Our Daily Ocean: Day 26

You ever read something it it completely strikes a chord with you??  I've been updating The Plastic Ocean Project blog and have been staying current with the happenings of the Sea Dragon crew in the South Atlantic Ocean.  I can't stop thinking about the other day when I was reading 5 gyres blog and my heart felt heavy and my eyes filled with tears:

"Slowly but surely, we're showing the world that it's crazy to think you can clean this up, that gyre cleanup starts on land...

And here's the pill I swallow every day when I wake up, go on deck and look at ocean - plastic particles, just below the surface, cover 75% of the surface of the earth. Yes, they're dispersed, but we're 1700 miles from land and everywhere we look, we find it. Everytime. Without exception. And the good companies we buy it from sponsor conferences and say that's okay. Well, it's not okay. It's not okay that convenience can break the entire ocean."  

Read the entire blog post here. 

So I read it AND then I felt empowered.  Yes!  What we're doing *IS* making a difference.  There is no way to just clean up the mess in the ocean, BUT we can clean up the land and teach others to be conscious of the problem of litter and plastics in our environment.  We can come together as a family, a neighborhood, a community, a city, a state, a country...  a WORLD... and WE can begin to clean up the idea that there is an "away" because now we know... there is no such thing as "away."

We can begin to sacrifice "personal freedoms" for the betterment of our world.  

Sacrifice what we consider "rights" for something more important:  the right to clean air and water. (Everything and everyone IS connected.)

One cigarette butt in each jar containing 2 cups of water.  This photo was taken about 10 minutes after I added tap water to the butts. 

Yesterday, we went to Access 26 and my husband was visiting my friend Sara in Santa Monica.  Together they did a 20 minute clean up for Sara's The Daily Ocean blog.  So when I saw my kids jump into this hole... 

I was immediately taken back to when we did our first 20 minute clean up with Sara in Santa Monica...

Photo taken on July 16, 2010 in Santa Monica, CA

Speaking of Sara.. she was recently recognized in the Yahoo! 2010 Year in Review as an  "Inspiring Act."  YAY!!!  Sara as an "inspiration" is no surprise to me... the girl has started a beach clean-up revolution... and I'm absolutely thrilled to be a major part of that.  I'm also completely grateful to have been included in the article under "the ripple"... because most certainly that's what I'm all about ;) 

Sara is also taking the beach clean ups that she does a step further as she joins the Sea Dragon crew in the spring to sail across the South Pacific with 5 Gyres.  Can YOU "Spare $5 to send Sara on 5 Gyres"??   

20 minutes on December 3, 2010

Litter by weight: 5.7 oz

198 cigarette butts

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 26 days:

10,640