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Suds for surf
By PEGGY TOWNSEND
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER
Oct. 12, 2007
SANTA CRUZ - Beer drinking might not seem to have much of
a connection with saving the ocean, but in Santa Cruz, it
does.
Thanks to Couch Distributing Company's annual "Save
Our Surf" campaign, some $10,000 collected from beer
sales in the county was donated to support environmental activities
by the Surfrider Foundation.
Founded by Geoff Couch, vice president of sales and marketing
for the company, the fundraiser donates a nickel for every
case of Budweiser and Bud Light sold in the county during
the summer.
This year, the $10,000 check was presented by Couch Vice
President Louie Pieracci to Dustin Macdonald of the local
Surfrider Foundation and Kelly Kaay, public relations program
leader, in front of the surfer statue on West Cliff Drive.
"Our company believes very strongly in giving back to
the community and this is one of our favorite programs,"
Geoff said. In 12 years, Save Our Surf has raised more than
$120,000 for the Surfrider Foundation. The money has been
used to rent office space, set up a Web site, and buy ocean
monitoring equipment.
Paper or plastic?: Santa Cruz residents may
no longer have a choice
By ROGER SIDEMAN
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER
SANTA CRUZ — Taking a cue from their neighbors to the north,
city leaders are considering banning the use of non-biodegradable
plastic bags by supermarkets, drug stores and other large
retailers as early as this summer.
Santa Cruz's ordinance would be modeled after one passed
last month in San Francisco, which became the first major
city in the country to ban the petroleum-based sacks blamed
for littering streets and choking marine life.
The Public Works Department, which is studying the idea,
said a local ordinance has yet to be drafted but would resemble
the legislation in San Francisco, where large markets and
pharmacies will have the option of using biodegradable bags
made of corn starch or bags made of recyclable paper.
The bag ban is one in a string of environmental measures
currently under consideration by Santa Cruz staff. Other ideas
include outlawing polystyrene food containers and creating
a food scrap program that would allow residents to compost
the new bags.
"There's a real interest in the City Council to becoming
as sustainable as possible," said Mary Arman, operations manager
for Public Works. Mayor Emily Reilly, who supports the idea
a bag ban, said she has received many e-mails and phone calls
from local residents who were excited by the ban in San Francisco,
approved March 27, and want to see it extended to Santa Cruz.
At this point, "we need to include the community in the
conversation and know that there won't be any unintended consequences
before we forge ahead," Reilly said.
Reilly, who owns a bakery where plastic bags are used to
package bread and day-old pastries, said, "I'd like to say
without hesitation that I would [stop offering plastic bags],
but I would need to do some of my own research"
It's unknown how many retailers would be affected by a city
ban.
The California Grocers Association has warned that in San
Francisco the new law will lead to higher prices for shoppers.
An association representative could not be reached to comment
Tuesday.
Arman said before Santa Cruz drafts its own ordinance, city
officials are seeking buy-in from other municipalities. A
regional approach, Arman said, would make a ban more feasible,
since it would be impractical to force chain stores like Safeway
or Longs Drugs to supply different bags for only a handful
of stores. The city will be initiating discussions later this
month with Scotts Valley, Capitola, Watsonville and the county,
she said.
Nancy Lockwood, an analyst with the city of Watsonville,
said the city would need to take a close look at the ban before
it commits. One consideration, Lockwood said, is that the
city recently launched a plastic bag recycling program that
is helping create a market around collecting used grocery
bags and other film plastic. Genaro Gordo, the city's processing
center coordinator, said Watsonville is selling recycled bags
to a San Jose processor and, at about 16 cents a pound, the
price for plastic has surpassed cardboard.
"Plastic is a hot commodity right now," Gordo said.
In San Francisco, 50 grocery stores argued against the ban
because plastic bags made of corn byproducts are a relatively
new, expensive and untested product. Some said they might
offer only paper bags at checkout.
Craig Noble, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense
Council, said it would be disappointing if grocers rejected
the biodegradable plastic bag option since more trees would
have to be cut down if paper bag use increases.
The new breed of bags "offers consumers a way out of a false
choice, a way out of the paper-or-plastic dilemma," Noble
said.
