Life's No Beach for Littered Shores

Published: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 5:28 PM PDT

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I want to thank the reader that posted the link to the Los Angeles Times flash presentation "Altered Oceans." It's amazing to read some of the facts they have about ocean pollution:

--90 percent of worldwide stocks of big fish have disappeared

--Over the past seven years, 650 gray whales have washed up dead on beaches

And the one that really caught my eye: "On Midway Atoll, forty percent of albatross chicks die, their bellies full of trash." Animals are actually overwhelmed and dying because of all the trash out at sea. If you want to learn about other sources of ocean pollution, check out the Surf eCo blog.

It's amazing the impact humans can have on the ocean without knowing what they are doing.

In response to littering laws, I was wrong, there are some weak littering laws along with many other laws for beaches. In a long list of rules and regulations for the beaches, the only two littering laws that I could find were the following two:

All helium, blow up, metallic/mylar, water balloons and balloon arches are NOT allowed in the beach and park areas

You are responsible to clean up after yourself. Please put your trash in the trash cans and/or the dumpsters within the park and beach area. Please do NOT litter.

Unfortunately these rules are not regulated. You will see police patrolling the beach to issue citations to people for loud noise, alcohol, dogs, and smoking. But I don't think I've ever seen a law enforcement officer write a ticket for littering n it's just frowned upon. I do agree that giving lifeguards the ability to ticket for littering would be a great idea, but I can see where this can distract them from doing their jobs.

Well, it looks like it's up to us. Spread the word. Pick up three pieces of trash every time you go to the beach and get someone else to join you. Even if you don't immediately notice the effect, it will make a huge difference for our future.

--TORREY TRUST

2 Comments so far on this story...

Check out L.A. Time's special five part series Altered Oceans. link It is very sad! Each of us need to do our part, starting with not using plastic bags at the grocery store.

Posted by Judy | reply to this comment
July 23, 2008 6:15 am

I thought that littering on the beach was already against the law, but if not, the beach should be included in existing littering regulations. Also, the City should empower lifeguards to write tickets for littering on the beach. I know we want lifeguards to focus on safety, but there are not enough police to focus on littering and the lifeguards are already there. Birds do pull trash out of cans to get food trash, so maybe simple wooden lids would help.

Posted by Doug | reply to this comment
July 23, 2008 9:32 am

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