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Heal the Bay Blog

Author: Heal the Bay

At Last, a Bag Ban in Santa Monica

01.26.2011 |

Santa Monica

The Santa Monica City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday night that bans single use plastic and paper bags, but allows retailers to sell “green” paper bags for at least a dime.  Due to the passage of Proposition 26 with its chilling impact on government’s ability to create and raise fees, Santa Monica abandoned  its original ordinance, which would have put the paper-bag fee at a quarter with some of the revenue coming back to the city. Instead, leaders opted to model their bill after  L.A. County’s recently approved ban.

Fifty people came out to support the bag ban ordinance, about 25 students with Santa Monica High School Team Marine teacher Ben Kay and 25 attendees from environmental groups and the general public.  As you might have expected, the students stole the show.  Dressed in costumes ranging from bag man to straw student to lid lady to bottle boy, the students came out during finals week to advocate for the bag ban.  In a proud moment for me, my son Zack, an ocean swimmer and three year co-president of the Heal the Bay Surfrider Club, testified in support of the ordinance.  Zack reminded council members that he started testifying to them as a freshman.  Now he’s a graduating senior.

Santa Monica is the undisputed greenest city in California (OK, Berkeley will dispute that). How did it take its leaders nearly four years to ban single use bags? If you guessed ongoing litigation threats from the Coalition to Save the Plastic Bag, then you’ve been paying attention.

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Santa Monica Bans the Bag

01.25.2011 |

About UsNewsSanta Monica

In a unanimous decision, the City of Santa Monica tonight passed one of the most aggressive and far-reaching plastic bag bans in the State of California. The ban, which will go into effect in September 2011, will ban all grocery stores, pharmacies and retailers from distributing plastic bags.

Press Release

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Exceptions will be made for restaurants selling food and drink for take-out, but the popular farmers markets will no longer be able to distribute plastic bags. Stores can sell paper bags, provided they are made of at least 40% recycled paper, for a minimum of 10¢ each.

Each year, Santa Monica residents use in excess of 25 million plastic bags. The ban will encourage shoppers to bring heavy-duty reusable bags from home, eliminating millions of bags from the waste stream.

Plastic bags blowing down city streets and in our parks make our neighborhoods look like garbage dumps. When they enter the ocean, either through the stormdrain system or by blowing across our beaches, they kill or injure marine animals. In fact, they are frequently eaten by animals who mistake them for jellyfish.

Santa Monica’s bag ban has been in the works for 2 years. Our congratulations to the City Council for their landmark decision!

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Hotel California

01.24.2011 |

News

For years Heal the Bay has battled beach trash in Southern California. Now, a new hotel in Madrid is bringing attention to the issue of marine debris in a whole new way. The hotel is built from garbage and was constructed by German artist Ha Schult to demonstrate the growing issue of trash in the ocean.

Check it out here.

Photo: Mesaba via Flicker

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The Santa Monica Pier Aquarium is a Certified Green Business

01.24.2011 |

About UsHeal the Bay AquariumSanta Monica

Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium last week became re-certified as a Santa Monica green business. The Aquarium first joined the program and became a certified green business about 2 1/2 years ago. The program is run by the combined efforts of City of Santa Monica agencies and business organizations and is designed to encourage companies to incorporate environmentally sound business practices into their everyday business.  The Aquarium went through an extensive greening checklist to qualify for the program initially and just completed an inventory of green practices for the re- certification.  The marine science education center passed inspections in three categories: energy efficiency, water use, and a general inspection of business practices. 

Green business practices at the Aquarium are vast and varied; they range from the use of recycled materials to upgrade Aquarium exhibits to water conserving plumbing systems, to instituting a facility-wide use of eco-friendly cleaning agents and providing incentives for staff and volunteers to use alternative modes of transportation. “This is an educational space, and every surface is an opportunity to learn about the ocean and the environment,” said Aquarium director Vicki Wawerchak.

The city of Santa Monica’s Sustainability and the Environment Department, the Chamber of Commerce, Convention & Visitors Bureau and Sustainable Works operate the green business program.  The official “Green Certified,” window decal alerts tourists, community members and other visitors that a business has qualified for special recognition as a green business. The certification must be renewed every two years.

For more information about green business certification, please visit the Santa Monica Green Business program.

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CSU Long Beach Shark Lab

01.24.2011 |

California SharksLong Beach / Avalon

Much of the public holds on to the Jaws-era blood and gore image of sharks as man-killing monsters. And unfortunately, scientists don’t really know that much about these awe-inspiring and truly fascinating creatures.

Places like Cal State Long Beach’s Shark Lab conduct cutting-edge research on sharks, and also play a large role in educating people about the true nature of sharks (did you know you are about 60 times more likely to die from a lightning strike than a shark attack?).

The Director of CSULB’s Shark Lab, Dr. Chris Lowe, was recently featured on Animal Planet’s new series “I, Predator”. You can see him talking about the challenges young white sharks face in learning to catch large, nimble prey like the Cape Fur Seal in a video clip from the show.

