Heal the Bay Blog

Category: Events

L.A. Kings Give Back to Their Kingdom

01.13.2017 | Matt King

The L.A. Kings and Heal the Bay are lacing up their flip-flops for a multi-site beach cleanup on Jan. 25. Here, communications director Matthew King muses about sports stars on the sand.

OK, I’ll admit it. I’ve become a little jaded after participating in dozens of beach cleanups.

As a Heal the Bay staffer, I know exactly what we are going to find (a disheartening mix of chip bags, plastic bottles, and bits of Styrofoam). And I know exactly what participants’ reactions will be (“OMFG, look at all these disgusting cigarette butts!”).

I have another admission to make – like most Angelenos, I’m a bit star struck. You’d think after years of working as an editor at The Hollywood Reporter early in my career, I’d be more blasé about celebrity. But I still get a charge out of seeing stars out in the wild – especially at one of our events. I still proudly carry my green reusable bag signed by #4 Luke Walton, former forward and current coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, at our downtown rally in support of L.A.’s plastic bag ban.

Cleanups and celebs are an interesting mix. The stars usually come on their own time and out of their own volition, without makeup artists or publicists in tow. So out of respect, I’m not going to name names. But we’ve had several Oscar- and Emmy-winning performers roll up their sleeves with us and humbly mingle with the general public. I’m proud to say I haven’t seen an ounce of ego or attitude.

As a hopeless sports junkie, I’ve had the most fun working with L.A.’s professional sports teams. I’ve picked up trash with former Lakers center Andrew Bynum, probably the only time I’ve participated in a cleanup with someone taller than I am. (I’m 6’6” – Kobe Bryant size, as I like to say.)

Ex-Laker center Andrew Bynum helps pick up trash off of the beach.

Former All-Star Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp and I scoured for bottle caps beside the Santa Monica Pier. (I think he was dating Rihanna at the time, and I can tell you he is one handsome dude.)

Former Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp weighs his trash totals.

But my favorite cleanup of all time was with the L.A. Kings in 2008, the year I started working at Heal the Bay.

I even allowed my young teenage son to skip school that day and help out, just to show him that working at a nonprofit has a little bit of cool to it. Hockey is my favorite sport, but that isn’t what made the day so memorable.

When a sports team hosts an event with us, two or three athletes will typically attend. But at the Kings cleanup in Redondo Beach, every player on the roster, except one, participated. This was 10 a.m. in the morning following a tough game the night before at Staples Center! I don’t know if the Kings have a culture of strict discipline or genuine community connection, but seeing two dozen players happily canvassing the sand on a foggy morning really impressed me.

Since then the Kings have gone on to win two Stanley Cup® championships. (I was in the house when defensemen Alex Martinez tucked in a reflex rebound at Staples Center to secure their second Cup against the New York Rangers!)

They’ve also grown into a great partner with Heal the Bay and have been honored at our annual Bring Back the Beach gala for their community outreach programs. Check out the video below to learn more.

Defensemen Matt Greene lent his voice to one of our most important battles – last year’s successful coalition effort to reject a ballot measure that would have allowed oil drilling beneath the Hermosa Beach seafloor. And all the other Kings live along the South Bay shoreline, so it’s no surprise they care about our local beaches.

In advance of this year’s NHL All-Star Game at Staples Center, we are hosting a volunteer cleanup at three locations on Wednesday afternoon, January 25. You can register and get more details here. (You might have to play hooky from work, but we can have one of our two staff Ph.D.s write you a doctor’s note!)

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Competitors Wanted For Rube Goldberg Machine Contest

12.15.2016 | Heal the Bay

Events Santa Monica

Dec. 15, 2016 — Calling all inventors, tinkerers, makers, “mad” scientists, DIY’ers, or just anyone with a good sense of humor. It’s time to get ready for Los Angeles’ 4^th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest at the Santa Monica Pier!

A Rube Goldberg Machine is a crazy contraption that accomplishes a simple task in the most complicated – and funniest – way possible! Based on the “invention” cartoons of the famous Pulitzer Prize-winning American cartoonist, Rube Goldberg, actual machines are at the heart of the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. They use everyday items (mostly junk), to tell a story and, most important of all – they make you LAUGH.

