Thank You Thursday 11-5-15

With a predicted El Niño “too big to fail” heading for Southern California, we proclaimed Oct. 11-17 El Niño Week to help us all understand what causes this meteorological phenomenon, offer tips to prepare, and explore the ways that expected heavy rains can be turned to our advantage. We have a number of folks and establishments to thank for their help and support in making El Niño Week a success.

Thanks to WaterLA’s Melanie Winter who led a conversation at our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium about water and land use in L.A and to RainReserve for demonstrating the myriad devices available for capturing rainwater.

We’re also grateful to Bill Patzert, a scientist at the California Institute of Technology’s NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, for giving an informative and entertaining talk to a packed room at the Aquarium.  Patzert managed to have the crowd in stitches as he explained the science behind an El Niño.

And finally, a huge thank you to the five local establishments that got into the spirit of the week by creating El Niño inspired cocktails and pledging a portion of the proceeds to Heal the Bay from each clever concoction sold throughout El Niño Week. Thanks to these restaurants: The Lobster, Cassia, Hotel Casa del Mar’s Terrazza Lounge, Locanda del Lago, and Rusty’s Surf Ranch.

We love Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos at Heal the Bay, and at our Aquarium we celebrate with a weekend-long Fishy Fest. The annual event is made all the more festive thanks to the City of Santa Monica’s Resource Recovery and Recycling division’s contribution of gently used and brand new costumes. A parade of ghosts and goblins along the Pier is a favorite feature of the weekend, and the trick or treating made all the sweeter by our participating neighbors: Rusty’s Surf Ranch, The Albright, Blazing Saddles, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and Pacific Park.