Paddle Out Plastic

The results of our recent haul: 994 pieces of mostly plastic and mostly single use, all removed from the water. We're taking the weekend for some R&R and thinking of all the dads out there. Enjoy the day!

We found something other than litter on this morning's paddle! Laura plucked this baby ( killdeer or semipalmated plover) out of the water in LA Harbor this morning, put it in a littered dish and took it to International Bird Rescue - L.A. Wildlife Center where they put it in an incubator. 🤞🏽🤞🏽We found other wildlife and just a bit of litter--238 pieces. Fabulous day on the water with Elizabeth, Jessie, Abigail, Laura, Jeff, Ken and Eva.
Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles

The before and after photos in one spot near the Cabrillo Marina jetty, the lady paddlers, and the collection after counting and sorting (1,030 pieces, half of which was food wrappers and soft plastic film fragments).

It's difficult to convey how much fishing line we retrieved from the water in LA Harbor today. And this was without going under the fishing pier where we consistently find line caught up in the pier infrastructure and often with dead, dangling birds attached. We found it in a few other places, including near the Cabrillo Marina Jetty. Jessie first spotted that one and began pulling it out from the rocks, only to find that it kept going and going. Eva began pulling from the water, then Ken joined in and pulled up two fishing rods with reels full of fishing line.
At the fishing pier, we were turned away. We always give fishers a wide berth, explaining to them what we are doing and making every effort to avoid their lines. Ordinarily the fishers there express appreciation that we're pulling out trash and lost line that traps unintended wildlife. On this day a fisher told us to get away, actually tossed his line at us and told us we were scaring away the fish. There was no convincing him that we wouldn't interfere with his fishing if we could just get under the pier to do what we came there for. We turned away.
The sea lion seen on Buoy 11 yesterday with fishing line wound tightly around its neck was there still today.

Look what I found in LA Harbor. I paddled out this morning to check on a possible sea lion entanglement, not intending to clean up since we'll be going out on a group paddle tomorrow morning here, but I couldn't pass up a couple of big pieces of foam that seem to be from a boogie board, because the longer they are in the water, the more microplastics break off to pollute the water forever.
I did find the sea lion with fishing line wound tightly around its neck and sent in a report. Hopefully Marine Mammal Care Center Rescue team will be able to help. A sad reminder of the harm that lost fishing line and other plastic pollution can do.

Reminder to sign up at our website to receive email notification of group paddles. Email notification already went out for a paddle this Sunday but it's not too late to get in on it. ⏰
www.paddleoutplastic.org

You'll find Paddle Out Plastic among the list of participants in the Report available via the link below, and you'll also find that we contributed photos to the Report from our work in LA Harbor, Alamitos Bay and Los Cerritos Channel at pages 13, 24, 49, 56, 58 and 73. And, some of our volunteers may be interested to see photos of themselves on the water at pages 13 and 24.

The link is to the Accomplishments Report of the California Ocean Litter Prevention Strategy, which was published by the Ocean Protection Council, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program, California Sea Grant, and the University of Southern California Sea Grant. The Strategy set up a number of goals to address ocean litter and plastic pollution and working groups met regularly to discuss progress implementing specific tasks toward achieving those goals. The Report reflects the work done by participants over the 2018-2025 time period. You might find it interesting. At the very least, the Report shows the enormous amount of attention and efforts being put toward the problem of plastic pollution by non-profit environmental groups as well as government agencies and even some innovative enterprises.

While it may seem sometimes that we're spinning our wheels, or more aptly paddling upstream against a strong current, and not making progress toward reducing the sources of this enormous pollution problem, Appendices A and B list legislation passed at local and state levels that hopefully will bear results over time.

opc.ca.gov

For Biodiversity Day, we want to show just some of the many species we’ve seen while paddling, as a reminder of the wide diversity of wildlife potentially impacted by the prevalence of plastic pollution and other marine debris we work to remove. See more of this biodiversity on our website at paddleoutplastic.org under the heading IMPACT.
Photos include