Heal the Bay and Ford invite you to
Drive One 4 UR Beach! Volunteers that test drive a new Ford during any Nothin’ But Sand summer cleanup will be automatically entered for a chance to win an all-new eco-friendly Ford.
For every test drive completed, Ford will donate $50 to Heal the Bay to keep LA’s beaches clean.
Test drives start at 9am. Cleanup starts at 10am.
I just spent a looong weekend in Texas, hanging out at Texas A&M Galveston overlooking the Bay and the lime green piles of sulfur lining the shores of the port. I flew out to watch the finals of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl and to root for the team from Santa Monica High School. Go Vikings!
I flew in Friday and got to the venerable Galvez Hotel on the Galveston breakwater by the afternoon. Beautiful hotel, but Galveston’s beaches are no match for the sand and surf of Santa Monica Bay. That evening, we went to Moody Garden Aquarium to hear Her Deepness herself give an inspirational talk on the importance of the oceans and why everyone needs to fight for them. Sylvia Earle always has this calm, persuasive way of making humanity realize the value of ocean stewardship.
Sylvia was nice enough to hang with the Samohi crew during dinner in the aquarium. Little did I know that this would be the first of many meals dominated by single-use plastics. Like every event she attends, Sylvia was a rock star, signing autographs, taking photos and answering everyone’s questions.
On Saturday, the games began. Watching my son Zack and his teammates, Dana, Mari and Maddy, compete at the marathon competition on Saturday marked one of the proudest moments of my life. Ingo Gaida, the Samohi Oceans Bowl team coach, did an extraordinary job preparing the students for the nationwide tourney. These guys already know more about the world’s oceans than I’ll ever know.
And they were joined by teams from Alaska to Hawaii, New England to Florida. The whole nation was well represented.
By the end of the day, there were three more plastic-served meals, consisting of Polystyrene plates and cutlery and Styrofoam cups. I don’t think any of our food came on readily recyclable plastics. Haven’t any numbers other than sixes even hit Texas yet? And recycling must not have hit Galveston.
The teams were culled down to the final six. Samohi was the top seed and finished the day undefeated, winning every game handily. This guaranteed a spot in the Final Four. Even the incessant local greeting of “Howdy” and our growing contribution to the global marine crisis didn’t get to me on Saturday. I was so proud.
We decided to ditch another plastic dinner and celebrate with grub at Gaido’s in homage to the coach’s almost namesake restaurant. A magical day ended with us sitting along Galveston high school students dressed to the nines for their prom dinner at the shoreline seafood restaurant that survived the last hundred years of hurricanes. The giant green crab on the restaurant roof served as the perfect cap to a perfect day.
Saturday was more wonderful and stressful than watching UCLA get to the Final Four. Unfortunately, Sunday brought back flashbacks of Florida and Memphis State. This was Samohi’s Alamo.
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About UsLong Beach / AvalonMalibu / Pacific PalisadesMarina del Rey / Playa del ReyPalos Verdes PeninsulaSanta MonicaSouth BayVenice Beach
Earlier in the week, Frankie Orrala and James Alamillo gave a staff presentation in our office on the progress of the Pier Angler Outreach Program coordinated by Heal the Bay, EPA and the Fish Contamination Education Collaborative (FCEC). Frankie and James have run Heal the Bay’s program for eight years. Their achievements, along with the efforts of the outreach workers, have been nothing short of astounding.
To date, the program has educated nearly 100,000 anglers at eight different piers: Santa Monica, Venice, Hermosa, Redondo, Pier J, Rainbow Harbor, Belmont and Seal Beach piers. (Cabrillo Marine Aquarium educates Cabrillo Pier anglers). The risk communication efforts focus on the health risks of eating locally caught DDT-, PCB- and mercury-contaminated fish. The outreach workers encourage anglers to avoid the most compromised fish, and they provide fishermen with cooking methods if they choose to eat any contaminated catch.
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Mother’s Day is right around the corner and what better way to celebrate motherhood than to adopt one of the swell sharks at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium? Adult female swell sharks, their developing swell shark pups still incubating in egg casings and new born shark pups are all available for fostering through the Aquarium’s Aquadoption program.
Aquadoption at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium is an important way to connect with the marine environment, support an animal on exhibit and gain a greater understanding of the amazing ocean habitat of the Santa Monica Bay. An Aquadoption gift not only assists in the feeding and care of an animal, it also funds the maintenance of exhibits and the ongoing education and advocacy efforts core to Heal the Bay’s mission.
Swell sharks are one of eight species available for adoption, ranging in price from $25 to $750, depending upon the animal. Whether you purchase a yearlong adoption for Mom, for a friend or for a child or grandparent – or foster an animal yourself – it is the gift that keeps on giving on behalf of marine life welfare.
An Aquadoption includes a photo of the animal and an animal fact sheet. Two free family passes are also included to encourage recipients to visit their foster animal.
Visit the Aquarium to get acquainted with prospective adoptees during public hours: Tuesday through Friday from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. or weekends from 12:30 to 6:00 p.m.