The competition is open to middle school, high school, and college level teams. This year, teams will be faced with the challenge of “applying a Band-Aid” at the end of their multistep chain reaction. This is a great way to showcase your talent to elite industry judges. Last year’s judges were from SpaceX, Google, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.

The competition is part of the larger S.T.E.A.M. Machines Festival on the Santa Monica Pier scheduled for Sunday March 5th. It will be a full day of gadgets, innovation, creativity, and fun. For additional information, including registration details and financial aid opportunities, please contact Tara Crow or call 310-564-6126.

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Heal the Bay Honors the Ocean With the Chumash

10.03.2016 | Tova Handelman and Dana Murray

Events

Oct. 3, 2016 — Heal the Bay’s coastal resources team, Tova Handelman and Dana Murray, share their experience Honoring the Ocean as part of the Los Angeles Marine Protected Area Collaborative.

Honor – the word evokes a sense of respect. We honor those we admire for their generosity, bravery, or dedication to a cause. We honor ourselves at the end of our yoga practice to acknowledge our health, energy, and self-love. But how often do we stop to honor – to pay respect – to our natural environment? Last week, on a beautiful and warm Saturday morning at Zuma Beach, we got the unique opportunity to do just that.

Heal the Bay and other partners from the Los Angeles MPA Collaborative came together to host a celebratory event to “Honor the Ocean” at the Point Dume State Marine Conservation Area in Malibu. L.A. MPA Collaborative members connected with Angelenos about being stewards of the sea, educating them on everything from marine life in California, to available citizen science opportunities like MPA Watch.

Heal the Bay spoke to interested community members about plastic pollution and how to volunteer for our ocean; the Chumash community welcomed beachgoers and shared their history, culture, stories, and traditions; L.A. County lifeguards provided ocean safety tips; Los Angeles Waterkeeper and the City of Malibu provided educational marine and watershed science activities; the CA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife and California Ocean Science Trust were on hand as state experts in MPA science and monitoring; and Malibu Makos offered free surf lessons.

Over 200 ocean enthusiasts gathered to witness Mati Waiya, Executive Director of the Wishtoyo Foundation and an esteemed Chumash elder, perform a moving ceremony to thank the ocean for providing us with oxygen, food, and beauty. A gorgeous hand-carved tomol, a Chumash canoe made from redwood, was lifted by a dozen men and placed on the sand in the center of the congregated onlookers, highlighting Chumash maritime culture. After leading the crowd in traditional Chumash songs, Mati Waiya spoke passionately about the need to respect the ocean’s strength and power, yet also recognize its vulnerability to harmful human activities. His emotional speech ended with a call to action for each person to remember that we are all connected with nature and we must incorporate honor and respect for Mother Earth into our daily lives to keep her – and ourselves – healthy and thriving.

The Los Angeles MPA Collaborative, a network of local organizations, municipalities, and agencies, channels broad and diverse perspectives to build ocean resilience and promote the cultural, recreational, and ecological value of Los Angeles County’s marine protected areas. While we were there to honor the ocean, we also paid respect to the Chumash community and the Wishtoyo Foundation for their advocacy for integrating tribal values into the MPA designation process. For thousands of years, the Chumash have valued ocean stewardship, and they continue to do so through Wishtoyo’s Chumash Tribal Marine Protected Area ocean conservation education program.

The event finished with children and adults alike sitting in the sand at the feet of Chumash elders, who energetically told stories of the Chumash people and their connection to the ocean. It was a truly wonderful day to celebrate – and honor – Los Angeles’ underwater parks, the Chumash peoples’ dedication to the ocean, and the positive legacy the L.A. MPA Collaborative is establishing for future generations of Californians to enjoy our stunning marine ecosystems for years to come.

Big thanks to the members of the Los Angeles MPA Collaborative for planning this event! Read an article about the event in The Malibu Times.

