Heal the Bay Blog

Author: Heal the Bay

Beloved Surfer Succumbs to Staph Infection

01.09.2015 | Heal the Bay

3 Life-saving Rules:
After a rainfall of any severity, wait at least 3 days before entering the ocean.
Always swim at least 100 yards away (the length of a football field) from a stormdrain outlet.
Check the Beach Report Card for the most recent beach water quality grades before you head to the beach.
For more safety tips, visit our Beach Report Card FAQ page.

Barry Ault was 71, but you’d never have guessed it watching him surf. His style was daring and athletic, winning him the admiration of a generation of California surfers—as well as the U.S. Surfing Championship in the Master’s Category in 1970. But on Christmas Day, he fell victim to the waters at Sunset Cliffs, his break in San Diego. It wasn’t a rogue wave or freak accident, but something much smaller, more insidious: a staph infection.

All signs point to polluted ocean water as Ault’s killer. The heavy rains that pummeled Southern California the week before Christmas sent billions of gallons of untreated urban runoff through the stormdrain system and into the ocean. His deadly strain of staph likely originated in this toxic brew. Ault, like countless other hardcore surfers, couldn’t resist the perfect post-storm waves and ignored the three-day rule, which urges beachgoers to wait 72 hours to enter the water after a rain in order to let harmful pathogens disperse. Sadly, his decision—an all-too-common one—had lethal consequences.

Ault’s death struck a deep emotional chord with Heal the Bay and the surfing community, and we weren’t even sure if we should publish this blog out of concern about appearing opportunistic. But in the end, we decided to honor Ault’s legacy by reminding other Californians that water quality isn’t an abstract scientific concept—it can mean life or death.

Heal the Bay has been Southern California’s coastal water quality watchdog for 30 years. Our Beach Report Card is already an indispensable safety tool for surfers and swimmers, but it’s about to get even better: We’re working to upgrade California’s current coastal public notification system to include beach water quality forecasting technology…so we never, ever have to write another blog like this one.

San Diego Surfer Barry Ault Succumbs to Staph Infection

Barry Ault, pictured doing what he loved the most: surfing and boating. Photo courtesy of The Inertia.

Read Less

Special Holiday Hours at the Pier Aquarium

12.19.2014 | Heal the Bay

California Sharks Heal the Bay Aquarium Santa Monica

Have a houseful of holiday guests? In need of an outing that won’t add too much stress to the already over-stretched wallet? Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium knows you’ll be looking for a fun destination to entertain all ages. Our marine science center will be open special holiday hours beginning Friday, Dec. 26th through Dec. 31st. Visit any of those days from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m.

Tuesdays are feeding days, and visitors are invited to help feed the sea stars at 2:30 p.m. A presentation and feeding at the open top shark and ray exhibit can be a refreshing experience, as the sharks often spray water right out of their tanks while anticipating their meal.

Any day of the week, guests can play hide and seek with an octopus, get a hug from a sea urchin, test their water conservation knowledge at the Watch Your Water exhibit, or put on a puppet show in the Aquarium’s puppet theater.

The Aquarium will be closed New Year’s Day, and return to regular public hours on Friday, January 2nd, which begin at 2 p.m.

Festive Seahorse in a Santa Hat

Read Less

As the Septics Seep: A Malibu Soup Opera

12.18.2014 | Heal the Bay

Malibu / Pacific Palisades

Peter Shellenbarger, a Heal the Bay science and policy analyst, tries his hand at Hollywood with a hotly anticipated “soup opera.” As the Septics Seep is his artistic interpretation of the Malibu Civic Center Septic Saga, where Mrs. Water Quality and Mr. Civic Center navigate the sordid, stinky world of Malibu water politics.

As The Septics Seep

Any relationship has its ups and downs—especially one between a coastal city and its water quality.

The backstory

In 2006, Malibu Creek, Malibu Lagoon, Malibu Beach, Malibu Surfrider Beach and Carbon Beach (in the Malibu Civic Center area) were placed on the Clean Water Act’s list of impaired and threatened water bodies. Septic system discharges were identified as contributors to this impairment in 2009 and a Septic Prohibition was issued. In 2011, the City of Malibu agreed to build a centralized wastewater recycling facility to phase out septic systems in the Civic Center area. However, just this month, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board approved an extension for the phase-out, giving commercial and residential properties 20 extra months and three years, respectively, to remove their septic systems. These extensions undermine the Septic Prohibition and will allow the City of Malibu to continue discharging septic system effluent into already critically polluted waterbodies. This month’s decision is another setback for water quality in Malibu and showcases the Regional Board’s historical inability to hold the City of Malibu accountable for their septic system discharges, which impact human health and aquatic life in and around Malibu Creek and Lagoon.