The switch is scheduled to take effect in San Francisco
in six months for grocery stores and in a year for pharmacies.
In Santa Cruz, the City Council would have to approve any
ordinance proposed by staff.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Roger Sideman at rsideman@santacruzsentinel.com
Paper or plastic?
Flip a coin.
The quantifiable difference between paper and plastic bags
is minimal, says Umbra Fisk, a columnist for the environmental
news Web site Grist.org.
The trouble with comparing the environmental impact of different
products is the lack of a universally accepted evaluative
framework, she says.
On one hand, it is generally understood that plastic bag
production generates less water pollution, less air pollution
and less solid waste, Fisk says. They can be recycled [but
are mostly discarded]. And manufacturing and recycling them
requires less energy than their paper cousins, according to
the Environmental Protection Agency.
But Fisk says, in terms of energy consumption, paper and
plastic may be equal if you calculate two plastic bags for
each paper bag, because store clerks frequently double-bag
when using plastic.
On the other hand, paper bags trump plastic in the renewable
resource realm, being made from trees rather than oil or gas,
she says. Also, paper bags are biodegradable and far less
likely to disturb natural ecosystems in the manner of plastic
bags, which blow into trees and waterways, where they are
blamed for killing marine life.
The answer to the dilemma, Fisk says, is to flip a coin.
Of course, getting rid of non-biodegradable plastic bags
and using recycled bags is a step in the right direction,
environmentally speaking. And yet another alternative is to
sell consumers reusable bags, which some local grocery stores
already do.
Ocean trash everyone's problem
By Jarod Keller
A few summers ago, I remember sitting on the sand at Main
Beach in Santa Cruz, baking in the hot afternoon sun between
volleyball matches. While digesting one of my favorite burritos
from La Hacienda, I noticed a sign posted out in front of
the water. It was warning people to stay out of the ocean
because of a recent sewage spill. All the while, a flock of
sea gulls had begun to congregate around a nearby volleyball
court, seeking to devour anything and everything within sight.
One even managed to make off with a Gatorade bottle lid, a
shiny, orange piece of plastic.
I remember that day vividly because it embodies everything
wrong with how we treat our coastline.
While California's coastline may be a major attraction for
tourists and beachgoers alike, it's also a fragile ecosystem
that is host to numerous species of marine mammals, sea birds
and turtles. Ironically, we unconsciously pump this gorgeous
setting full of our sewage waste and excess garbage without
much thought, and then we swim in it along with all the other
creatures that have made these coasts and beaches their home.
It seems that as soon as the trash leaves our hands, we relinquish
all responsibility for its disposal, but where does all of
the beach litter go?
Many people have never heard about the North Pacific Gyre,
a region of the Pacific Ocean that has become known as the
"eastern garbage patch" and is "roughly the size of Texas"
Pacific Ocean currents form a circular pattern that serves
to accumulate the trash that we deposit in ocean waters, especially
plastic. Charles J. Moore, captain of the Alguita research
vessel, piloted a study in the gyre that found 334,271 pieces
of plastic per kilometer, amassing a weight of "approximately
six times that of plankton" Unfortunately, this problem cannot
continue to be ignored.
Unlike most of our products, plastics must be degraded by
sunlight because they simply cannot biodegrade from the ocean's
elements. As a result, they can withstand the ocean currents
longer than other debris, making them possible hazards for
creatures living nearby. Marine animals can mistake them for
food or get entangle in them and die. The food exchange does
not stop there, either; ocean birds, like fully mature sea
gulls, will often share food with their young, spreading the
effects of plastic consumption.
Taking the entire situation as a whole, there are several
components that factor into coastline pollution, but every
movement needs a beginning. Plastics can be the first step
to diminishing ocean pollution, and the good news is that
the process can begin in the our local communities. Some nearby
cities are beginning to agree.
San Francisco has already taken a revolutionary step toward
ridding its community of plastic pollutants by outlawing the
use of plastic bags in supermarkets. Did you know that out
of the 100 billion bags thrown away by Americans, less than
5 percent are recycled per year? Quantities this large do
not just disappear, so one can imagine that at least some
of that will end up in the ocean, maybe even in the North
Pacific Gyre or in a creature's stomach.
