Day 275 - April 27, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

4 pounds 

1,015.1 pounds total 

I've got some good news to share! Whole Foods has banned the sale of all seafood, "not deemed sustainable by organizations such as Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Blue Ocean Institute." Surfrider included this hopeful news tid-bit in their online e-newsletter SOUP. You can't see it, but I've got a big old smile on my face. Thank you Whole Foods!

Now back to the trash. I found clear plastic almost exclusively tonight. 

Four pounds of clear plastic film wrappers.....

is a whole s*&t ton of plastic.

"SEA CREATURE PHOTOS: TRUE BEAUTY REVEALED IN WINNING UNDERWATER PICTURES"

Day 274 - April 26, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

3.5 pounds

1,011.1 pounds total 

Like "Where's Waldo?" - "Where's the Ziplock?"

I found only 5 cigarette butts tonight during my 20 minute beach cleanup. 

Danielle who writes, "It Starts With Me" found 212 last time she went out to her North Carolina beach. We're keeping count to show the difference between a beach where smoking is banned and one where it's not. Hopefully our findings will help sway local government officials in N.C. to adopt a no smoking policy for their beach. Want to count on your own local beach? You're welcome to join us!

I found three of these packets tonight spaced out along the beach. 

A friend passed along this video to me on twitter this week. They call themselves the Litter Grabbers. Their video documents what they found on their stretch of sand, it's a little spoken word, a little video art, and a whole lot of creative energy. 

It took me awhile to get back out on the beach after our trip to Honduras. While on the island of Utila we saw a whole lot of trash on the beach, and some floating along the top of the ocean as we made our way out to different dive spots. What we didn't see were the Whale Sharks we'd traveled for, sea turtles,  dolphins, whales, sharks, many fish and very few sea birds. It hit me hard in part because this is the third ocean in a year where we've seen coral reef damage and an absence of abundant, healthy marine life. What do I do with my experiences? Part of my personal solution is to write this blog. And so tonight, it felt good to be back in the swing of it, on the beach at sunset, watching three pelicans stream by, and one leaping sea lion. I love Santa Monica. I love the ocean. I love this planet we've got.

PLASTIC PARADISE - An independent documentary by Angela Sun

A WEEK TO SEE WHALE SHARKS AND NOT ONE TO BE FOUND

Garen and I playing with our buoyancy

 photo credit: Mike Carson 

It's a good thing that we like seeing a lot of each other because that's basically all we saw underwater. I wish this were a funny exaggeration. It is not. While the people who happened to be staying at the Laguna Beach Resort were well worth meeting, and getting to know, we also assumed that we'd be mingling with some marine life. We were wrong. 

No one was home, or at least this is the eerie impression my week on the island of Utila in Honduras left me with. 

There were folks on our dive boat who had done their research on Whale Shark migrations to optimize their chances for interaction with the world's largest fish. It came down to April being the best month to see them, while narrowing further to the week were were there. And, turns out, there's no other place better than Utila to find these friendly fish. 

As the week progressed and the situation became clear, I resigned myself to the possibility that we'd come all this way and...no one was home. We should have seen 5 or 6 Whale Sharks at a time, according to locals who were dismayed that the Whale Sharks were not around. This was the second season of its kind, being even worse than last year. 

We should have also seen sea birds, gulls, and Pelicans. I saw three Pelicans all week long. Two Terns followed our boat....ONCE. In short, the skies were empty.

Under the water any better? You may be wondering. 

No. 

List of animals we did not see, clocking 12-16 hours underwater in total. Oh, and no one else on our boat saw them either. 

1. sea turtles of any kind

2. reef sharks or any kind of shark

3. Whale Sharks

4. dolphins

And the fish population on the reefs (that were also in rough shape) were very low. Our friend said he was surprised at how, "mediocre the diving was." I think he put that lightly. 

I came home with a heavy heart and have been taking the last few days to process our experience. 

Garen and I agree with the locals hypothesis that the absence of life around the Bay Islands is due to the BP Oil Spill. Garen believes that it would take a couple of seasons to see the effects. What those direct effects are could be many. I wonder if the plankton, krill and small bait fish that migrate through the Gulf could have been wiped out by the toxins and oil sludge saturating their waters? 

If so, there's no food off the coast of Honduras for the big guys, the birds, the dolphins....

Whatever the reason, I'm home from our "Spring Break" trip reeling at having witnessed such a degraded marine environment. 

I'm sure the owners of the resort who are slicing open the wetlands to expand their empire and contemplating Lobster Farming are taking their potential environmental impacts into full account. 

I wouldn't go back, I would tell others not to go as well, although it makes me sad for the kind people who live and work there. 

