lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
trash collected for 20 min.
5.4 pounds
909.3 pounds total
Saturday night was about stooping over, and picking styrofoam pits out of the water line.
Between bits of near weightless chunks, I remembered to check out the sunset. When I did, I had the pleasure of watching a Grebe dive below for a snack.
I actually found myself wishing for larger, more solid items to scavenge off the sand as I walked along. What an odd thought. The second time I remembered to look around, I saw a sea lion poke up from the water about thirty feet front me.
It's raining black plastic bags. Not really, but I have found at least one black plastic single use bag on my last three cleanups. So how many are actually floating around in Santa Monica Bay? I go out for a beach cleanup every three days, on average, to the same tiny stretch of sand. For a week or more now, I've taken at least one of these beauties off the sand when I go. There's a word problem in here for a Statistics class just begging to be written by a more math savvy person than I.
I saw a Grebe, and a Sea Lion on Saturday night, and a pod of Dolphins today when I entered the surf this morning, all reminding me that I'm really out here for them. The Daily Ocean is written to communicate with people, but it's a labor of love for the animals. If I keep this fact in mind, I'll have plenty of energy to finish my last 100 or so cleanups.
The dolphins don't own anything but they sure seem happy. The turtles swim for thousands of miles but they never seem to be in a hurry. We have so much to learn from wildlife. Each person's single effort at clean up is a tribute to that person regardless of the magnitude of the trial at hand. An individual litter picker won't own the solution nor clear every part of the landscape, yet doing what fills your heart with joy at your own pace can be a satisfying place to be.
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