Cast (in order of appearance)

Sheriff U.S. E.P.A.: Tall, stern water quality enforcer
Mrs. Water Quality: Peppy environmental scientist
Mr. Civic Center: Distinguished landowner of Civic Center Area in Malibu
Officer L.A.W. (L.A. Regional Water Control Board): Overworked, tired water quality engineer

Season synopses

S1 Sheriff E.P.A. comes to town and nails Malibu Creek, Malibu Lagoon, Malibu Beach, Malibu Surfrider Beach and Carbon Beach for public intoxication. Loaded with bacteria and nutrients, she places these waters on the critically polluted list for further investigation and future cleanup. Mrs. Water Quality begins to investigate the cause of pollution…and catches the eye of Mr. Civic Center in the process.

S2 Mrs. Water Quality identifies septic systems as a source of bacteria and nutrient pollution at Mr. Civic Center’s residence. Officer L.A.W. assesses the situation, conducts further studies, consults with other officers and creates a Septic Prohibition at Mr. Civic Center’s residence. This will require him to phase out septic system discharges at his commercial and residential properties by November 5, 2015, and November 5, 2019, respectively.

S3 To implement the Septic Prohibition, Mr. Civic Center and Officer L.A.W. agree to build a centralized wastewater recycling facility to replace septic systems polluting Malibu’s coastal waters. Mrs. Water Quality is sufficiently impressed by Mr. Civic Center’s commitment to the environment and finally agrees to date him.

S4 Mrs. Water Quality and Mr. Civic Center are seen publicly all over the Westside, and soon move in together and begin planning their romantic wastewater recycling facility hideaway. But Mr. Civic Center reveals himself to be all talk, delaying construction of the project by 9 to 12 months. He assures Mrs. Water Quality it will be completed before November 5, 2015. Mrs. Water Quality has heard that one before.

S5 Mr. Civic Center and Officer L.A.W. arrange to extend the commercial septic phase-out deadline by 20 months—and the residential phase out deadline by 3 years. Officer L.A.W. approves the extension despite a lack of public support and passionate opposition from Mrs. Water Quality—who feels betrayed by both Mr. Civic Center and Officer L.A.W. Mrs. Water Quality moves out of Mr. Civic Center’s residence.

What will happen to this tragic duo in S6? Will they patch up their differences or has their love truly tanked? One thing is certain: In addition to being a heartbreaker, Mr. Civic Center will continue to harm human health and aquatic life with his septic obsession.

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT SEASON…

Read Less

Thank You Thursday 12-18-14

12.17.2014 | Heal the Bay

Santa Monica

A big thank you to Subaru Pacific for sharing the love with us this holiday season. The car company runs a national campaign – Share the Love – each year; for every car Subaru sells between the last week of November and January 2nd, they will donate $250 to one of six charities. Heal the Bay is thrilled to be one of only two local charities chosen. Twenty-six of Subaru’s customers have already selected Heal the Bay as their charity of choice – the goal of raising $10,000 looks to be within reach!

We are thankful for the rain – and incredibly grateful that the employees of Team One were signed up to do a corporate cleanup at Venice Beach shortly after the first round of rain. Thanks Team, for removing 114 pounds of trash and 2,214 cigarette butts from the beach.

And finally thanks to Madewell, which shared a portion of sales from a recent evening of holiday gift tag decorating at The Grove. We honestly appreciate HonestlyWTF for choosing us as the beneficiary of that crafty fundraiser.

Read Less

Thank You Thursday 12-4-14

12.04.2014 | Heal the Bay

News South Bay

The recent screening of the awesome new surf documentary, “A Wedge to Remember,” gave Heal the Bay and partners Surfrider and Keep Hermosa Hermosa a platform to discuss our fight against oil drilling in Hermosa Beach. Proceeds from the evening’s raffle will be put to good use to prevent a proposed slant-drilling project in Hermosa Beach. Thanks to Dive N Surf and Body Glove for donating the gear for the raffle.

Thank you to Pardee Properties – a real estate agency that truly walks the talk. Ten percent of their net proceeds from each sale are donated to their client’s charity of choice. We have been grateful recipients of this generosity to the tune of nearly $5,000 in 2014. And a big thanks to this Venice-based agency’s Heal the Bay-loving client base!

Heal the Bay’s lobby is looking very festive these days, thanks to a donation by Living Christmas. The company’s “elves” arrived last week with a seven-plus-foot potted tree.