I'm not sure how to end this rather atypically long, and emotional post. I'll leave you with this. 

Mike, Linda, Garen and I spent 15 minutes walking the edge of the property. We filled a wheel barrow that threatened to brim over with single-use plastics. There was that too. I just couldn't bring myself to even take out  our camera to document the Coke, Pepsi, Water Bottles, syringes, aerosol cans, flip-flops and other detritus washing up from the clear blue Caribbean. 

Paradise it was not. 

BEACH CLEANUPS TO RESUME AFTER AN ADVENTURE!

We're off on an adventure to Honduras in search of Whale Sharks who will allow us to tag along. Lucky for us, we've heard they're easy to find where we're going.


Our house is being "sat" and our dogs are at Garen's parents. They get such royal treatment there that when it's time for them to come home they look at us like, "Who are you again?" 


Daily Ocean beach cleanups will resume after the 15th!

Day 273-April 3, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

5.2 pounds

1,007.6 pounds total 

Since I've passed the 1,000 pound collection mark, I've been thinking about how many ounces, or factions of an ounce, the trash items I find weigh. The lightweight material of plastic film food wrappers, styrofoam cups, cigarette butts, and bottle tops adding up to over 1,000 pounds says "volumes" for how much single-use crap we circulate through our lives. 

A common Cow weighs between 900 - 1,200 pounds. Moo!

 How many plastic forks would it take to equal the weight of a cow? 

Well over 181,000 to equal 1,000 pounds...

We found 4 cigarette butts tonight. Danielle from the IT STARTS WITH ME blog found 287 the last 20 minute beach cleanup she did on her local North Carolina beach...

Sara - 9 cleanups comparing cigarette butts collected

105 cigarette butts

Santa Monica, CA where smoking is banned from the beaches

Danielle - 7 cleanups comparing cigarette butts collected

1,762 cigarette butts

Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina where smoking is allowed on the beach

The beach in Santa Monica where I've collected the 1,000+ pounds (I go to the same one every cleanup) is raked in the morning for trash. I know of one other diligent elderly couple who collects trash from this stretch of beach nearly every morning as well. 26 as it is commonly known, is not considered a dirty beach, but a well loved one. I chose this location because it is down the street from our house. 


One average beach
One person
One 20 minute beach cleanup every few days
3 years
One thousand pounds of trash taken from this small stretch of sand and counting....

Day 272 - March 30, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

3.8 pounds 

1,002.4 pounds collected total 

I'VE PASSED 1,000 POUNDS OF TRASH COLLECTED FROM MY LOCAL BEACH! 

I can hardly believe it. Let's break it down. 

I started on March 30, 2009. It's interesting to roll back in my blog achieve to that first post. 

Since then, I've walked 5,440 minutes on this beach collecting trash, 20 minutes at a time, which equals just over 90 hours, or for nearly 4 days straight. 

That sounds insane to me! The point being it felt like effort, yes of course, 

but I did it in the slow-and-steady-wins-the-race mentality. 

Sometimes I wanted to call it quits, sometimes I couldn't wait to get back out for another cleanup. 

As with any commitment, my feelings fluctuated, but as I look back and add together the tally of pounds of trash I've taken off the beach, I am oh-so-glad I stuck it out, 20 minutes at a time. 

Many dolphins are severely ill and dying from the BP oil spill in the Gulf. 

Here's what one study has found. 

If you are a local, you may want to check ZJ Boarding House's website for the next film screening. 

They set up a screen on the lawn of the Heritage Museum last night, which is across Main St. from them in Santa Monica, and played two flicks for free. 

One was the inspiring COME HELL OR HIGH WATER by Keith Malloy about body surfing. Being part of the "plight of the torpedo people" myself, I'd leave Teahupoo for Mark Cunningham 

(famed Hawaii lifeguard and killer body-surfer),

 but I will have to try to spiral in a barrel and nail it by summer's end. 

My friends and I have some work to do down at tower 26. 

Come on warmer weather and water temperatures, let's get a move on!

Day 271 - March 27, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

4.4 pounds of trash 

998.6 pounds total 

"OUR DAILY OCEAN CIGARETTE COUNT"

Sara - cigarette cleanup #7

10 cigarette butts collected in 20 min. 

85 cigarette butts total

Danielle - cigarette cleanup #6

1,484 cigarette butts total taken off Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, 20 min. at a time

Flip this plastic bit and you have a question mark. The question it raises in my mind is this - Is it okay with me that our plastic flotsam is digested by countless marine animals and birds, causing injury and death? No. What do I do about it? Well, this blog, and reduce the amount of stuff that comes along with plastic bobbles, and single-use packaging for starters. 