See Photos

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Coastal Cleanup Day: Straight Outta P.V. and Compton

09.17.2016 | Matt King

Coastal Cleanup Day Culver City

Sept. 17, 2016 — There are 8 million stories in the trashy city on Coastal Cleanup Day. Here is one of them from Heal the Bay’s communications director, Matthew King.

Heading down PCH to infamous Lunada Bay this morning, I really didn’t know what to expect.

To Southern California surfers, this idyllic cove in Palos Verdes Estates is infamous for being home to the Bay Boys, a group of largely middle-aged locals accused of using vigilante-like tactics to scare away visitors. These self-appointed regulators sit on the bluffs and regularly block access to the beach, according to a recently filed federal class-action lawsuit, all in the name of keeping some of L.A.’s best waves to themselves.

After years of hosting cleanups up and down the Palos Verdes Estates, Heal the Bay decided to host a site at Lunada Bay in concert with city staff for this year’s Coastal Cleanup Day. Leading up to the cleanup, I hadn’t given the site much thought. Then I received a few media enquiries asking about the Bay Boys and if we expected any trouble or were taking any safety precautions.

It all seemed a bit alarmist to me. But I do have some family history at Lunada Bay that gave me some pause. Last fall, my high school son and his friends – unbeknownst to me – decided to hike down to the cove to watch the sunset. They came back to find the tires slashed on their car.

Channeling the sage words of my colleague Meredith McCarthy, I assured the journalists that cleanups tend to bring out the best in people. We didn’t expect any trouble, I said (and hoped).

As usual, Meredith was right.

Volunteers climbing down to Lunada Bay I spent a beautiful morning with about two dozen volunteers at Lunada. The only intimidation I felt this day was figuring out how to navigate the twisting, semi-treacherous path to the beach without falling on my butt. And the only locals I crossed paths with were an adorable group of girls volunteering from Lunada Bay Elementary School across the street. They weren’t too menacing.

The rocky shoreline is thankfully free of the micro-trash that plagues most Southland beaches: cigarette butts and whatnot. The biggest haul came from beer cans and plastic water bottles chucked carelessly from the bluffs. An intrepid group of Palos Verdes High students scurried up the cliffs like billy goats to retrieve trash, while their proud mothers beamed on the beach. The group was part of the Los Hermanos Black club, which organizes volunteer opportunities for mothers and their teen-aged sons.

Including the Lunada volunteers, the Cleanup Day crew in L.A. County totaled 9,556 people at 48 inland and coastal sites. Participants hauled in 29,635 pounds of ocean-bound debris. This year’s group collected nearly 30% more trash in L.A. County than last year’s volunteers. (You can view that as either a positive or negative, I suppose!) Among the items found: a switchblade knife, a flight-deck crew vest from an aircraft carrier, two old TVs, three syringes, nine shopping carts and one human-sized teddy bear on the sands of Long Beach.

A couple of volunteers at Compton Creek On my way home, I detoured to another one of my favorite sites — Compton Creek, a largely forgotten gem in the necklace of green spaces along the L.A. River.

This tributary is one of the few soft-bottomed portions of the largely channelized L.A. River. A half-mile stretch of lush vegetation sits hard against the Crystal Hotel and Casino, surrounded by concrete and the 91 Freeway. The creek is choked with trash and polluted runoff fouls its waters, but life miraculously thrives here. Turtles scour the muddy bottom, while herons alight in the brush, looking for tiny morsels.

Nearly 100 volunteers donned gloves and trudged through the boggy waters, hauling out a depressing mix of fast-food wrappers, plastic bags and food packaging. To be honest, if I were a volunteer I would view collecting all that trash as a Sisyphean task. I’d wonder if I had made a dent. We could’ve sent 1,000 people to that spot today and we still wouldn’t have been able to remove all the annoying bits of chip bags and Styrofoam containers ground into the creek bank.

Yet participants remain so optimistic. A Filipino service fraternity called Alpha Phi Omega sent a squadron of volunteers to Compton this morning. One gentlemen, with a full bag of trash, smiled broadly as I approached him. Seeing my Heal the Bay T-shirt, he thanked me.

