Day 315 - August 22, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

6.8 pounds

1,193.6 pounds total 

7 cigarette butts

Smoking is banned on the beaches in Santa Monica. 

I'm doing a comparative count with my friend Danielle who writes the blog, IT STARTS WITH ME who lives in North Carolina where you can smoke 'em if you got them on the sand. 

Do smoking bans work? 

Let the numbers give you the answer.

Santa Monica, CA - 53 beach cleanups (20 min. each) - 322 cigarette butts

Wrightsville Beach, N.C. - 32 beach cleanups (20 min. each) - 6,737

Danielle has collected 6,415 more cigarette butts than me and I've done 21 more cleanups.

About ten minutes into last night's cleanup I hadn't found a single-use plastic water bottle! I turned around right after thinking this to find a plastic cup. But I held out hope and kept my fingers crossed. 

Until the next item I found was...

The one in the photo above 

None is better than one 

I still prefer none 

Maybe you're the one

To take a reusable container to the beach next time?

Danielle from IT STARTS WITH ME, threw a big ole' party/fundraiser for Ocean Cure, a N.C. non-profit that gives free surf lessons to medically fragile and at risk youth. Her friend at BIG STRONG GIRL DESIGNS created a charity copper cuff for the event. 

Inspired by one of the best quotes to take action for the ocean,"INDIVIDUALLY WE ARE ONE AND TOGETHER WE ARE THE OCEAN," Danielle's friend printed,

"TOGETHER WE ARE AN OCEAN FOR OCEAN CURE." 

Here's Danielle's post with all the details. 

Action ripples out in so many ways. Danielle embodies this beautifully. 

Thank you Danielle.

Day 314 - August 21, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

5 pounds

1,186.8 pounds total 

5 cigarette butts

Bottled water has an expiration date? 

High temperatures and exposure to sunlight leech BPA (a synthetic hormone in the plastic that damages the human endocrine system) into your water from the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) packaging in single-use water bottles. While bottled water is in transit in closed trucks heating to high temperatures, or stacked in the window at your local grocery store, both conditions are highly likely. 

Maybe we should reset the expiration date?

My summer average of 4 - 5 pounds of trash in 20 min. while cleaning the beach doesn't make me smile. 

The light changes were drastic last night. Fog rolled in, then the sun sunk below the cloud layer, blanketing us in a gold sheen. The first photograph of Tower 26 was taken last from the parking lot. One final look before leaving revealed a whole new beach. If I've committed to cleaning the beach, sunset is the very best time to be out here doing so. 

Day 313 - August 19, 201

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

7 pounds

1,181.8 pounds total 

5 cigarette butts

Fab with the specially made mesh bottom beach cleanup bag from Teresa of GREEN BAG LADY

Three dear friends joined me to clean the beach last night after an intensive workshop with Nancy Bevers over the weekend. I should have warned them that Sunday night's are usually the dirtiest of the week. But they were really into it, bringing back their collections in two extra plastic bags they found and put to use. 

COMMUNITY COUNT COLLECTION - DAY 119

Fab, Nancy and Elena 

trash collected for 20 min.

7 pounds

1,017.8 pounds total 

5 cigarette butts

THE DAILY OCEAN TOTAL POUNDS COLLECTED FROM BEACHES W0RLD-WIDE - 

2,193.6

I've decided to be repetitive. For days now, I've picked up one or several single-use plastic beverage bottles. I've come to expect them. Summer brings people to the beach, and with people come their habits. Every time I find a plastic bottle on a cleanup, I'm going to post it. Sure, we both may get tired of looking at empty water bottles lying in different configurations on the sand, but that illustrates my point perfectly. 

Like I mentioned earlier, Sunday produces a big trash haul during the summer months. While collecting trash near one woman, she shook her head at me with a sympathetic look. 

"You're thinking, what a mission, right?" I said. 

"More people should be doing what you are doing," she said.

"My hope is that it is contagious." I smiled, laughed a little and kept at it. 

We see one another all the time, on the beach walking during sunset, at the grocery store, in traffic. All of these sightings make an impression on us. How can we use our visibility in service of something greater? How can we take these day-to-day activities and infuse them with a spark?

Day 312 - August 16, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

4.3 pounds

1,174.8 pounds total 

8 cigarette butts

Last night a plastic water bottle was the second item of trash I collected during my beach cleanup. Tonight, it was the 6th. There's a theme to this post. I'll let the next photo provide a clue. 

You guessed it. One strange fact, and there are many, that I've learned about where a plastic water bottle goes once it is placed into the recycling bin, is that even in California, it is most likely shipped overseas a landfill in India. Hard to believe? Annie Leonard tells her direct experience of seeing such a mountain of plastic bottles from the US in 

THE STORY OF BOTTLED WATER.

One bonus to the more than usual humidity we're experiencing 

is the cloud cover that lights on fire from the setting sun. 

Day 311 - August 15, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

4.7 pounds

1,175.2 pounds total 

7 cigarette butts

The first item I picked up from the sand was a fragment of Styrofoam. 

The second was a single-use plastic water bottle. 

The seabird footprints next to this discarded plastic lighter remind me of the time I watched a gull swallow a Bic lighter in front of me. The rectangular lump easing down its throat in two big gulps.

Last night as I watched the sunset, I couldn't wait to get in the water this morning. It's now approaching mid-day as I type. I've been in the water today, and although I had fun, the waves were too mushy to catch. But what sticks out about my time in the ocean this morning is the rip current that churned up lots of small bits of trash seemingly out of nowhere. 

My friend Karen got out. 

