Heal the Bay Blog

Category: Santa Monica

Santa Monica, California located in Los Angeles County is a popular eco-friendly coastal destination for families, couples, tourists and Southern California beachgoers.

Ready for Your Cleanup Closeup?

09.15.2012 | Heal the Bay

Thousands of Angelenos braved the heat on Saturday’s Coastal Cleanup Day, ridding their neighborhoods and favorite waterways of harmful and unsightly trash while simultaneously capturing the moments on their Smartphones and cameras.

This year’s CCD motto was “Every Piece of Trash You Remove Reveals Something Beautiful” and if you took a great photo we’d love to see it! Please share it with @HealTheBay on Instagram, and your photograph could be on exhibit at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and featured in the Coastal Cleanup Day wrap-up publication! Images can be of a beach or kayak cleanup, underwater photos from a dive cleanup, pictures of trash, clean beaches, volunteers, or anything from Coastal Cleanup Day 2012!

How to enter: Upload photos from Coastal Cleanup Day to your Instagram feed, make sure they are public, and tag them with #CCD2012 AND @HealtheBay, as well as including location information through Geo-Tagging and/or hashtagging with your cleanup site’s name (i.e. #DockweilerBeach). At the end of the contest, Heal the Bay will collect all of the photos and decide the winners. You can enter as many photos as you want!

You can submit photos from now until September 29, and the winner will be announced October 1 through Instagram, so start uploading to Instagram! Good luck!

Prizes:

First Prize: Your photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and published in our Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 wrap-up book. You and a guest will also receive a private, behind-the-scenes tour of Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium!
Second Prize (2): Your photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and published in our Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 wrap-up book.
Third Prize (5): Your photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.

For those not familiar with the photo sharing app, Instagram is an app for Smartphones that lets you easily tweak photos from your mobile device to give them an artistic look. If you don’t have it already installed on your phone, download the app for free.

No purchase necessary. No automated entries. Enter as many photos as you like. Photos must be taken at a Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 volunteer site in order to be eligible. By entering the contest, each entrant agrees that his or her submission is an original work of authorship and he or she owns all right, title and interest in the entry as of the date of submission. By entering the contest, entrants agree to assign all right, title, and interest, including copyright rights, in the entry to Heal the Bay and grant permission for Heal the Bay to publish or publicize all or part of their entry, including but not limited to entrant’s name, likeness and photo, in whole or in part, for advertising, promotional and trade or other purposes in conjunction with this and similar promotions in any and all media now known or hereafter developed, worldwide in perpetuity, without notice or permission and without compensation, except where prohibited by law.

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Political End Game: How Enviro Bills Fared

09.13.2012 | Heal the Bay

About Us California Bag Ban Long Beach / Avalon Los Angeles Stormwater Malibu / Pacific Palisades Marina del Rey / Playa del Rey Palos Verdes Peninsula Santa Monica South Bay Venice Beach

The California legislative session ended on August 31, and Governor Brown now faces the task of either signing or vetoing the bills that have landed on his desk. Like other legislative sessions, this one culminated with a flurry of lawmaking. Among the bills that squeaked through during those last few days included important pieces of legislation that will protect and enhance California’s water bodies and coastal resources.

Below we’ve highlighted a couple of environmental bills that Heal the Bay supported that passed, as well as two that did not.

Passed

SB 1066 (Lieu). This bill, currently pending before the Governor, gives the State Coastal Conservancy explicit authority, currently lacking in existing law, to address climate change impacts as part of its broader mission. SB 1066 also requires the Conservancy to give priority to projects that maximize public benefits. Approximately 80 percent of California’s population resides and works within 30 miles of the coast. Thus, the effects of climate change, including extreme weather events and a rise in sea level, could result in major economic, social, and ecological problems in California. The Coastal Conservancy, a non-regulatory agency, was created to protect and enhance coastal resources and urban waterfronts. By signing SB 1066 into law, Governor Brown will give the Coastal Conservancy the tools necessary to protect our coast as the climate changes.

Signed into law

SB 1201 (de León). This bill was sponsored by our colleagues at Friends of the Los Angeles River. Heal the Bay applauds Governor Brown for signing this significant bill into law. SB 1201 provides for public access to navigable waterways, including the L.A. River, for educational and recreational purposes. SB 1201 will help eliminate barriers to public use of the L.A. River and its resources, and should help to pave the way to removal of portions of the concrete channels, restoration of natural vegetation and habitat, and the creation of a series of parks along the riverbanks. Ultimately, Heal the Bay believes that this law will open opportunities for educating the community about the River and its environment, enhancing the River’s beneficial uses, and developing of open spaces in communities surrounding the LA River.

