Our Daily Ocean: Day 235

On Sunday, as I drove to Wrightsville Beach to do a quick cleanup before taking my son to his hip hop class, I thought I knew what I was getting into.  Well,  I was wrong.  While getting onto the island was a breeze, there was loads of outbound traffic and the beach was still packed (ok, packed for February)!!  Apparently, I forgot that it was UNCW homecoming weekend.

I haven't seen major crowds at the beach in such a long time that the sight was a bit overwhelming at first.  Where to walk?  Which way to go?  Does that belong to someone or was it left behind?  There are so many more variables to contend with when people have their chairs, toys and blankets laid out.  Not to mention the larger groups playing various beach games (like volleyball and bocce ball).  It's a lot to weave through while searching the sand for what doesn't belong.

It's hard not to start thinking about summer and what the litter problem will be like with the increased number of visitors to our beach.  I wish there was a way to reach those people before they arrive.  A way to connect our love for the beach and ocean to an understanding and commitment to care for it... even in the midst of getting lost in what it means to be at the beach.

20 minutes on February 23, 2014 at Access 17
Litter by weight: 2 lbs 1.8 oz
Cigarette butts: 16

Total cigarette butts removed: 57,712

Plastic-Free Presentations in Greensboro & Wilmington, NC

For the past several years, I have been striving to reduce the amount of plastic that my family uses, recycles and throws away.  It's something that I was motivated to do after reading the article "Our Oceans are Turning Into Plastic... Are We?".  And then once I began doing consistent beach clean ups and documenting the (mostly plastic) litter I found on my local beach, my commitment to eliminating plastics strengthened even more.  I've been sharing bits of what I do to reduce our plastic usage and this week, I will be sharing my story and personal tips to using less plastic at two different presentations-- Greensboro & Wilmington, NC-- with author Beth Terry and plastic researcher Bonnie Monteleone!

About the presentations:

Author Beth Terry will share her journey from self-confessed plastic addict to empowered plastic-free activist and explain why we can't just recycle our way out of this mess.  She'll be joined by Wilmington mom Danielle Richardet, whose own quest to live a more plastic-free life led her to become involved in a successful campaign to keep cigarette butts off her local beach.  Danielle will tell her story and share tips on ways to get kids involved in reducing plastic use.  Special guest Bonnie Monteleone will briefly share her findings and experiences from traveling nearly 10,000 nm collecting over 200 ocean surface samples looking for plastics in four oceans.  With scientists and activists, her research looks at plastics floating in some of the most remote regions in the world and why it matters.  Beth Terry's book, Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too will be available for purchase and signing at the end of the event.

Ready to learn what one person can do to be part of the solution?  Join us!

March 9: Greensboro, NC at Kathleen Clay Library from 10am - noon 

March 11: Wilmington, NC at UNCW Lumina Theater from 7-9pm

Also, the opening reception for Bonnie's art exhibit What Goes Around, Comes Around is on March 8 from 7-8 at Guilford College in Greensboro.  I saw Bonnie's exhibit back in 2011, and was completely in awe of what she created.  Read more here.

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Step forward... lean...step back... tilt... repeat...there's an art to the whole process of admiring and understanding art.  Meant to stir something in us... we all connect to masterpieces of art differently... and for different reasons.  Recently, my family and I went to see my friend Bonnie's art exhibit at UNCW... and just like all the great works of art that I am drawn to... I could spend hours admiring the brilliance of simplicities and complexities found in what Bonnie has created...

Using plastic she's collected, Bonnie morphed the 19th century painting "Great Wave of Kanagowa" into 5 distinctly different waves that represent the 5 ocean gyres.... it's beautiful and disturbing all at the same time.  Bonnie often talks to me about the time Charlie Moore told her that if we don't get this problem [of plastic pollution] under control... that we would eventually be swimming in it.  As the majority of litter we pick up on Wrightsville Beach is plastic, I understand it and can see how it is a possibility for our future.  BUT... during a research trip to Bermuda, Bonnie saw what most of us don't even want to imagine.... she watched plastic wash in as children swam in the ocean.

....in some places, eventually is happening right now.

In an attempt to share Bonnie's art exhibit with people that can't make it to Wilmington, I took a short video.  BUT... I offer you this thought.  What if Bonnie could bring her exhibit to where you live??  I, personally, think that "What Goes Around, Comes Around" needs to travel... everyone needs to see it in person.... what do you think??

"The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life." 

 ~William Faulkner

P.S.  You can contact Bonnie here :)