, and some words of her own. 

Lucy Vincent Beach , Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, MA
trash collected for 20 min.
3.74 lbs


"I  walk this beach which always appears pristine, but upon closer inspection the usual suspects are evident: styrofoam , plastic bottles, bottle tops and strings with balloon remnants.  

Even collected a large piece of black plastic- not sure what that is /was!
Made sure to take a couple of photos for you."

All photos and text by Arleen McGlade.

Day 240 - Dec. 6, 2011

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

3 pounds 

921.3 pounds total 

My friend Mary joined me for most of the collection tonight. It's always fun to see her. 

She's an incredible photographer who posts her work on her site. 

I had the honor of being the subject for her SMC photography class assignment, 

"Environmental Portraits." 

Who is that guy? 

Looks like how I felt tonight when I saw thousands of styrofoam flecks speckling 

the sand at the tide line again.

The tide retreated to the lowest I've seen in months, letting off that low-tide-odor. But the crisp December air, and sunset made up for any unpleasant smells.

And yet another black plastic bag... This one makes the 4th consecutive cleanup that I've found a black single use plastic bag during my 20 minutes on the sand. 

Three placid, and one bossy Royal Tern. Royal Terns are the Clydesdales of Terns. 

I am really enjoying all the winter migratory birds around our beach. 

Day 239 - Dec. 3, 2011

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

5.4 pounds

909.3 pounds total

Saturday night was about stooping over, and picking styrofoam pits out of the water line. 

Between bits of near weightless chunks, I remembered to check out the sunset. When I did, I had the pleasure of watching a Grebe dive below for a snack.

I actually found myself wishing for larger, more solid items to scavenge off the sand as I walked along. What an odd thought. The second time I remembered to look around, I saw a sea lion poke up from the water about thirty feet front me. 

It's raining black plastic bags. Not really, but I have found at least one black plastic single use bag on my last three cleanups. So how many are actually floating around in Santa Monica Bay? I go out for a beach cleanup every three days, on average, to the same tiny stretch of sand. For a week or more now, I've taken at least one of these beauties off the sand when I go. There's a word problem in here for a Statistics class just begging to be written by a more math savvy person than I.

I saw a Grebe, and a Sea Lion on Saturday night, and a pod of Dolphins today when I entered the surf this morning, all reminding me that I'm really out here for them. The Daily Ocean is written to communicate with people, but it's a labor of love for the animals. If I keep this fact in mind, I'll have plenty of energy to finish my last 100 or so cleanups.

Days 237 & 238 - Nov. 23 & Nov. 29, 2011

Day 237 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

5.6 pounds

Day 238 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

2.6 pounds

total for both days - 8.2 pounds

Daily Ocean total - 903.9 

The night before Thanksgiving I got all the way to the beach, turned on my new-ish camera and my battery had no juice. Again. Perhaps twice, or maybe three times now, is enough for me to remember that this new little 14 mega-pixel Lumex has some kinks I need to attend to. Having no pictures from my 237th beach cleanup, I have lumped two days into one post. 

It is great to be home from Thanksgiving after a trip to Louisiana to visit our friends who may as well be family. I miss them already, but I love where we live. They've promised to come for a visit over the next year. I hope so. Herbert - who will be 14 - would really like body surfing with me in the morning. And Charlotte - who will still be 10 if they come in the summer - will love coming for beach cleanups at sunset. I've known their mother Lisa for 15 plus years now. It's a real treasure to be close to someone who's been in your life for so long. Holiday time can turn into a series of tense family gatherings. 

We're lucky we escaped that.

I found a black plastic bag on both day 237 and 238. 

Mad Lib idea - "In Los Angeles you find (noun), which is (verb) all over the beaches."

The water wasn't too, too cold this morning, and the waves were up! We did find a sick loon though. The bird rescue guys were on their way, but it died before they arrived. My friend Kit reminded me that, "It's a tough life out there." He's right. Marine animals, hell all wild animals, face challenge after challenge to stay alive. My brain throws in potentially eating a bunch of plastic crap and other junk along with weather, predators, hunting/fishing, and a plethora of man-made threats. 

Perhaps the Loon died of old age. Perhaps not. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

WE ARE LATE, RUSHING AROUND THE HOUSE TO GET TO LAX. 


I WENT ON A BEACH CLEANUP LAST NIGHT FOR DAY 237 AND COLLECTED 5.6 POUNDS. 


POST TO COME POST-THANKSGIVING WHEN WE RETURN NEXT WEEK. UNTIL THEN, HAVE A SAFE, HAPPY AND HEALTHY HOLIDAY WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY. PUMPKIN PIE...YUM!




HERE'S THE CLEANUP WE DID LAST THANKSGIVING DAY IN MALIBU

Day 236 - Nov. 22, 2011

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

11.9 pounds 

895.7 pounds total 

I felt relieved for sitting out this morning from my usual body surfing routine when I weighed my bag, discovering that I collected 11.9 pounds of plastic garbage off the beach tonight. The tide brought in the contents of the storm drain for me to see. This is only one of many intact plastic bags found on the sand. 

The stunning sunset created a sharp contrast to the garbage strewn across the beach. 

The funny, or not-so-funny, thing is that when I found the condom last night with Kitt and Anna, Kitt said the worst item he could think of finding would be a used diaper. DA-DAAAA!