And finally, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: we’re so proud of Brenton Spies, formerly a staff member at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and currently a research biologist and PhD student at UCLA. And now we thank him mightily for his $1,000 donation to the Aquarium. The funds will go towards developing wetland based curriculum and interactive activities to be used for education and public programs at the Aquarium. The donation is a component of his successful Kickstarter campaign, which will also fund a photographic documentation of threatened and endangered ecosystems along the California coast. We also look forward to using Spies’ photographs to enhance the Aquarium’s watershed exhibit in the Dorothy Green Room.

Read Less

Holiday Aquadoption Special

12.02.2014 | Heal the Bay

Heal the Bay Aquarium More Ways to Give Santa Monica

The holidays.

All those decorations, the wrapping paper, the packages, the extra groceries…wouldn’t it be great to have a couple of extra arms to help out with it all? Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium has a unique gift idea that will provide you with some extra arms—eight arms, to be exact.

Every December, our Aquarium offers one of its most popular marine creatures up for Aquadoption at a special holiday price. This year’s animal is…xylophone roll please…the octopus! Throughout the month of December, the octopus is available for $50–a bargain price that includes a year’s membership to Heal the Bay along with free admission to the Aquarium for a family of four.

Octopuses are believed to be one of the smartest invertebrates on Earth, demonstrating the ability to learn new skills by watching one another. With their talent of changing color and texture, the octopus is a fascinating animal to observe.

The Aquadoption program provides all the benefits of adopting an animal while leaving the daily care to the Aquarium staff. If you choose to become an octopus mom or dad this holiday, you’ll receive a personalized packet with an adoption certificate, photo, fact sheet and two guest passes to the Aquarium.

So save your arms and give everyone on your list a gift that will keep on giving all year long. You’ll make a lonely cephalopod’s day!

Your Aquadoption will underwrite the daily care and feeding of an Aquarium animal of your choice, and will also help support Heal the Bay’s ongoing mission to keep our oceans safe, healthy and clean. Thank you!

3 Ways to Aquadopt:

Online
By phone: Call 310-393-6149, x102
In person: Visit us under the Pier Tue-Fri, 2-5pm or Sat-Sun, 12:30-5pm.

Santa Monica Pier Aquarium holiday aquadoption special

Read Less

What is #GivingTuesday all about?

12.02.2014 | Heal the Bay

Take Action

Friends, if you’re reading this, we’re psyched.

You waded through dozens of #GivingTuesday emails and blogs from countless worthy nonprofits and chose to read this one. But why should you go the extra nautical mile and support Heal the Bay?

Because we don’t want your money.

In lieu of cash donations, we’re asking you to honor #GivingTuesday by gifting us with the much-needed supplies we need to do our work: Microscopes, clipboards, giant vats of sunscreen. And with our MyRegistry wish list, it’s super easy to help Heal the Bay in a direct, powerful way—in a way that dollars can’t.

Give and the sea shall receive.

Your #GivingTuesday contribution—whether it’s a truckload of latex gloves or a monthly gift of $10—goes directly to the programs that clean up our watersheds and beaches, immerse our children in marine science and advocate for innovative, sustainable water management policy. We’re particularly excited about our MyRegistry wish list because it helps us get to work right away—instead of shopping for supplies.

Click below to help Heal the Bay this #GivingTuesday:

Industrial-strength hand sanitizer not your style? You’re always welcome to make a traditional donation here.

Read Less

Heavy Rains Beg Some Big Questions

12.01.2014 | Heal the Bay

Los Angeles Stormwater News

James Alamillo, Urban Programs Manager at Heal the Bay, says that this week’s big storm bring opportunities and dangers.

Dec. 2, 2014 — Almost a month to the day since our last rain, Angelenos are experiencing some consistent rainfall over the next two days. And unlike the last rainstorm, which was a one and done, this system is expected to generate an inch or two of precipitation throughout the week.

As we wrote in our blog last month on the first flush of the season, with rain comes runoff.

Rainwater runoff can be captured for future use, whether we are in a drought or not. The County of Los Angeles estimates that during a typical storm event upwards of 10 billion gallons of storm water flushes into the ocean. Letting this resource flow in large volumes to the ocean without catching it is shameful, especially when we import nearly 80% of our potable water. There is a significant energy, environmental, social, and economic cost with that approach that has been long neglected, even hidden. Storm water — if held, filtered and cleansed naturally in groundwater basins — could provide a safe, more secure and less costly source of drinking water. That 10 billion gallons of water from an average single storm in L.A. could fill nearly 120 Rose Bowls. That would provide enough water for a city the size of Santa Monica for more than three months.