The next time you decide to go for a grocery run, just ask
for paper instead of plastic. Granted, higher paper-bag use
will inevitably take a larger toll on tree populations, but
future environmental steps will involve a switch to recycled
paper or even potato starch like in San Francisco.
Unfortunately, other forms of trash still find their way
to the ocean. After all, Californians do love to visit the
beach. In fact, one summer Orange County collected enough
trash on six miles of beach to fill "10 garbage trucks full
of trash every week" and cost taxpayers $350,000. Even with
the elimination of plastic bagging in stores, other forms
of non-biodegradable trash are left behind for ocean-side
creatures to consume. So what else can be done?
Luckily, strength can always be found in numbers. The Santa
Cruz chapter of the Surfrider Foundation promotes group coastal
cleanup days on the first Saturday of every month. Volunteers
scour one stretch of beach and collect garbage for only two
hours right in the middle of the day, leaving the rest of
the morning and afternoon available.
With new species going extinct daily and the effects of
global warming happening right around the corner, it's comforting
to know that we, as a community, can still have a say in what
goes on in our world. So stop looking around and get involved.
I hope you join me in cleaning up Twin Lakes Beach on July
7 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Jarod Keller is a student at Stanford University.
Environmentalists call on Capitola to bring
back foam ban
By Soraya Gutierrez
Sentinel staff writer
Environmental groups and residents are protesting the city's
decision to back away from a mandatory ban on foam food containers
so that the California Restaurant Association can make a case
for a repeal.
Members of the community and Save Our Shores as well as
the Surfrider Foundation Santa Cruz and Monterey chapters
have sent thousands of e-mails to City Council members, urging
them to stand by a decision made in December to ban the material,
called polystyrene. Many businesses use polystyrene for packaging,
but the containers do not break down easily and end up polluting
the ocean and sitting in dumps for decades.
"Capitola could really set a beautiful example for other
cities and counties in the Monterey Bay Area by taking a lead
in this," said Sarah Corbin, Central California regional manager
for the Surfrider Foundation.
No other city in Santa Cruz or Monterey counties has such
a ban.
The ordinance was set to go into effect July 1. That was
until the restaurant association called for a closer look
at the issue. In what Mayor Michael Termini described as "American
politics as usual," the restaurant association registered
concern with the ban through phone calls, letters and e-mails
to the City Council, prompting enough council members to choose
to reconsider the ordinance. "I am furious at the efforts
of an outside organization to try to steer the direction of
the city of Capitola," said Termini, who sat on the original
council when the ordinance was approved last year. "It would
be a slap in the face to everyone in Capitola if we ignore
their wishes"
At a council meeting in May, the final draft of the ban
failed by a tie vote, with councilmen Ron Graves and Kirby
Nicol voting against the ban, and Sam Storey and Termini in
favor. Councilman Bob Begun was absent.
The issue will be revisited later this month.
Michael Scanlon, restaurant association chapter president
and manager at Shadowbrook restaurant, said the council was
wrong to have approved the ban in the first place because
the city did so without first consulting those who would be
most affected: the restaurant owners.
The problem with the mandatory ban, he said, is that it
targets one industry.
"Go after everybody, not just restaurants," said Scanlon.
The city has roughly 125 food-service businesses such as
restaurants and grocery stores, and 25 percent of those use
foam containers, according to city records.
The city's Commission on the Environment pushed to make
Capitola's 10-year voluntary ban mandatory, and go from an
80 percent compliance rate to full compliance.
Berkeley was one of the first cities in the world to ban
polystyrene food packaging 20 years ago. More than 100 cities
nationwide have since followed suit, including San Francisco
and Santa Monica.
While most agree that switching to environmentally friendly
materials is ideal, not all believe a mandatory ban is the
best way to achieve that goal.
Though the Shadowbrook stopped using foam containers six
years ago, Scanlon said the city's proposal is merely a "feel-good"
ordinance that does not address the issue. A more effective
method, he said, is to keep the ban voluntary and implement
outreach and educational programs.
The way the new ordinance is written, those in violation
will have three months before they get a written warning.
