Saturday, November 19, 2011

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.