Global Warming eats away at our coasts. Here's a recent NYT article on how San Fransisco is facing this growing problem. 

"The pyramids will fade and great languages will be lost before plastic degrades." - Actress Kyra Sedgwick discussing the "plastic soup" that our oceans have become with Leila Monroe of the NRDC on MSNBC. Here's the link to their effective, and thought provoking interview. 

Day 270 - March 23, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

7.5 pounds

994.2 pounds total

I collected only two cigarette butts during last night's twenty minute cleanup. Across the country in North Carolina, my friend Danielle went out for the same amount of time on her local beach and collected 218. A local pro-surfer came out with them and collected 158. This is the starkest contrast to date. Cigarette smoking is banned on Santa Monica's beaches, and not in North Carolina. 

Walking back to the car, I knew the bag felt heavy. More to the point, it was heavy with flimsy plastic food wrappers and other plastic film. These items weigh very little by themselves. The sunset made a sharp contrast to the seven and a half pounds I collected in twenty minutes from a beach where I'm regularly in the water. Sometimes this beach cleanup project weighs me down. 

It is my pleasure to pass on the good news that the CA Supreme Court upheld LA's Plastic Bag Ban! Read this post from Surfrider to learn more. 

Day 269 - March 21, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

4.5 pounds

986.7 pounds total 

Sara - 20 min. Santa Monica Beach cleanup #5 - 16 cigarette butts

Danielle - 20 min. Wrightsville Beach, N.C. cleanup #5 - 394 cigarette butts

I've got a bunch of news and links to share today. Mc Donald's launches a pilot program to get rid of polystyrene cups from their restaurants. Hooray! Here's the buzz about it on Green Biz. 

Happy World Water Day. The UN is focusing this year's theme on Water and Food Security for the 7 billion people that need to be fed. We're expecting world population to reach 9 billion by 2050. And if you don't think this has to do with the ocean, think about the fertilizer and pesticide runoff heading downhill, or downstream into seawater across the world. 

The nation of Kiribati could be the world's first "climate-induced migration." As sea levels rise, their president is engaging in talks with nearby Fiji to buy land that would house Kiribati's citizens. 

"Our people will have to move as the tides have reached our homes and villages." 

Day 268 - March 15 - 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

3 pounds

982.2 pounds total 

Sara - 

cigarette butt count #4 - 17 in 20 min. 

total - 57 cigarette butts collected in 4 beach cleanups

Danielle - 

cigarette butt count #2 - 113 in 20 min. 

total - 571 cigarette butts collected in 2 beach cleanups

A pro-surfer from Wrightsville, N.C. who lives in Oceanside, CA

cigarette butt count #1 - 42 in 20 min. 

he'll do another cleanup from Mexico next! 

Aluminum cans have a lining. This lining contains a toxic chemical, BPA or Bisphenol A.

BPA has been present in hard plastics, beverage cans and other food packaging since the 1960's. 

The FDA says it has, "...concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, 

and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children." 

Next time you're grabbing a beverage at the STOP-N'-GO 

maybe you want to reach for a glass container?

When I see the Coke Polar Bear Campaign advertising, my internal voice screams, "Green-washing!" To be fair, I haven't actually looked it up, and so here I go...back in a moment...(insert Jeopardy music here) 


OK, I'm back. I couldn't find the SAVE THE POLAR BEAR campaign on their website. Frankly, I found it difficult to look for long. As soon as I clicked, "sustainability" I was berated with how wonderful they are at reducing their plastic use, how they have this new bottle that's part plant based (and therefor can't be mixed into recycling batches with the rest of the plastic bottles not containing plant-based petroleum), and so on. 


I gave up my open-minded search, returning to my original notion now confirmed. 

Day 267 - March 13, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

2 pounds 

979.2 pounds total 

For my last 100 20 min. cleanups, I'm counting the number of cigarette butts I find to help my friend Danielle who writes, It Starts With Me collect comparative data from a beach that bans smoking, Santa Monica, and the local beaches that allow smoking in her Wrightsville Beach, N.C. community. 

cleanup #3 - 17 cigarette butts

total number - 40

Danielle collected over 400 in one 20 min. cleanup the other day. The numbers speak for themselves. 

Los Angeles Bag Ban update - 

From Environement CA - "Next week, a committee is convening to decide whether to move forward on the proposed bag ban that would cover all of L.A. This would be huge. If they make the right decision next week, we could see a bag ban pass through the City Council before the end of the month.