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Santa Monica to Consider Ban on Plastic Bags

01.21.2011 |

Santa Monica

On Tuesday, Jan. 25, the City of Santa Monica will join Long Beach, LA County, and other local municipalities in considering a ban on plastic bags.

The Santa Monica bag ban will prohibit retailers from providing plastic bags,  but will allow stores to sell bags made from recycled paper, provided they cost at least 10¢. Restaurants and take-out food establishments are exempt, for health and safety reasons.

In the absence of statewide legislation that would provide a comprehensive and uniform way to control plastic bag pollution, cities like Santa Monica are tackling the problem themselves. 

Join Heal the Bay at the Santa Monica City Council meeting and help ban the bag! 

You can also read more about the ban in the Santa Monica Daily Press.

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Picture Perfect

01.20.2011 |

Marine Protected AreasSanta Monica

We were once again grateful to have received many beautiful images and video of the ocean and its inhabitants for our 2nd annual Underwater Parks Day Photo and Video Contest.

When looking to highlight the marine life that is so alien to many Southern California residents, these entries offer just a glimpse of the diversity that our newly created marine protected areas will support and help replenish.

So, without further ado, the winners are:

View All Contest Entries

Photo Winner – Youth Category

  • Josh Friedman for Circle of Jackfish, a stunning photo of a school of circling jackfish taken off the coast of Tahiti.

Photo Winner – Open Category

  • Tully Rohrer for Octogood, a captivating photograph of a two-spot octopus taken in the Wrigley Marine Reserve off of Catalina Island.

Video Winner

  • Nannette Van Antwerp for Crustaceans of California, a playfully shot and creatively narrated video that highlights some of California’s crustaceans.

We want to thank all of the amazing and talented artists for submitting their work to the contest, as well as the companies that generously donated prizes, including Eco Dive Center, Blue Water Photo, Rusty’s Surf Ranch and Patagonia.  

Selections from the photography contest will be on display at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium in the coming weeks. Stop in to appreciate some fabulous artwork and to visit the many Santa Monica Bay species on exhibit.

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LA to Finalize LID Ordinance

01.19.2011 |

About UsLong Beach / AvalonMalibu / Pacific PalisadesMarina del Rey / Playa del ReyPalos Verdes PeninsulaSanta MonicaSouth BayVenice Beach

On January 20, the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation will hold an informational meeting on the low impact development ordinance. 

This landmark regulation will help cut down on the amount of polluted runoff that reaches our beaches by requiring new and redevelopment projects to capture rainwater on site, allowing it to filter into the ground and recharge local groundwater supplies.  To learn about the ordinance, which was passed in Dec 2010, members of the public can attend the meeting.

For more information, visit lastormwater.org.

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MPAs: Blood, Sweat & Tears

01.18.2011 |

About UsLong Beach / AvalonMarine Protected Areas

Guest blogger Sarah Sikich, Heal the Bay’s director of coastal resources, offers some advice on navigating the backroom battles of environmental policy-making. She served on a stakeholder panel that helped negotiate a highly contentious network of marine protected areas in Southern California.

The California Fish and Game Commission made history last month by adopting the first network of marine protected areas (MPAs) for Southern California, marking our region’s first system of underwater parks. As a staff scientist at Heal the Bay, I played a role in the often contentious efforts to assemble the MPA maps, which set aside strategic sections of our shoreline for protection from fishing and other consumptive uses.

It will take years for the full history of our work to be written, but in the spirit of New Year’s introspection, I’ve been reflecting about the grueling but rewarding process. I’ve felt a slew of emotions – overwhelmed (in a positive way), pride and a smidge of disbelief. I had studied and educated about MPAs for over a decade, as a lowly undergrad at the University of New Hampshire, teaching at the Catalina Island Marine Institute, and then conducting my graduate research at U.C. Santa Barbara. And then I got to play an active role in the actual implementation of MPAs in Southern California. It isn’t every day that you to get to fulfill a professional dream.

As a member of the South Coast Regional Stakeholder Group — one of 64 individuals appointed to represent interests including commercial and recreational fishing, conservationists, local officials, and educators — I’ve spent hundreds of hours of personal and professional time over the past several years researching the South Coast, negotiating boundaries and creating MPA proposals that ultimately influenced the final Fish and Game decision. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through professionally, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that there were moments I considered quitting the process.

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Rain Doesn't Mean an End to Drought

01.14.2011 |

Long Beach / AvalonMarina del Rey / Playa del ReyPalos Verdes PeninsulaSouth Bay

It’s been a wet winter, so does that mean it’s ok to be a little more cavalier with our watering habits? Like, maybe, we can rip out that rock garden and install a nice sloping lawn? The answer, apparently, is no. 

Yes, the rain has recharged reservoirs and built up a nice snow pack that will please skiiers and snowboarders all winter long, and also provide water for much of the state, but Southern California still needs to learn to live with the water we have. Which isn’t much. 

SoCal is, and always will be, a desert, and the more water we use, the more water we suck from rivers and the aquatic life that call those rivers home, as well as agriculture. Plus, when we do get rain, we funnel it straight out to the ocean instead of trying to capture and reuse it. We need to figure out how to use less water, as a region, and be more creative with our limited rainfall. Read more at the LA Times.

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