And as we were drying off in the parking lot, Kit remarked how much crap there had been around us. 

"My fear is that if we aren't careful, that will be the norm in twenty years," I said. 

As I heard myself, I thought that's a little much, but is it? 

"Go get 'em," Kit said as I left. I smiled, but sharing this one small moment on here might be the most important thing I do all day.

Day 310 - August 14, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

5.8 pounds

1,170.5 pounds total

17 cigarette butts

Many plastic water bottle tops littered the sand last night. 

Sometimes I like to end with a reminder of what's under the surface of the ocean that's so worth protecting. Dolphins have a profound emotional impact on many people. Can you explain why? Is it the sense of intelligence we see in them? The grace and ease in which they move through the water where we feel drawn to ourselves, and yet solely equipped to travel in on our own? 

This Go-Pro video from the Santa Cruz area will give you a chance to reflect upon your own reaction to the animals we feel such kinship with as a pod of White-Sided dolphins surround the lens eye-to-eye. Enjoy. 

Day 309 - August 13, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

4.5 pounds

1,164.7 pounds

6 cigarette butts

After an intensive writing conference and a short but much needed vacation, I'm back to beach cleanups. And as most of us can relate to, summer is an opportunity to kick the sand between your bare toes, letting the heat slow your pace to a stroll. It's wonderful to write last night's post though, 

reconnecting with you and reconnecting with the beach I love.

It's roughly 6:20 p.m. when I start my collection. Only during summer do people stay past dinner to soak up the last rays of the sun. Perhaps we leave our cares so far behind as the salt, and the sea, and the sun envelop our senses, that we miss what else is right in front of us. This is one of several shots of a mother and daughter playing at the waters edge. The piece of plastic between them was also one of many lying within their reach. 

Single-use plastic food wrappers - the quintessential litter. 

My father-in-law told us that the two teams in the women's Volleyball final in London started playing on beaches in Santa Monica. Although not a native Californian, 

I couldn't help but swell a little with pride picturing them practice at the end of the street. 

After a more hectic summer than anticipated, and less than 60 cleanups to go, I'm recharged for the final stretch of The Daily Ocean. If you are new to my beach cleanup project, welcome as I wrap up what's been a 3+ year labor of love. 

But it's the DAILY Ocean you ask? 
Yes - 365 cleanups, amassing a year's worth of collection data and photographs. I'm not perfect, although I am persistent. Life has called me away for weddings, a safari to Africa with my father, sailing across most of the South Pacific with the 5 Gyres Institute, and much more. I go as many days as I can and hopefully its the persistence, not the perfection you let inspire you. 

AWAY FOR A SUMMER HOLIDAY

I'm attending a four day writing conference and then am out of town until the 11th of August. 
Daily Ocean beach cleanups to resume after normal life does. 

Day 308 - July 27, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

6 pounds

1,160.2 pounds total

4 cigarette butts

I got nothing. Usually, some spark of inspiration comes from seeing the photograph up. 

I can only think it's so stupid to have a plastic container for 12 or so Pringles. 30 seconds of snacking encased in plastic that's never going to biodegrade.... 

Last weekend's Ocean Park 26 Surf Contest had reusable water coolers instead of bottled water. Congratulations to all the participants, and organizers!

Sometimes I wonder if plastic trash on the beach in Santa Monica is so common place that we walk right on by without seeing it. Does enough pepper the sand to make us visually immune? 

Next week is HANDS ACROSS THE SAND - support a cleaner energy future and say no to Off-shore Oil Drilling by literally joining hands across the sand of your local beach. Their site will let you know where the closest location is, or how to start your own hand-joining event. So cool!

Community Count Day 245 - Sat. July 14, 2012

Community Count Day 245 - Catalina Londono-Carder - www.clarder.com

Coronado Beach, San Diego, CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

15 ounces

The Community Count total as of July 26 - 1,007.4 pounds

Want to get involved? Do a Daily Ocean cleanup where you are? Join me!

THE DAILY OCEAN COMBINED TOTAL POUNDS - 2,161.6

That's over a ton of trash off beaches world-wide, 20 minutes at a time. And as Catalina said, 

"I'm looking forward for my next trip to the beach to join Sara's clean up project again. 20 minutes doesn't cost anything, and I believe it makes a difference, meantime we are enjoying the beach."

"At one point I saw a bottle of Gatorade and decided to take a picture before I picked it up, and when I looked trough my viewfinder trying to get the composition I noticed a dead Pelican right next to the bottle. Here is the photo (I didn't arrange the shot, the bottle was right next to the pelican), even if I have no clue what caused the pelican's death, 

I thought it was ironic.

So last Friday, while my friends and I enjoyed Comic-con (I like comic-con, but tons of plastic came out of there, one of the streets full of banners even smelled like plastic, comic-con big bags, a lot of advertising and disposable tableware and water bottles where used during that week.) 

I went to Coronado Beach to join Sara's project and spend 20 minutes collecting trash, I didn't get much in weight, a little less than a pound (15 oz), But I was surprised how much trash I found, including, some straws, cigarette butts, 3 Gatorade bottles, several water bottles caps, a couple of bags and 3 glow sticks, among other pieces of plastic. 

Even if I am aware about plastic and trash on the beaches, and I'm always picking something up when I find it, the Beaches I have visited in California seem pretty clean to me. 

That was until I start following Sara and The Daily Ocean project. Now the beach doesn't seem as clean as before. I find lots of plastic and trash everywhere, even at places where garbage cans are close.

Thank you Sara for the inspiration and for all of the effort in this project.

Thanks for your efforts Catalina!