A woman stopped to talk to me and say thanks for collecting trash after the rain. She commented on how much there was on a night like this. I agreed. She asked me how I don't get discouraged? My only answer was that doing something about it felt a whole lot better than not. 

Christy also mentioned a bunch of pictures of local dead birds she's seen walking on the beach between Rose Ave. in Venice and the pier. She wants to put them online somehow because recently she's found a few with fishing hooks in their beaks. 

I walked past this Greeb bird on the way back to the car. I normally wouldn't snap a picture of a dead bird, but when I saw this Greeb, and in the light of my recent conversation with Christy, I realized that I've seen a hawk, a sea gull, and 3 Greebs in the last month an a half washed up on my little stretch of sand between 26 and 28. All of them look like they died of natural causes. 

But did they? Or did they ingest a bunch of single-use plastic garbage that's been floating around? 

Who can tell, except in made me pause...

Day 235 - Nov. 21, 2011

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

3.6 pounds

883.8 pounds total

COMMUNITY COUNT DAY 188 - KITT & ANNA

trash collected for 20 min. 

Anna - 2 pounds

Kitt - 2.5 pounds

Community Count total - 904.8 pounds

THE DAILY OCEAN COMBINED TOTAL - 1,788.6 pounds of trash taken off beaches

We've seen a few folks from the Sea Dragon Crew lately. Last March Garen and I joined a rag-tag group of environmentalists, journalists, activists, documentary film makers, and scientists conducting research and documenting our findings while crossing in a 72 foot sailboat from Chile to Easter Island and then to Tahiti. 

Anna was on another crew but is colleagues with someone who was on board with us. She stayed with us overnight, and came out for a beach cleanup. She has been on a road trip for work from Sweden with our other good friend Anna. This Anna studies toxins in marine mammals. She also assesses legislation and it's effectiveness in regulating these P.O.P.s, or Persistent Organic Pollutants. It was so much fun to have her with us. This woman can discern reams of data, but the plastic sleeve for children's frozen popsicles like the one above, left her puzzled. 

Watermelon and Chile candy, yum yum.

Both nights that Kitt has come out with me we've found one of the above objects. Good grief. 

This space invader plastic car, or at least that's my interpretation, was one of the last items taken off the sand. Thanks again to Kitt and Anna for joining me during a sunset trash pick. 

Day 234 - Nov. 17, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2 pounds 

880.2 pounds total

My friend Danielle writes the blog IT STARTS WITH ME. It has a section of it called, "Our Daily Ocean." She has a cigarette butt focus, but takes all the liter she finds off her local beaches in Wrightsville N.C.. 

To date - she has collected over 220 pounds of trash to add to my Community Count and also over 35,000 cigarette butts. It is amazing what one person can do! Her three kids; Chase, Claire and Henry are usually with her. SO A BIG THANK YOU TO THEIR WHOLE FAMILY! 

I love that Danielle got inspired to do this after she met me on my Santa Monica beach for a 20 min. cleanup about a year and a half ago. It is exactly the kind of action I hope to inspire with The Daily Ocean. Although I can take no credit for how long she's sustained her efforts, or the thousands of cigarette butts, and many, many hours she's spent doing Our Daily Ocean. 

What an inspiring example for us all. 

A man named Harris stopped to talk to me on the beach. One of his ideas is to draw attention to trash as it gets snarled up in sea weed. Just as we were finishing our conversation, a huge tangle of sea weed, kelp, and a plastic bag rolled up from the water. Good timing. I untangled the bag, thinking about our meeting as Harris kept on his way up to the pier. The more people focusing on creative ways to draw attention to this problem, the better. He has since followed up with an email. Good stuff. 

Personal hygiene products

strewn across the sand

One of many candy wrappers I collected. Halloween has washed through the drains.

My friend Karen got sick from surfing too soon after a rain the other week. More weather is reported to come through tonight, meaning that it will be Wed. before I'm back in the water. I like winter, but I don't like having to sit out of the waves. 

Santa Monica High School Heal the Bay/Surfrider Club did a paddle out for clean water today at tower 26. It was pretty cool to see. 

Day 233 - Nov. 15, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica, CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

4.6 pounds

878.2 pounds total

COMMUNITY COLLECTION - KITT - DAY 169

trash collected for 20 minutes

6.7 pounds

849.2 pounds total

DAILY OCEAN COMBINED TOTAL - 1, 727.4 ?! 

GOOD LORD THAT'S GETTING UP THERE!

Inspiration flowed through me when I stepped up onto the sea wall to take this shot. I was pumped for the night after coming home from Monterey, AND my friend Kitt was there to meet me. Kitt and I were on the same crew from Easter Island to Tahiti. Not only that but Kitt, Garen and our friend Jess, who is now taking Cook Island by storm, were on the same crew for most of it.  

The process of sailing across much of the Pacific Ocean makes you fast friends. 

I am lucky to count Jess and Kitt as great friends from here on out!

Read all about Jess's adventure son her blog - DESTINATION GLOBAL GOOD, 

The first item of trash we saw. 

But the night turned up more condoms than any other beach collection thus far. 3 - THREE! - in the first ten minutes. Oh man, will Kitt ever come out with me again? He lucked out by finding all three. Jeez. 

The other heavy hitting item we found? Plastic bags, LOTS of plastic bags, I'm talking 10 or more plastic bags in 20 minutes. It had been awhile since I'd seen so many all at once. 

And one shoe!

A good friend, a beautiful sunset, and lots of trash, a fun combo!