Our Daily Ocean: Day 41

My husband posing ;)

After spending the past week, either taking care of my feverish children or sleeping off my own fever... it was nice to finally make it back to Wrightsville Beach... especially on such a beautiful day.

Before heading out to the beach strand, we stopped by to see how the Bait Tank looks at Wrightsville Beach.... it's been installed for a little over a week now... and I'm happy to say that it's being put to good use!!!!  If you'd like more information on The Bait Tanks, be sure to visit the website and contact Mark: www.thebaittank.com  Also, be sure to check out  my Brita FilterForGood Film "It Starts With Me" here to learn more :)

So... back to the beach.  Just like last week... Bonnie joined us for a 20 minute clean up.  This time, she brought her dog and her friend, Butch.  The four of us picked up litter and chatted while my kids played in the sand.  Today was the third time that Bonnie has helped do a 20 minute clean up... since she's been out to the ocean gyres-- North & South Atlantic and North Pacific-- she always offers great insight and inspiration to keep on doing beach clean ups.

"Beach clean ups are gyre clean ups."

...and if us picking up litter is keeping it from the ocean... then so is every other person that takes the time to pick up a piece of litter.  Early last week, a friend sent me a link to a blog out of Ohio:  Artist at Exit O Riverblog.  (Check out the link to see the collections of litter the artist has compiled from the Ohio River.) Think someone landlocked in Ohio can't impact the ocean?  Think about this... the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River which flows into the Gulf of Mexico.  All drains lead to the ocean.

Just this morning, I watched the documentary "Picking Up America."  The 16 minute documentary shows just how a small group of people decided to make a difference by walking the US picking up litter.... over 700 miles covered... and a staggering 73,000 lbs of litter removed!!!



We get mad... sign petitions... write letters... and sometimes feel helpless about oil spills and other environmental disasters that we don't have immediate control over... but one of the greatest environmental disasters is how we're trashing our world....and WE have complete control.  There's no blaming this problem on anyone else... this is OUR problem and only WE can fix it.

Disposable products don't fit in an indisposable world.  It's that statement... that realization in my life that keeps me conscious to my efforts to reduce disposable convenience.

20 minutes on February 6, 2011

Litter by weight: 8.1 oz
89 cigarette butts

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 41 days:

14,124