After participating in dozens of cleanups in my tenure here, it’s easy to get blasé sometimes. I wonder what in the world motivates people to get up on their Saturday off and pick up trash for nothing. I know we absolutely cannot function without our volunteers, but his smile reminded me that we give as much as we get by organizing Coastal Cleanup Day. Volunteers leave feeling hopeful, feeling good about themselves and their communities.

Meredith was right … again.

Check out the photos of Coastal Cleanup Day sites all over L.A. on our Flickr album.

And a special thanks to this year’s sponsors: Cancer Treatment Centers of America, City of Culver City, City of Santa Monica, California Coastal Conservancy, Disney, KTLA 5, L.A. County Public Works, and Union Bank!

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Guess What You’ll Find at Coastal Cleanup Day

09.02.2016 | Heal the Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day Events

Sept. 6, 2016 — You’d be surprised what you might find at an HTB cleanup. Come join us Sept. 17 for Coastal Cleanup Day, our biggest volunteer event of the year.

First-time cleanup volunteers sometimes arrive with the expectation that they will spend a few hours removing large items of trash from the sand – used tires, abandoned fishing nets, and whatnot.

But as any cleanup veteran can tell you, the bulk of our work is picking up and removing small items like Styrofoam shards, plastic bottle caps, or cigarette butts. It’s this dinky detritus of our daily lives that most plagues beaches. It can be tedious at times, but removing tiny pieces of trash most helps marine animals, which often mistakenly ingest harmful bits of plastic and other debris.

To give some perspective, Heal the Bay’s Marine Debris Database reveals that our cleanup volunteers have collected more than 450,000 cigarette butts at L.A. County beaches since 1999. If you laid those butts end to end on the ground, they’d easily surpass the height of Mount Everest!

But it’s not all bits and pieces at our cleanups. Every year at Coastal Cleanup Day – our biggest volunteer event of the year – someone discovers something truly remarkable. Here we look back at some of our favorite finds:

HUMAN SKULL

In 2009, police were called in when divers at our Redondo Beach cleanup site found what they believed to be a human skull on the seafloor. Authorities quickly cordoned off the beach and brought forensic teams to examine the weathered skull, which was wrapped in plastic. Creepy! Unfortunately – or fortunately – for our amateur “CSI” wannabes, the skull actually turned out to be a very lifelike anatomical model that would be used in a hospital or medical school setting.

THE BENJAMINS

Forget those crazy dudes with the metal detectors. If you want to find the real big-money action, come to one of our cleanups. Last year, the mayor of Agoura Hills found a wallet in Medea Creek that contained a crisp $100 bill. And in 2010, a group of students at a beach cleanup in Santa Monica found one half of a torn $100 bill. Despite frantic digging, they were unable to find the other half. The good news is that banks will replace your damaged bill if it’s more than 50% of original length and the serial numbers are intact.

TRUE LOVE

Eveline Bravo-Ayala, our former Beach Program Manager, helped organize hundreds of cleanups during her long tenure here. Little did she know that she’d actually discover her wife at a Coastal Day cleanup. In 2007, Evelyn arranged a series of cleanups in the northeast San Fernando Valley with Olga Ayala, a staffer in Tony Cardenas’ City Council office. The two wrestled for control of the events and often butted heads. But from that rocky start, a tentative friendship blossomed into romance and marriage in 2013.

BURIED TREASURE

We’ve added a special wrinkle this year — volunteers get to search for “buried treasure” as they pick up trash. Lucky treasure hunters will find “golden sea stars” (don’t worry, they’re fake) hidden in the sand and underbrush at five of our coastal and inland sites. Winners can redeem the sea stars for valuable gift certificates from REI, Patagonia, and Amazon.

On Saturday, 9/17, join us at one of 50 locations throughout L.A. County for this year’s Coastal Cleanup Day!

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Become a Community Advocate

07.28.2016 | Heal the Bay

Events Take Action

Become a Heal the Bay Community Advocate and inspire others to make a difference!

