Tag Archive for ocean

You Otter Try It

February 22, 2020 Comments Off on You Otter Try It

The ocean is beautiful! We go once in awhile for a short 45-minute trip there for lunch on the wharf and discussions with the wildlife–birds, sea critters, and people. Recently I was captivated by a young sea otter who relaxed on the pier’s supports while Mom brought him lunch, then snoozed between attempts at exercising his vocal cords. My friend Christine Murphy, who was more than handy with a camera, took the picture below. No matter how tired or stressed I am, it’s amazing how little episodes in nature like this can refresh me, pulling me out of myself and back into this wonderful world I’m such a small part of.

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Wrap it Up!

September 7, 2018 Comments Off on Wrap it Up!

I don’t mean this as an ad. I don’t do ads here. But I just discovered something that is practical, reusable (just wash them), biodegradable, and organic–the total package!

We all know about the growing plastic garbage patch in our oceans and about wildlife dying after eating or getting tangled in plastic. What’s probably one of your biggest uses of plastic, especially if you have kids? Plastic wrap and containers.

Check out the Etee Food Wraps. Perfect for lunch box items, preserving cut vegetables, storing things like banana bread, covering bowls in the fridge…all sorts of things. The odd (and nice) part is that the more you buy the less expensive they are–a Family pack (16) is $4 cheaper than a Starter Pack (3), and shipping is free.

Again, I’m sorry if this comes across as an ad. I get excited about products that are good for me and for the environment.

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Our Beautiful, Endangered Oceans

June 9, 2018 Comments Off on Our Beautiful, Endangered Oceans

Yesterday was World Oceans Day, calling attention to our oceans and how to appreciate and take care of them and inviting us to do so all year long.  This year the emphasis is on all the plastic accumulating in those  magnificent bodies of water. So I offer you this small reflection:

40,000 garbage trucks filled with plastic = 270,000 tons of it floating around our oceans. That’s what the current estimate is. And that’s a conservative guess, since fish, birds, and other species eat a good amount of it. It’s unsightly and deadly for the critters who eat it or get hopelessly entangled in it.  It’s not healthy for humans, either.

This is something to think about next time we’re about to toss a plastic bottle cap, bag, food wrapper, or other item onto the roadway or gutter, where it can wash into the waterways leading to the ocean.  Or tossing those items off of a boat or bridge.

The item can’t be that heavy to hold onto until you see the next recycling container.

 

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6-Pack rings: Don’t Toss ‘Em–Eat ‘Em!

June 10, 2017 Comments Off on 6-Pack rings: Don’t Toss ‘Em–Eat ‘Em!

When we toss out those plastic rings that hold 6-packs together we’re helping kill a million fish, turtles, birds, and small mammals a year.  Most of those holders end up in the ocean, where the creatures get tangled in them.  Conscientious people cut them apart so that doesn’t happen.  But the wildlife eat the pieces.

A small beer company in Florida, Saltwater Brewery, has a solution.  They’ve come up with a biodegradable 6-pack holder that doesn’t harm creatures that eat them (although you don’t really want to eat them, despite how much beer you wash them down with).

Urge all beverage companies to start using them.  To begin, sign the petition to Coca-Cola. And when the new holders finally come out, demand that all companies use them.

 

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Our Ocean: Caring for a Friend

June 6, 2015 Comments Off on Our Ocean: Caring for a Friend

Our ocean.  It gives us beauty, fun, food, jobs, medicine, air, weather patterns, a place to think. In return, we give it pollution, beach erosion, and death to its inhabitants.  But with our normal daily activities we can reverse this destructive human trend:

1) Lessen pollution by conserving water and guarding against oil and antifreeze running into the ocean. (The ocean gets more oil from car leaks than from large tanker spills.)

2) Avoid litter–cigarette butts tossed onto the street end up in the ocean, killing sea-life.

3) Ask questions before buying seafood. Was it farmed, thus depending on wild fish as its food source?  Where was it farmed—inland, meaning that waste didn’t flow into the ocean?  If wild, was it caught in such a way that didn’t also catch turtles, dolphins, and other life that was simply discarded?   (For help, print a pocket guide from http://www.seafoodwatch.org/-/m/sfw/pdf/guides/mba-seafoodwatch-west-coast-guide.pdf?la=en.)

It’s not too late—yet—to start taking better care of our wonderful, watery friend.

 

 

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Plastic Poison

December 13, 2014 Comments Off on Plastic Poison

40,000 garbage trucks filled with plastic = 270,000 tons of it floating around our oceans.  That’s what the current estimate is. And that’s a conservative guess, since fish, birds, and other species eat a good amount of it.  It’s unsightly and deadly for the critters who eat it or get hopelessly entangled in it.  It’s not healthy for humans, either.

This is something to think about next time we’re about to toss a plastic bottle cap, bag, food wrapper, or other item onto the roadway or gutter, where it can wash into the waterways leading to the ocean.  Or tossing those items off of a boat or bridge.

The item can’t be that heavy to hold onto until you see the next recycling container.

 

 

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