The area along the San Gabriel River, which borders Seal Beach and Long Beach, can be especially littered after it rains. The mouth of the river funnels runoff from 52 inland cities straight into the ocean, with trash and debris flowing down storm drains.
At a time when our 24 hour news cycle broadcasts little joy, the enthusiasm of the volunteers who came to do nothing but pick up other people’s trash and garbage, shed a certain kind of light to blot out all the negative headlines of the day. At our locale, most volunteers were locals— some partnered with a friend or family, and some represented local groups. Visitors from Livermore and San Jose, (both cities about 200 miles north of San Simeon) also joined in the effort to keep our wastes from slipping into the Pacific Ocean.
And our planet’s modifier is in trouble. It’s a Neptune 911 crisis. What can we do to combat our ocean’s struggle with marine debris, hypoxia and acidification? The answers are found in university labs, recognized in world organizations, and ignored by feckless politicians and leaders.
… as climate change alters the chemistry of the world’s oceans, scientists and fishermen are just beginning to understand how this economically, culturally, and ecologically important species will be impacted.
The NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to announce our “Community-based Marine Debris Removal” federal funding opportunity. This opportunity provides funding to support locally-driven, marine debris assessment and removal projects that will benefit coastal habitat, waterways, and NOAA trust… Read More ›
In many ways, these storms are a foreshadowing of the challenges we face as a result of rising seas.
The Barefoot Wine Beach Rescue Project is gearing up for its 9th year of costal preservation across the nation. Each year, Barefoot Wine and the Surfrider Foundation join forces to clean and restore America’s beaches, lakes and rivers in an… Read More ›
“Every beach surveyed we found beach litter on. Northumbria University sampled a random litre of sand and found over ten thousand microscopic plastic particles present. Litter is being found consistently in sea bed surveys – all the way out as far out as the continental shelf – over a million seabirds and a hundred thousand sea mammals will die every year from ingestion and entanglement. We need to reduce the amount of marine litter by 50%.”
On Wednesday, hundreds of miles of shoreline were designated as critical habitat to protect endangered loggerhead sea turtles. BY MONICA DISARE MDISARE@MIAMIHERALD.COM The federal government extended substantial protection to loggerhead sea turtles on Wednesday, designating hundreds of miles of… Read More ›
Editor’s Note: The focus of Neptune 911 is about our oceans’ cry for help. While the following story is a pitch to raise funds by a group of researchers, it is also a response to that cry for help. The… Read More ›
Neptune 911! 