Team Marine Research!

On Sunday December 20, 2009 Santa Monica High School’s Team Marine visited the Venice Storm Drain at the end of Rose Avenue and the Pico-Kenter Storm Drain at Pico Blvd. to investigate the incidence of plastic pollution in the debris zone around stagnant pools of storm drain water. In a twenty-five minute beach cleanup at the Venice storm drain, three Team Marine members collected 12.5 pounds of plastic trash consisting of 128 colored wrappers, 127 Styrofoam pieces, 101 clear wrappers, 68 bottle caps, 35 straws, 23 misc. hard plastic pieces, 14 food containers and lids, 9 grocery store bags, 5 water bottles, and 2 utensils.
A more detailed study was performed at the Pico-Kenter site. Using 50 meter measuring tapes, 1081 plastic bottle caps, 240 straws, and 30 utensils were collected from a 643.25 m2 debris zone around the storm drain pool (Figures 1 and 2). These total abundances amounted to an average of 1.68 bottle caps, 0.37 straws, and 0.05 utensils per m2. For Pico-Kenter, Team Marine also sorted a random selection of plastic pollutants into categories to help identify exactly what is coming out of the storm drains and will be entering the ocean upon the next flush (Table 1).

Check out what our partner and friend Sara Bayles is doing to raise awareness about marine debris!
http://www.thedailyocean.blogspot.com/

Hearing on Reducing Marine Debris

On Tuesday November 17th Team Marine attended The Joint Assembly Committee Hearing on Reducing Marine Debris at The Santa Monica Public Library. Pictured above is the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials and the Assembly Committee on Natural Resource. Team Marine knows that in order for substantial changes to occur we need to get the government to act on behalf of the environment.



At the hearing Team Marine stepped up and spoke on behalf of the youth who care deeply about the ocean. Eileen Flores (pictured above) showed the committee a sample of the North Pacific Gyre taken by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. She explained to the committee just how truly much our ocean is suffering and that taking legislative action now is vital.



Team Marine made a slide show that illustrated the problems of marine debris and the solutions to this crisis. Pictured above is Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro who is watching the slide show. Team Marine is on a mission to change the way we treat our oceans and they will never stop spreading their message.