Held in the legislature

Despite successes at the local level and broad support from businesses, cities, environmental groups, unions and the public, statewide bans on plastic single-use carryout bags and polystyrene foam (a.k.a. Styrofoam) food containers did not pass. Although the bills did not pass, supporters made significant progress in educating members of the legislature and the public about the enormous economic and environmental impacts associated with plastic bag and Styrofoam litter.

SB 568 (Lowenthal). This bill was sponsored by our colleagues at Clean Water Action. If passed, SB 568 would have prohibited California food vendors, restaurants and school districts from dispensing prepared food to a customer in Styrofoam food containers after Jan. 1, 2016, (July 1, 2017, for school districts). Among other provisions, the bill would have allowed a school district or local jurisdiction (City or County) with a verifiable recycling program that recycles at least 60% of its foam food ware to continue to dispense food in foam after the ban goes in effect. The Senate passed SB 568, but the bill failed passage in the Assembly. Despite this outcome, there is still progress being made at the local level: After students advocated for change, the Los Angeles Unified School District recently announced it would ban Styrofoam food trays.

AB 298 (Brownley). Heal the Bay was a sponsor of this bill. If passed, AB 298 would have banned plastic single-use carryout bags and required recycled paper carryout bags be sold at supermarkets, retail pharmacies, and convenience stores throughout California. The ban would not have applied to bags that are used to carry bulk items, produce or raw meat to the checkout. While the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality passed the amended bill, AB 298 was ultimately held in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Next Steps

This has been a very busy legislative year for Heal the Bay, but it’s not over quite yet. We will ask the Governor to sign important pending environmental legislation into law, evaluate proposed bills that may have a negative impact on water quality and/or coastal resources, and continue to work with our partners and local governments to address plastic pollution in inland and coastal communities throughout the state. Our next goal is to get the L.A. City bag ban ordinance across the finish line, so stay tuned for more information on how you can help!

Make your voice heard on water quality issues. Take action!

Follow us on Twitter for real-time updates on our advocacy work.

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Join CCD Volunteers at the UMeTime Launch Party

09.12.2012 | Heal the Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day Santa Monica

UMeTime, a new app offering deals from your favorite local businesses, celebrates its launch with a party in conjunction with Coastal Cleanup Day. Complimentary refreshments and snacks will be available for those who participate in this year’s Coastal Cleanup Day and download the UMeTime app.

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Lifeguards Support Coastal Cleanup Day

09.12.2012 | Heal the Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day Santa Monica

Lifeguard Marcus Chapman and Captain Remy Smith will volunteer at this year’s Coastal Cleanup Day on September 15 to help protect ocean users from the effects of pollution.

Chapman will be at the historic African American beach site at Bay Street as a volunteer in Los Angeles County ocean lifeguard beach uniform. Not able this year to volunteer himself due to injury and recent surgery, Captain Smith organized an ocean lifeguard team to accompany Chapman to support the cleanup day event. Christopher Smith (Captain Smith’s son), Brandon Henry Snell and Josh Williams will be the other LAC ocean lifeguards helping out at the historic Bay Street on Cleanup Day this year.

A fifth-generation Santa Monican, Smith became a lifeguard 22 years ago because of his love for the ocean environment. Chapman also provided ocean lifesaving protection for 22 years, serving as an aquatic and water safety educator.

Come out and protect what you love on Coastal Cleanup Day. Find a site near you!

Can’t make Coastal Cleanup Day? Just $20 can help run a cleanup site in your neighborhood. Donate.

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CCD on KTLA Morning News with Gayle Anderson

09.12.2012 | Heal the Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day News Santa Monica

Gayle Anderson broadcast live from Santa Monica this morning with information about the Saturday, September 15 Coastal Cleanup Day, the largest volunteer day on the planet.

Gayle was broadcasting from the historic African American Bay Street Beach in Santa Monica. Known as the “Inkwell,” the city beach site was a popular hangout for African Americans in Los Angeles Countyfrom the 1920s to the early 1960s, long after racial restrictions on public beaches were invalidated in 1927. Santa Monica Conservancy docents will educate volunteers about the history of the site as well as environmental concerns at Bay Street Beach. The first 100 people who volunteer at this site will receive a FREE ticket to the “Jazz for the Environment Concert” at EarthFest L.A. 2012 at 2 p.m. at West L.A. College in Culver City.