Attend our Community Advocates Training to learn how to communicate our work, educate others about the impacts of ocean pollution, and represent Heal the Bay at various outreach events, such as the KROQ Weenie Roast, Santa Monica Festival, and many more!
This is a great opportunity for those who wish to speak directly to the public about the issues that affect our local waters and watersheds.
Plus who doesn’t want some cool Heal the Bay swag? Earn your Heal the Bay t-shirt today!

Wednesday, August 10th, 2016

Heal the Bay Main Office (snacks provided)
6:00P.M. – 8:00 P.M.

To RSVP, click here.

To learn more about Community Advocates, please click here.

We’ll have plenty of outreach events coming up during Earth Month (April), so sign up today!

Required: Attendance to a Heal the Bay Volunteer Orientation. Check the calendar for upcoming orientations.

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Spread the Word: Enlist for Our Speakers Bureau

07.28.2016 | Heal the Bay

Events Take Action

Join Heal the Bay’s prestigious Speakers Bureau!

For over 25 years Speakers Bureau has been an integral part of Heal the Bay’s mission. Speaker Bureau volunteers spread educational awareness to schools, organizations and businesses about the causes and consequences of ocean pollution, water issues, and what everyone can do to help. Just last year we were able to reach out to over 30,000 LA County residents!

Classroom Training Session Dates:
Tuesday, August 9th, 1:00pm – 4:30pm
Tuesday, August 16th, 12:00pm – 4:30pm (includes a tour of the Environmental Learning Center from 12 – 1pm!)
Tuesday, August 23rd, 1:00pm – 4:30pm

Location:
Environmental Learning Center at the Hyperion Treatment Plant
12000 Vista Del Mar, Los Angeles, CA 90293

Field Training Session Dates:
Saturday, August 20th, 10:00am – 12:00pm
Redondo Beach Pier South (Tower Ruby)
Redondo Beach, CA 90277

Attendance at all sessions is mandatory – we cover a lot of important information. Make the commitment to protect what you love! Come learn how to make a difference for your community and inspire others – no matter where you live, you can make an impact! Learn more about the program.

REGISTER HERE

You can make a suggested donation of $25 to cover your training costs when you register! We hope to see you there!

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You’re Invited: Town Hall About Desal in L.A.

07.08.2016 | Heal the Bay

Events

July 8, 2016 — Last year, our supporters helped defeat a proposal to drill for oil underneath the Hermosa Beach seafloor. Now we face another ill-advised project in our Bay – a desalination plant on the El Segundo shoreline near the Manhattan Beach border.

In a time of persistent drought, we all agree on the need to reduce Southern California’s dependence on imported water. But a coaliton of environmental groups — including Heal the Bay, LA Waterkeeper and Surfrider — respectfully disagrees with West Basin Municipal Water District that building a costly and harmful ocean desalination plant is our best option.

Instead of literally sucking the life out of the Bay, West Basin can increase reliable local supplies by aggressively expanding reuse of water supplies we already have. By expanding reuse, we’ll seize on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reliably meet our future water needs while reducing daily dumpings of tens-of-millions of gallons of wastewater in Santa Monica Bay. It’s a win-win.

Each day the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant uselessly dumps 250 million gallons into the Bay. It’s time to value that highly treated water as the precious resource it is. We can no longer afford to throw water away. If Orange County can recycle 100 milion gallons each day, so can we.

To learn more about the proposed desal plant, and our preferred alternatives for securing water independence, please join our staff scientists and policy experts for a lively town-hall meeting in Manhattan Beach on July 21.

THE NEXT WAVE

A Special Town-Hall Meeting

Thursday, July, 21, 7:30 p.m.

Joslyn Community Center

1601 N. Valley Drive

Manhattan Beach

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Looking Back on Big Wins in 2015

12.17.2015 | Heal the Bay

News Nick Gabaldón Day

December 17, 2015 — 2015 was truly a year of extremes for the Bay. From defeating a dangerous proposal to drill for oil in Hermosa Beach to holding city agencies accountable following a sewage spill at Hyperion, Heal the Bay defended its title as the premier protector of Los Angeles’ ocean and watersheds. It was also our 30th Anniversary–and we definitely proved that 30 year-olds still pack a serious punch! Read on for a recap of Heal the Bay’s greatest hits of 2015, and scroll to the bottom to make an important year-end donation to keep us going in 2016.