Download an Aquadoption Order Form today.
Photo: Tara Crow
Guest blogger Vicki Wawerchak, the director of the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, discusses hitting an unusual jackpot.
“We’ve got skulls!” Pumping my fists in the air, I shout out to my computer and anyone within earshot of my office. I just finished reading another email from our friends at the Marine Mammal Care Center in Sausalito (remember our baleen?) stating they had three mammal skulls they would be happy to donate for education purposes if the appropriate permits were granted. I was ecstatic—yet again—at the thought of adding more, real, tangible, marine artifacts to our Aquarium collection.
Granted, I understand that to some of you, an email like this might rank right up there with the ones that tell you that you won the Nigerian lottery and then instruct you to wire transfer $10,000 to claim your winnings. But as a scientist and educator, these are the emails I long for; the messages that validate my hours of facility research to find centers that donate artifacts, the continued networking of colleagues in the field to put a face to a name and the numerous paragraphs written describing who we are, why we are looking for artifacts and what we intend to do with them.
In my opinion, nothing compares to creating a strong conservation ethic and empathy like a tangible item—dead or alive. Think back to when you were a child—did you like digging up earthworms to make sure they were okay in the mud? Did you move snails off the walking path to avoid them from being stepped on? And did you make sure that every moth was placed gently on a leaf if found sitting on a windowsill? Or maybe that was just me? If you ask my mother how many half-alive, baby birds I held in my hands, tears streaming down my cheeks, begging her to help me save the small, featherless, creature in my hand, she will tell you that she lost count when I turned five. I digress….but could these early recollections about attempting to hold and save every animal I set eyes on be the reason I have a limitless passion about ocean conservation and strong empathy to the animals that live within it? You bet! So back to the skulls and how we are going to use them to teach limitless passion about ocean conservation…
Jose Bacallao, the Aquarium’s senior aquarist, was right there with me. “What kind of skulls?” he answered, without skipping a beat. I hadn’t even really focused on that detail before I shouted out, so looking back at the email I read that they had two sea lion skulls (one male and one female) and one harbor seal skull. I passed that information on to him. Then I thought, “I wonder if they are already prepped?” And as if our friends at the Marine Mammal Care Center heard that question hundreds of miles away, twenty seconds later, an audible beep alerted me to a new email. It read, “Oh…and the skulls aren’t prepped.” Here we go again I thought. I laughed at the thought of what our conversations over the next few days were going to entail.
I shared this small prepping detail with Jose and I could see the wheels being to turn. Jose has been my partner in crime with these types of tasks for more than a decade. We have talked endlessly about how best to prep shark skin, how to remove a sea anemone without damaging it’s pedal disk, why baleen whales have two blowholes and toothed whales have one, and the list goes on and on.
We both love a challenge and this was going to be another great adventure, removing skin and tissue from the skulls—would we do it with beetles, by burying it, or by freshwater or saltwater maceration (to separate as a result of soaking)? We were already weighing the pros and cons of each method, talking a mile a minute…
(Read Parts Two and Three for how we prepped the skulls)
Photo: Reed Hutchinson
Long Beach / AvalonMalibu / Pacific PalisadesMarina del Rey / Playa del ReyNewsPalos Verdes PeninsulaSanta MonicaSouth BayVenice Beach
Strandings of marine animals in Southern California have increased dramatically in the past few weeks. The mortality rate is up and rescue teams and care centers are overrun with a large number of ailing sea lions and birds. We asked David Caron, a professor in USC’s department of Biological Studies, if he could explain what is causing these animals’ illness and death. He responded with the following:
Domoic acid is a powerful neurotoxin produced by a specific group of microscopic algae that sometimes blooms in coastal waters. If the algae are abundant and producing toxin, they can be strained from the water by plankton-eating fish such as sardine and anchovy. The toxin contained in the algae is concentrated in the stomachs of these fish during a toxic algal bloom. Marine mammals or sea birds eating fish laden with toxin can ingest sufficient domoic acid in the stomachs of their prey to experience symptoms of domoic acid poisoning. These symptoms can include a variety of neurological disorders including disorientation and seizures, and in severe cases death.
There has been an increased number of animals (sea lions, dolphins and some birds) stranding on local beaches during the past few weeks. Many of these animals exhibited symptoms of domoic acid poisoning. We have confirmed the presence of domoic acid in fluids collected from a number of these animals, indicating that a toxic bloom is taking place in coastal waters, although the specific location and extent of the bloom is not known.
Hear a more detailed interview with Professor Caron on National Public Radio station KPCC.
Long Beach / AvalonMalibu / Pacific PalisadesMarina del Rey / Playa del ReyPalos Verdes PeninsulaSanta MonicaSouth BayVenice Beach
Part 1 of a 2 part series from National Geographic’s News Watch. Photo by Captain Tom Migdalski
The United States has the largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world, containing 3.4 million square miles [8.8 million square kilometers] of ocean and 90,000 miles [145,000 kilometers] of coastline.[i] Throughout this vast underwater realm, fish play an essential role in the interconnected web of life on which we depend. In fact, they are one of America’s most valuable natural resources, adding billions to the U.S. economy and supporting millions of jobs through fishing and recreation.