As you can imagine, with the stakes this high, the American Chemistry Council and out-of-state oil and chemical 

companies like Exxon and Dupont are spending big bucks to try to block what could be a historic win for our ocean.

The opposition is ruthless, and well-funded. But we’re right — and thanks to you, we’re hundreds of thousands of people strong.
 


With your help, we can win the biggest victory yet for our ocean." 

It's been a year since the devastating tsunami in Japan. 

This short, thoughtful post from BEACHEDART  in Germany made me take another moment to think of all the people and animals that have been affected by the tragedy. 

The image of Anke's art that she pairs with her words touched me. 

There's a new documentry coming out called, "PLASTIC OCEANS." Here's the trailer on Vimeo. I don't agree with a few of their points of view. Let me know what you think. 

Day 266 - March 11, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

3 pounds

977.2 pounds total 

13 cigarette butts 

23 cigarette butts in 2 cleanups

I mentioned in Day 265 that my friend Danielle who writes, It Starts With Me, and I are teaming up. She has already added a hefty 240 pounds of liter by weight to the Daily Ocean's Community Count. Her focus amongst all the liter she collects from her Wrightsville Beach Community in N.C. is cigarette butts. The local government shot down an ordinance to ban smoking from the beaches last Thurs. even though Danielle has collected over 40,000 butts from their sand! 

SO we're doing a little compare and contrast test. For my last 100 Daily Ocean cleanups, I will keep a tally of how many cigarette butts I find from a beach where smoking is banned. 

Cleanup number two and already the evidence is overwhelming. 

13 cigarette butts in 20 min. 

23 butts in 2 cleanups.

Danielle's gone out once since we made this pact and she collected over 400! 

Her average is 17 a minute! 

The numbers speak for themselves.

ONE WORLD ONE OCEAN - "INSPIRING PEOPLE TO PROTECT THE OCEAN" 

This organization suggests three concrete ways to help the ocean right on their website, 

1. EAT SEAFOOD SUSTAINABLY

2. REDUCE PLASTIC POLLUTION

3. INCREASE OCEAN PROTECTED AREAS (MARINE PROTECTED AREAS)

I can do all of their suggestions, even number three. Heal the Bay, a local non-profit, works tirelessly to enact, and support California's Marine Protected Areas. I support Heal the Bay, I support these sanctuaries that allow the marine life to rebound. If I do all three with real persistence, I feel better about the state of affairs in our marine world. Join me?

Art Wolfe - wildlife photographer

G2 Gallery in Venice had a show including his work. 

I grabbed a postcard and looked him up online. 

If you like photography, the outdoors, animals, 

and the natural world please check this man out. His work is astounding. 

Day 265 - March 10, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

1.4 pounds

974.2 pounds total 

10 cigarette butts 

**For my remaining 100 cleanups, I am counting cigarette butts collected to help my friend Danielle show her local North Carolina Government Officials the difference between a beach where smoking is banned, and how many butts are found in 20 minutes where smoking is allowed. 

She writes the incredibly inspiring blog, IT STARTS WITH ME.

Danielle and I went out last night on our respective coasts for cleanup number 265. 

100 cleanups to go and counting! It feels great to start the last 100 countdown. 

And it was a fun idea that Danielle had to do a joint cleanup with me to celebrate. 

She's done 123, 20 min. cleanups herself, adding the pounds collected to the Community Count portion of this blog, while totally making the endeavor her own. 

She focuses on cigarette butts from her local Wrightsville Beaches in N.C., 

because on those beaches, there are thousands! 

She's collected 40,827 to be exact! 

This past Thursday, the Board of Aldermen in Wrightsville voted down a proposed smoking ban despite the 1,200 signatures collected, and the many people in attendance to show their support. 

One Alder-woman told Danielle, "I pick up cigarettes on the beach all the time, I just don't bring them to a meeting." Her barbed words speak to her character all on their own. All I would say is that if I were a voting resident, she would not be getting a check from me on the ballot box come re-election. 

(see photo from Day 264 - people aren't the only ones who step around plastic, the difference is we make it, we can pick it up, and we can change our lives to include less of it.)

But here's what Danielle and I came up with after talking yesterday. We're stepping up our collaboration. I wish we'd thought of this earlier, but I'm thrilled about the idea going forward. 

I will count how many butts I collect on my 20 min. cleanups and keep the tally for my last 100. 

So far, the difference is just staggering. 

I collected 10 cigarette butts in 20 min. last night.

Danielle collected 458. 

How about a re-vote B.O.A.? Cause I can tell you, that after 100 of these comparisons, if you have a heart, you'll be ashamed of yourself for turning away from the action neccesary to enact a ban.