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Heal the Bay Blog

Category: About Us

Batting Cleanup With the Dodgers

02.16.2011 |

About UsSanta Monica

On an overcast Tuesday morning, a crowd  of 300 volunteers came out to clean the beach at Santa Monica Pier alongside their Los Angeles Dodgers heroes.  Nearly every volunteer was dressed in Dodger gear and some came three hours early to meet Matt Kemp, Rafael Furcal, Steve Garvey, Fernando Valenzeula, Derrel Thomas, Sweet Lou Johnson, Shawn Green, Gabe Kapler, Tony Gwynn Jr. and Jay Gibbons.  Despite the drizzle, everyone had a great time picking up trash, getting autographs and listening to the players tell stories of their exploits on the diamond.

The Dodgers visit, courtesy of team exec Howard Sunkin and owner Frank McCourt, marked a stop on a public service caravan around L.A. before the men in blue take off for spring training and the grapefruit league at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz.  Howard introduced me to the players on the team bus and I felt a heckuva lot more nervous than I do testifying at city council.  When Steve Garvey and Fernando came off the bus, I felt like I was in a time machine transported to my days as a teenager obsessed with the outcome of all 162 games on the schedule.  After posing for a “team photo” right next to Fernando, I gathered up the nerve to tell the Dodger legend that I was there to watch him pitch as a 19-year-old call up in the September of 1980.  Ever stoic, Valenzuela shook my hand and said nothing.

Then we walked across the sand to the sea of blue of Dodger fans in front of a standing microphone.  I walked alongside former slugger Shawn Green and asked him some small-talk question about what he was up to now in the O.C.  He answered politely.  I always was a big Greenie fan. Star center fielder Matt Kemp took the long way to mic because he didn’t want to get his new black Nike kicks sandy.  He soon got over that.  Of course, Charlie Steiner emceed the event. Steiner remarked “it was a beautiful day for a ballgame” despite the gloomy drizzle.  He introduced the entire Dodger lineup and then welcomed S.M. Mayor Richard Bloom and me.  That’s right, I got an intro from Charlie Steiner.  How cool is that!

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Orcas in Our Bay

02.10.2011 |

About UsSouth BayVenice Beach

Did you know that we have orcas, or killer whales, in our Bay?

A pod of orcas was spotted last weekend outside of King Harbor hunting dolphin. Onlookers believed that a set of parents was teaching a calf to hunt.

Orcas are spotted off our coast very occasionally. This year, blue whales were also seen in large numbers near Redondo Beach.

Check out the orca photos in the Easy Reader.

Photo: Sheryll Nebrida via the Easy Reader

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The Fight Against Plastic Bags Continues

02.02.2011 |

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

The City of Calabasas joined the rapidly growing group of cities and municipalities fighting against plastic bag litter by enacting a ban on single-use plastic bags on February 2, 2011.

Like the recent bans in Santa Monica, and LA County, the ban will prohibit supermarkets, large pharmacies and convenience food marts from distributing plastic bags. Paper bags can be sold for 10¢ each, as long as they are made of at least 40% recycled material.

As in other bans, exceptions are made for restaurants selling take-out food and drink.

The rising tide of cities that are enacting their own bans against plastic bags gives all of us in the environmental community hope. Every day we hear of new cities, countries and counties around the world banning plastic bags.

While the fight is far from over, Calabasas’ brave decision last night brings us one step closer to a world free from plastic bags.

Read more about the decision at kpcc.org.

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Van Jones' Talk at TED

01.31.2011 |

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

Check out this link to Van Jones’ talk on the increasing impacts that plastic has on poor communities. Jones is an environmental advocate and attorney who spent the early part of his career fighting for equal rights for people of color, particularly African Americans.

In 2007 he founded an organization called Green for All, dedicated to building an environmentally friendly economy that would lift people out of poverty.  He also briefly served in President Obama’s White House Council on Environmental Quality.

In this clip, Jones describes how the production, use and disposal of plastics disproportionately harms poor people. Poverty in and of itself limits choices, making it difficult for people who are poor to purchase “safe” plastics, and making them more vulnerable to unsafe practices in jobs manufacturing plastics.

Mark Gold attended the TED conference at which Jones gave this speech, and you can read more about his impressions in the Spouting Off blog.

Watch Van Jones’ inspiring, and quite thoughtful, speech at ted.com. 

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Maps of Recently Approved MPAs

01.27.2011 |

About UsLong Beach / AvalonMalibu / Pacific PalisadesMarina del Rey / Playa del ReyMarine Protected AreasPalos Verdes PeninsulaSanta MonicaSouth BayVenice Beach

If you’ve been following the news about Marine Protected Areas, you might know that a map of these critical portions of protected habitat was recently approved for Southern California. This means that once the MPAs go into effect in mid-2011, fishing will be restricted or prohibited in specific areas along the coastline.

If you’re interested in finding out more about our new set of MPAs, you can check out an interactive map that shows where the MPAs are and details about the regulations.

Once you get to the map, click on “MPAs, Arrays, and Proposals” in the upper right hand corner. Check the “Adopted MLPA South Coast MPAs” box. Then zoom in and click on specific MPAs to learn more about the regulations and details for each site. You can access the maps at marinemap.org.

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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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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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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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