Unfortunately, overfishing—taking fish from our oceans faster than they can reproduce—has plagued U.S. oceans for decades and continues today. This squanders valuable fish populations and weakens ocean ecosystems, making them more vulnerable to problems like pollution, natural disturbances and climate change.
The good news is that we have a strong law in place in the United States governing how fish are managed in federal waters, and serious efforts are underway to end overfishing and rebuild depleted populations.
In the field of water quality regulation, sewage treatment plant and industrial dischargers often have strict numeric limits on the amount of pollutants they can discharge. In some cases, for highly toxic pollutants like organochlorines and mercury, the limits can be at the parts per billion or even per trillion level.
As a result of the Federal Clean Water Act and the California Porter Cologne Act requirements, most individual sources of pollutants have decreased their toxics discharge by an order of magnitude or more over the last 30 years.
On the opposite side of the regulatory continuum are contaminated sediments.
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Heal the Bay burst into the public’s consciousness in early 1988, shortly after the creation of the fishbones logo and our aquarium/store in the brand new, Gehry-designed Santa Monica Place. Heal the Bay sold more t-shirts that one summer than every year since.
Shortly thereafter, Heal the Bay reached out to Venice-based advertising agency Chiat Day, to develop an advertising campaign to reach everyone in the LA region. The multi-media campaign included billboards, television public service announcements (PSA), and movie trailer spots. The theme of the campaign centered on how we have all been mistreating the ocean. The dramatic juxtaposition of old Super 8 home movies with the voice of a clearly hurt ocean made us realize that the ocean provides us with so much joy that we should treat it with reverence and respect. The outdoor campaign used the tag line, “Leave your children something to remember you by. Join Heal the Bay”.
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CO-OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCES CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP OF HEAL THE BAY as part of revamped reusable bag program
Santa Monica, CA – April 11, 2011 – Co-opportunity, Santa Monica’s natural food cooperative and source for organic and local products since 1974, announced today its corporate sponsorship of Heal the Bay. Co-opportunity is joining Heal the Bay’s Corporate Healer Beach Cleanup program as a Major sponsor, with a $5,000 donation. The Corporate Healer sponsorship is part of Co-opportunity’s revamped reusable bag program.
“We are thrilled to do our part in helping Heal the Bay achieve its mission of keeping our beaches clean,” said Bruce Palma, general manager of Co-opportunity. “As a co-op, our mission and vision centers on creating a positive environmental impact. And with the City of Santa Monica’s recent plastic bag ban, and April being the month of Earth Day, we felt the timing was right for this sponsorship,” said Palma.
“We’re very grateful to Co-opportunity for their support of our efforts to fight plastic pollution,” said Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay. “We’re excited that Co-opportunity will be helping to clean up one of our local beaches. As a Corporate Healer, they will be making our beaches even more beautiful and learning firsthand about the impacts of urban runoff and trash on our coasts and in Santa Monica Bay. Their reusable bag program will make a big difference for the ocean. “
Co-opportunity’s new bag initiative, which goes into effect on May 1st, is meant to fully comply with the city of Santa Monica’s recent plastic bag ban ordinance. As such, Co-opportunity will also be partnering with the City of Santa Monica’s Office of Sustainability and the Environment on its reusable bag program. The city has selected Co-opportunity as the first retail business to receive hands-on training on how to communicate the plastic bag ban to shoppers. Co-opportunity’s Owners and shoppers should note that as of September 1, 2011 and potentially sooner, there will no longer be any Co-opportunity plastic bags available at the register.
Previously, Co-opportunity’s Owners received a five-cent rebate for every reusable bag they used. Instead of the five-cent rebate, Co-opportunity’s Owners will now be entered into a monthly sweepstakes where winners will be rewarded with $25 gift cards (this offer is applicable to Co-op Owners only). In addition to the free reusable bags all Co-opportunity Owners receive upon joining the Co-op, there will also be reusable bags created by Green Vets L.A. for sale.
“This change isn’t about squeezing more profit out of operations,” said Palma. “The revamped reusable bag program is about the shared sacrifice we all need to make in order to dramatically reduce the amount of plastic in our oceans and landfills, while also making our local economy more sustainable. To show you we’re serious, we’re putting our money where our mouth is and are donating $5,000 to Heal the Bay,” said Palma.
Co-opportunity will kick off the reusable bag sweepstakes at the Heal the Bay’s monthly “Nothin’ But Sand” beach cleanup event on April 16, from 10 am-noon at Will Rogers State Beach. Heal the Bay will also have an informational table outside of Co-opportunity on April 11th to answer any questions shoppers might have.
Co-opportunity, a natural foods cooperative, has been providing natural, organic and local products to the Santa Monica area since 1974. The Co-op, which is also open to the public, is community owned and operated and believes economic power should be situated locally, where it has the best chance to create and sustain vibrant, livable communities. Learn more at coopportunity.com.
