Conservation 101: the Compete to Conserve Blog

photo credit: colmsurf

The surfing community may be split but the new rule is clear: as of March 1, 2009, tow-in surfing will be allowed during high surf advisory days at Mavericks, California’s most famous big-wave spot, just off the coast of Half Moon Bay.

Finally, a Compromise

The Los Angeles Times reports that surf traditionalists, who prefer to paddle on boards to catch waves, object to the noise, polluting exhaust, and surf-chopping wakes that personal motorized watercraft create. (It’s worth noting that the craft disturb marine wildlife, too.) But a new generation of big wave surfers depend on the crafts to take them to catch enormous waves that surf photographers and spectators love. It’s taken seven years for federal officials, after listening to extensive public comments, to reach a compromise that will satisfy both camps, at least some of the time.

The new rules ban personal motorized watercraft — lifeguards excepted — from three designated and newly expanded marine sanctuaries along California’s northern and central coasts. The vehicles will be allowed high surf advisory days, so that tow in surfers can take advantage of the coast’s highest waves, typically December through March.

No More Chumming and Dumping Untreated Sewage

Additional new rules include a ban on chumming for great white sharks around San Francisco’s Farallon Islands so that tourists in dive cages can get up close to the fish (yikes!), and a ban in protected areas on dumping partially treated sewage water from ocean liners.

Read the plans in full at: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/jointplan/

Image courtesy VBS.tv's excellent 12-part video series.

Out in the beautiful deep blue waters of the Pacific Ocean swirls a giant mass of plastic trash. It’s huge, it’s gross, and it’s growing.

Some Say It’s Twice the Size of Texas

This giant plastic trash continent goes by many names: the Pacific Gyre, the Great Garbage Patch, and Garbage Island. And before the real estate speculator in you gets excited about the possibility of a new oceanfront property, you should know it’s not a single cohesive mass of trash, but rather billions and billions of plastic pieces, big and small, that float out to sea and collect in a large, shifting swirl, thanks to ocean currents.

For an eye-opening visual of this floating trash vortex, see VBS.tv’s excellent (but, parents be warned, foul-mouthed) 12-part video series. Each episode is about seven-minutes long: http://www.vbs.tv/shows.php?show=1154

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Unfortunately, the vast majority of plastics manufactured are not biodegradable. That means this patch of old bottles, toothbrushes, straws, nets, shoelace tips, wrappers, packaging, and more is here to stay. The pieces of plastic do, over time, erode into smaller pieces, which are then ingested by birds and fish, which then are ingested by us. Pause here to think not only how disgusting that is, but how harmful to our health it is to ingest known toxins and carcinogens.

What Can You Do to Stop the Great Garbage Patch?

There’s been some talk about cleaning the mess up, though due to the enormity of the task and small pieces, it may not be feasible. Think how hard it is to fish out a single speck of eggshell from a bowl of cracked eggs and multiply that by trillions.

The best way to help is to stop it from growing. And the best way to stop the Great Garbage Patch from growing is to reduce our consumption of plastics, non-biodegradable plastics, in particular.

I, for one, tuck a small shopping bag in my purse when I go out, just in case I make an impulse buy. For planned shopping trips, I bring my own bags. I carry a stainless steel water bottle with me instead of buying bottled water. I don’t use straws. I refill our hand soap dispensers. I avoid products with lots of wrappers. And, of course, I recycle what plastics can be recycled. It’s not the entire solution, but it’s a start. It’s also, honestly, a lot less convenient. But thinking of the huge floating plastic trash heap keeps me in line.

There are millions of ways to make a difference. I’ve heard of people bring their own food containers for takeout and bringing containers back to their neighborhood health food store for refills. If you have more ideas, please post a comment and share them here.

More resources:

Join the Stop the Great Garbage Patch cause on Facebook:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/57731?recruiter_id=10314532

“Giant Plastic Soup Floats Out to Sea,” on frogblog:
http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/02/11/giant-plastic-soup-floats-out-to-sea/

“Is There a Solution to the Continent of Plastic that Pollutes the Pacific?” on Fat Knowledge:
http://fatknowledge.blogspot.com/2008/06/is-there-solution-to-continent-of.html

“Continent-Size Toxic Plastic Stew of Plastic Trash Fouling the Pacific Ocean,” San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/18/SS6JS8RH0.DTL

photo credit: naama

Two years ago last month Israel and Hezbollah went to war.  To some in the outside world, and many Israelis, the 33-day battle was seen as an Israeli defeat.  Just last month Israel agreed to exchange Hezbollah and Palestinian prisoners (considered by Israel to be terrorists) for the bodies of the two Israeli soldiers whose capture in 2006 sparked the original crisis.  Immediately following the exchange, Hezbollah celebrated in the streets of Beirut showing off its power.

Seen by some in the outside world as the end of a once-legendary reputation for avenging the deaths of Israelis killed by terrorists, this most recent trade has drawn considerable criticism to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (six months before the 2006 war, Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke, and his authority was immediately transferred to Olmert, then Israel’s Vice Primier and Sharon’s protégé).  Still, some see Hezbollah victorious on the propaganda front but not the Israel/Lebanon border.

For the past two years the Israeli Knesset has investigated the handling of the war against Hezbollah, including the establishment of a special commission.  Recently announcing his resignation in September, Olmert never really recovered politically from the war with Hezbollah.  And while the future of Israel’s military dominance in the Middle East may face additional challenges from Hezbollah and more recently Iran, the overall political turmoil in the region has eclipsed some very important and seemingly unnoticed significant Israeli advances on a non-military front, namely the environment. (more…)