The cost of runoff is the amount of pollution carried through our rivers, streams, creeks, and ultimately out to the ocean. In Los Angeles County alone, there are more than 70 major outfalls that spew trash, animal waste, pesticides, automotive fluids and human-gastrointestinal viruses into our county’s bodies of water. This ‘brew’ has been accumulating for months on sidewalks and roadways before being washed into the storm drains. The storm drain system is responsible for discharging this pollution into our rivers, creeks, and ocean. This causes potential human health risks, harms marine life and dampens the tourist economy by littering shorelines.

The County of Los Angeles’ Environmental Health Department and Heal the Bay urge residents and visitors to avoid water contact at Los Angeles County beaches for at least 72 hours following rain event. In some locations and for long-duration rainstorms, staying out of the ocean for more than five days may be more appropriate.

Water literacy is a way of understanding the connections between the drought and imported drinking water, local storm water runoff and sewage, land-use and flooding, water quality and water use. Rain provides an ideal opportunity to explore water literacy, particularly in the face of water scarcity. As individuals, we must reflect on our daily water consumption, our own ability to conserve and capture water, and evaluate with a critical eye the systems that handle water. So step out for a minute and let the rain hit you, let it revitalize your thoughts on water, and then let’s begin to learn how to use it more efficiently.

Trash on the beach after heavy rains in Los Angeles Sad but true: the beach after heavy rain at the Pico Kenter storm drain

Photo by Frankie Orrala, Angler Outreach Program Manager, Heal the Bay

Read Less

We're Thankful for YOU.

11.24.2014 | Heal the Bay

News

Happy Thanksgiving from Heal the Bay

We hope you’re spending today beached somewhere cozy, hooting and hollering with friends and family, gobbling your free-range turkey, Tofurkey and/or sustainably harvested kelp compote—not reading this blog. However, if you do find yourself in this charming little corner of cyberspace at this very moment, we have a very special message, just for you:

Thanks for letting your lawn languish in the drought. Thanks for letting your car accumulate an impressive grit-and-grime layer. Thanks for saying hi to the seahorses at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. Thanks for liking even the most boring, nerdy Facebook posts and retweeting the corniest memes that ever graced the internet. Thanks for donating $10, $20, $1,000—or just your Saturday morning. Thanks for caring about climate change, even though it’s scary.

Thank you for inspiring us to work harder for the ocean, coast and watersheds, every single day.

As a token of our gratitude, we’d like to let you turkeys in on a fishy little secret…

You’ll receive FREE admission to our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium next week if you mention the top-secret password below! This offer is good from Tuesday, December 2, through Sunday, December 7. We’re open Tuesdays through Fridays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Please note that the SMPA is closed on Mondays.

The password for free admission to our Aquarium (Dec. 2-7) is "turkeyfish"

Thanks, readers, for being part of the Heal the Bay family. We hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday, and we look forward to seeing you at the Aquarium next week—even though we don’t have any turkeyfish currently on exhibit.

Warmest regards,

Heal the Bay

P.S. — If you see a wild turkeyfish, do not eat.

Elephant seal photo by Ian Parker

Read Less

Thanks to Our S.T.E.A.M. Supporters

11.20.2014 | Heal the Bay

Santa Monica

Last Saturday our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium hosted S.T.E.A.M. Machines on the Pier—a day of fun and tinkering, art and innovation—all anchored by a Rube Goldberg machine contest. Thanks so much to our presenting sponsor, Time Warner Cable’s Connect A Million Minds Initiative, along with sponsor Bricks 4 Kidz. Thanks too to the Santa Monica Pier Corporation for their partnership in presenting this second annual event.

Congratulations to all the teams that participated in the Rube Goldberg machine contest: Santiago Canyon College; Cal Poly Pomona; Ánimo Venice Charter High School; Malibu High School; King Drew Magnet; Santa Monica High School; and Canyon High School. Kudos to the four judges who donated their time and expertise to judge and offer feedback to the teams, including: designer Hector Alvarez; Adam Lichtl, director of research for Space Exploration Technologies; artist Brett Doar; and Betty Fekete of Time Warner Cable.

Thanks also to the vendors who spent the day demonstrating their amazing devices and giving visitors the opportunity to create, tinker and build: Dr. Sharp’s Steampunk Gear; Exploratory; iFly; Pacific Park; Peddler’s Creamery; reDiscover Center; Santa Monica High’s Team Marine; STEM Center USA; Steve Craig; ToyBuilder Labs; Trash 4 Teaching; TreePeople; and Vocademy the Makerspace.

And a special shout out to DJ Agent Blak, for keeping the stage lively and lyrical, along with Aquarium volunteer Jaclyn Friedlander and her team for building their own Rube Goldberg Machine to deliver a clean water message—and for demonstrating the contraption throughout the day. Check out the making of Friedlander’s machine!

Time Warner Cable Connect a Million Minds Time Warner Cable

Read Less