A recent entry highlighted the growing impact that our garbage is having on the world’s oceans. Not everyone lives by the ocean, or for that matter by an inland water way. 
Most of us do our best at some point to visit a body of water for whatever reason. On a recent visit to the west coast, I got a nice close up and personal view of this growing problem. The garbage isn’t just in the water. Our beaches are pretty trashed too. Not just from the copious amounts of cigarette butts in the sand, but from people that feel the beaches can be an open excuse to just dump our garbage there. Garbage in the water has an impact on marine life. It can get into their stomachs; it can wrap around their necks and suffocate or starve them to death. The only positive at least on the west coast is that California, Oregon, and Washington have marine mammal distress stations along their coastlines. These distress stations can assist a marine animal when it beaches itself on the beach, and if the public notifies a station that an animal is in distress. The stations grapple with removing plastic can holders from marine animal necks, or even the removal of fishnets that wrap around an animal. Marine animals that have internal issues are also assisted. Once a marine animal is rehabilitated they are then released back into the wild. These marine stations do not go looking for marine animals in distress, but wait for the public to inform them that there is one on a beach that looks like it’s in trouble.
Our coastlines are vast, and in many places totally devoid of humans, making it easy for a group of beach revelers to party and leave their waste. That waste can find its way into our oceans when the tide comes in. Be smart about this. Leave no trace when you visit beaches or parks. And if you see someone dumping, contact the local authorities. It just takes one of us to do the right thing.
Photos: Sea Lion in Distress: Panther Beach, CA Photos By: John Vlahakis
Recent Comments