Keeping Big Oil Out of Our Bay

What we did: Our staff and volunteers mobilized a grassroots campaign to defeat Measure O, which would have allowed an oil company to drill underneath the ocean in Hermosa Beach. Thanks to our community outreach and concerted advocacy, voters rejected the harmful project by a nearly 7-to-1 margin last May.

Why it matters: Opening up the Bay for oil exploration would have not only posed great environmental risks, it would have set a dangerous precedent for further industrial exploitation of our local shorelines.

Protecting the Health of Beachgoers

What we did: Working with Stanford University, we launched a new beach water-quality forecasting model this summer, allowing us to predict when local beaches should be closed because of bacterial pollution. Buoyed by our successful pilot at three beaches, we hope to secure funding to expand predictive modeling statewide.

Why it matters: More advance public notification about troubled beaches will better safeguard the millions of people who visit California beaches each year.

Holding Polluters Accountable

What we did: We demanded answers following a horrifying sewage spill from the Hyperion treatment plant that left South Bay beaches closed for four days and littered with used condoms, tampons and hypodermic needles. We provided constant online updates to the general public, alerted media, and spurred members of the L.A. City Council and the Regional Water Quality Control Board to demand formal contingency plans to prevent future mishaps.

Why it matters: Our advocacy team remains the first and foremost watchdog of the Bay, holding officials’ feet to the fire when warranted to guarantee that our coastline remains safe, healthy and clean.

Guarding Our Few Remaining Wetlands

What we did: Working with a coalition of partners, our staff scientists published a comprehensive set of guidelines for the restoration of Southern California’s quickly dwindling wetlands. The 9-tenet protocol establishes clear and non-negotiable principles for rehabilitating special places like the Ballona Wetlands, which are scheduled to undergo what will likely be a contentious restoration in the next two years.

Why it matters: Highly urbanized Southern California has already lost 95% of its wetlands, which provide critical habitat for plants and animals. They also supply much needed ecosystem benefits like flood control, water purification, fish nurseries, bird watching and other educational opportunities.

Educating and Inspiring Southern Californians

What we did: Heal the Bay hit two important milestones in our 30-year mission to empower environmental stewards throughout California. In 2015, we welcomed our 1 millionth visitor to our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, and participants at our all-volunteer beach cleanups picked up our 2 millionth pound of trash.

Why it matters: Scientific studies and regulatory frameworks can only get us so far. Meaningful change in our region requires participation and passion from people and communities who love our beaches and watersheds.

We love what we do, and we’re proud to be the watchdog of Santa Monica Bay. If you value a cleaner ocean and healthier inland communities, please make a year-end donation today.

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Thank You Thursday: June 2015

06.24.2015 | Heal the Bay

Nick Gabaldón Day Santa Monica

June 24, 2015 — We love celebrating Nick Gabaldón Day each May, recognizing the first documented surfer of African-American and Mexican descent, and showcasing the heritage of the historical African-American beach site in Santa Monica, formerly referred to as the “Inkwell.” Gabaldón’s legacy and his passion for the ocean has inspired many surfers of color and continues to inspire us. We are so thankful for the support of the following groups and individuals who make this day possible:

Black Surfers Collective for their vision;
Surf Bus Foundation for their amazing instructors;
Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl for her sponsorship of the day;
Whole Foods Venice for donating a mountain of fruit, chips and water;
Sorrento Italian Market for 100 awesome sandwiches;
Alison Rose Jefferson and the Santa Monica Conservancy for the history lessons

And mostly, three cheers to all the brave youth from Alliance Neuwirth Leadership Academy and Concerned Black Men International who took the plunge and surfed their hearts out!

Coastal Cleanup Day – scheduled for Sept. 19th this year – will be here before we know it; thank you, REI for already contributing to help us make the biggest volunteer day on the planet a success.

Nick Gabaldon Day

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