Scuba certified participants will get a chance to clear underwater debris at Leo Carillo State Beach, Redondo Beach and the Santa Monica and Malibu piers. Kayakers are welcome to join the Santa Monica Bay Restoration for a kayak cleanup in Marina del Rey, with required registration. Mountain Restorations Trust will co-sponsor a mountain bike site, where cyclists can help haul junk from an area in the Malibu Creek Watershed that’s difficult to reach on foot.

In addition, there will be three Code Red cleanup sites, which are swamped with tons of harmful trash and debris, such as plastic bags. These Code Red sites are Dominguez Channel (Artesia Transit Center and Wilmington Marinas) and Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, as well as Arroyo Seco in Pasadena.

Registration at all cleanup sites begins at 8:30 a.m. Please bring the waiver form with you to the registration table, which is available for download at Cleanup Waiver. Volunteers under the age of 18 must have a waiver signed by parent or guardian. You may also download parking passes at the above link, which you must place on your dashboard during the event. Please wear closed toe shows and comfortable clothes. Refreshments and cleanup tools will be provided.

For a list of all the cleanup sites, please visit Coastal Cleanup Sites.

(Courtesy of KTLA.com)

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Students Collect 100+ lbs of Trash on Education Day

09.11.2012 | Heal the Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day Santa Monica

Nearly 700 elementary school students — many of whom had never visited the ocean before — arrived at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, for a day of environmentally focused games, lessons and activies. Heal the Bay’s eighth annual Coastal Cleanup Education Day allowed students from underserved communities to explore the beach and aquarium, leading up to the Coastal Cleanup Day, the largest volunteer day on the planet, on Saturday, Sept. 15.

The eager students from six schools collected 109 pounds of trash and five cylindrical feet of smelly cigarette butts. They participated in activies ranging from sand crab sifting to a competitve beach cleanup. Heal the Bay provided the free field trip for school groups including bus transportation and a gift bag.

Tara Treiber, Heal the Bay’s Education Director, remembers a little boy with tears of joy who came up to her at lunch. The young man “literally tugged on my skirt and said, ‘Excuse me, Miss, but I just needed to thank you for bringing me to see the beach today.'”

Heal the Bay also unveiled its new teacher resources as part of a partnership with National Geographic Education. The Environmental Literacy Guides cover fresh water, ocean, energy and climate change and are available at no cost to all K-8 classrooms throughout California.

Coastal Cleanup Education Day 2012

The “Great White Sharks” from Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School show off their fins.

Coastal Cleanup Education Day 2012

The fifth graders from Downtown Value School collected more than five cylindrical feet of cigarette butts from Santa Monica Beach.

See more photos from Coastal Cleanup Education Day.

Download the guides from National Geographic.

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Calling All Coastal Cleanup Day Photographers!

09.10.2012 | Heal the Bay

About Us Coastal Cleanup Day Long Beach / Avalon Malibu / Pacific Palisades Marina del Rey / Playa del Rey Palos Verdes Peninsula Santa Monica South Bay Venice Beach

SEND US YOUR BEST SHOTS OF COASTAL CLEANUP DAY 2012 AND YOUR PHOTO COULD BE ON EXHIBIT AT THE AQUARIUM

Take a great photo during Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012, and share it with @HealtheBay on Instagram, and your photograph could be on exhibit at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and featured in the Coastal Cleanup Day wrap-up publication! Images can be of a beach or kayak cleanup, underwater photos from a dive cleanup, pictures of trash, clean beaches, volunteers, or anything from Coastal Cleanup Day 2012!

You can submit photos from now until September 29, and the winner will be announced October 1 through Instagram. Grab your Smartphones and start uploading to Instagram! Good luck!

Prizes:

First Prize: Your photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and published in our Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 wrap-up book. You and a guest will also receive a private, behind-the-scenes tour of Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium!
Second Prize (2): Your photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and published in our Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 wrap-up book.
Third Prize (5): Your photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.

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The Aquarium Welcomes a Wolf-Eel

09.07.2012 | Heal the Bay

Heal the Bay Aquarium Santa Monica

As summer fades away – along with the tourists that season brings – Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium is exhibiting a new local species: the wolf-eel, Anarrhichthys ocellatus. At nearly three-feet long, the juvenile wolf-eel is neither wolf nor eel, but a member of the wolffish family (named for their large front teeth) and will grow to be about seven feet long. The eel-shaped, grayish colored wolf-eel is patterned with gorgeous dark spots and can be found peering out of a rocky outcropping in the Aquarium’s Kelp Forest Exhibit.

The Aquarium typically closes for maintenance for most of September, but this year the facility will remain open throughout the month for regular hours: 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday with the exception of Tuesday, Sept. 11, when the Aquarium will be closed for Coastal Cleanup Education Day. The Aquarium is open during weekends from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m. Plan your visit to see the wolf-eel at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.

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A Dive Like No Other, Thanks to New MPAs

09.06.2012 | Dana Murray

About Us Long Beach / Avalon Malibu / Pacific Palisades Marina del Rey / Playa del Rey Marine Protected Areas Palos Verdes Peninsula Santa Monica South Bay

Thousands of tiny golden fish dart out of the way as I kick through the kelp forest — it’s amazing that they’re already learning to swim from predators at an early age. As I round the edge of a large rocky reef fringing Santa Cruz Island, I am enveloped yet again in a cloud of tiny marine animals and larvae — these ones looking more like itsy-bitsy lobster babies. Up above me, I see dozens of juvenile blue rockfish, only a few inches in length, floating amidst the strands of giant kelp. I’ve never experienced a dive like this before. It must be baby season in the kelp forest, and I’ve dove into their nursery.

Although the sheer amount of baby fish and crustaceans is impressive enough, one of my favorite animals zooms into view. With long whiskers, big black eyes, and a spotted coat, a curious harbor seal begins to play a little peek-a-boo with me in the kelp. Seeing large predators, like harbor seals, is a good indicator of a healthy ecosystem. A large school of mackerel divides and darts away from the deft predator. I’m always excited (and a bit nervous) when I see large schools of fish suddenly change direction, and a dark shadow passes over me. It usually means a predator such as a shark or marine mammal is in pursuit of its prey. I float coolly in the giant kelp forest, watching the harbor seal hunt, weaving its way around and through the school of fish.

What I experienced underwater is in a marine reserve at our local Channel Islands — a marine protected area (MPA) where all marine life can thrive, free from fishing or harvest. The marine reserves at the Channel Islands have been in place for fewer than 10 years, but the ecosystems are already so much healthier! Along the Los Angeles shoreline, we also have brand-new MPAs in Malibu and Palos Verdes, which were established on Jan. 1, 2012. Given a little time, perhaps our local MPAs could flourish like those at the nearby Channel Islands. These areas have been designated along key stretches of coast to help marine life recover and restore our fisheries. Yet, the majority of the Southern California coast is still open to fishing.

To support our local MPAs, USC Sea Grant and Resources Legacy Fund Foundation have generously funded Heal the Bay’s MPA Watch citizen science monitoring program, which allows volunteers to survey human uses within and outside of MPAs in Los Angeles. This summer, Heal the Bay’s interns, volunteers, and staff worked together to analyze and write our first MPA Watch Data Analysis & Results Report. Our 27-page report includes data from 554 surveys in Malibu and Palos Verdes spanning 17 months in 2011 and 2012. We found that the most common coastal uses in the study areas are non-consumptive activities — 99% of the coastal uses surveyed to date are non-consumptive recreational activities. Unfortunately, in both Malibu’s and Palos Verdes’ MPAs, some active consumptive activities are present in 2012, the majority of which is shore-based rod/reel fishing (80+ individuals). Although this is a small percentage of the overall ocean uses in these areas, these findings highlight the importance of education and outreach about the new MPAs to the shore-angling community.

Tracking human uses in these new MPAs is important as the data can be used with ecological surveys to help give a more complete picture of ecosystem health, as well as inform education and enforcement actions. Like the Channel Islands MPAs, I look forward to the marine life and ecosystems in our local coastal MPAs in Malibu and in Palos Verdes will also begin to thrive and to seed areas outside of the MPAs.

–Dana Roeber Murray

Heal the Bay Marine & Coastal Scientist

Want to help survey new Marine Protected Areas? Join MPA Watch.

Contact Dana Murray for more information.

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September at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium

09.05.2012 | Heal the Bay

Heal the Bay Aquarium Santa Monica

As summer fades away – along with the tourists that season brings – just in time to welcome back the local community, Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium is exhibiting a new local species – a juvenile wolf-eel, Anarrhichthys ocellatus. At nearly three-feet long, the wolf-eel is neither wolf nor eel, but a member of the wolffish family (named for their large front teeth) and will grow to be about seven feet long. The eel-shaped, grayish colored wolf-eel is patterned with gorgeous dark spots and can be found peering out of a rocky outcropping in the Aquarium’s Kelp Forest Exhibit.
The Aquarium typically closes for maintenance for most of September, but this year the facility will remain open throughout the month for regular hours: from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday – with the exception of Tuesday, Sept. 11th, when the Aquarium will be closed for Coastal Cleanup Education Day. Weekends, the Aquarium is open from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m. Meet the wolf-eel and visit the more than 100 additional species on exhibit.

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