Penalties include a $100 fine for the first violation after
the warning is issued, and up to $500 for the third and any
future violations. There are exceptions.
Restaurant owners can ask for a waiver if they can prove
the ordinance would be a financial burden.
Bill Garcia, who owns Taqueria Baja in Capitola Village,
said he's already tried to make the switch, but cardboard
was costing him twice as much as foam containers.
"It's just so freakin' expensive," he said. "How do they
expect the merchants to change?"
At Jamba Juice off 41st Avenue, switching from polystyrene
cups to a more environmentally friendly alternative is something
the company has been looking into on an ongoing basis, said
spokesman Tom Suiter.
They've already started using paper cups in cities such
as Berkeley and San Francisco, he said, in an effort to do
what's best for the environment.
"That's totally Jamba," he said.
The polystyrene ban is up for reconsideration at a public
hearing at 7 p.m. June 28 at 420 Capitola Road. Call 475-7300.
Contact Soraya Gutierrez at sgutierrez@santacruzsentinel.com
Shark tagging transmitter found off Steamer’s
Lane: minus shark
By Kelly Vander Kaay
On October 17, 2006, the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation
(PSRF) detected a shark tagging transmitter a couple of miles
off Steamer’s Lane, drifting away from shore in a south-southeasterly
direction. According to PSRF Executive Director and Surfrider
member, Sean Van Sommeran, until recently the transmitter
had been attached to a white shark they were following through
the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP) program.
As to where the shark is now, Van Sommeran said, “It’s
almost certainly patrolling off Año Nuevo Island, where
we attached the transmitter last year.” But where did
shark and tagging device actually part? Van Sommeran’s
answer: “It likely drifted down the coast from Año,
where the shark dropped it after returning to the area.”
Since being tagged in Northern California, apparently the
shark traveled out to a deep-sea locale just southeast of
Hawaii, which Van Sommeran calls the “bad lands”.
The shark’s migration patterns and a wealth of other
data have been made possible by the TOPP program, which was
first deployed at Año Nuevo Island and the SE Farallones
in 2000 (www.topcensus.org). For instance, some of the tagged
sharks have been shown to migrate all of the way to Hawaii—demonstrating
that they are, in fact, open ocean creatures. Prior to TOPP’S
inception, PSRF began studying white sharks at Año
Nuevo Island in 1992, with ID tagging commencing in 1995.
Two years later, PSRF researchers started deploying ultra-sonic
acoustic transmitters and ultimately moved to archival satellite
transmitters in the fall of 2000. The TOPP program was born
in the winter of that year.
While Van Sommeran says finding the sharks is pretty consistent,
the devices themselves can be hard to recover when nearby
cliffs cross-up RDF equipment signals. Nonetheless, data continues
to pour in from the transmitters they do find, helping them
to better understand the behavioral patterns of these often
misunderstood creatures. For related article in The Herald,
see link below. Additional information on PSRF and their participation
in the TOPP program can be found at:
Useful Links:
- Pelagic
Shark Research Foundation
- TOPP
Program
- Monterey
Herald Article
Surfrider members help free entangled humpback
whale off Carmel Point
By KELLY VANDER KAAY
STAFF WRITER, SANTA CRUZ CHAPTER
MONTEREY BAY, CALIFORNIA, 09/03/06 — Surfrider member
and Pelagic Shark Research Foundation (PSRF) Executive Director,
Sean Van Sommeran, departed Moss Landing Harbor at approximately
9:00 am to conduct a routine bottlenose dolphin survey.
Aboard the vessel Astirix (Pelagic I) were Van Sommeran (skipper)
and four research assistants, including fellow Surfrider member
and Earthwatch Institute affiliate, Anna Janovicz. Around
9:30 am, the crew of the Astirix heard radio traffic about
a disabled whale, which they subsequently learned was a humpback
entangled in fishing gear near Carmel.
With no one authorized or equipped to conduct a rescue in
the area, the PSRF crew radioed for the whale’s coordinates
and began motoring to its location off Carmel.
Once underway, the PSRF team received additional information
from the Marine Mammal Center, USCG, and NOAA, authorizing
them to organize and lead the rescue. At 11:40 am, they
located the whale roughly five miles off Carmel Point.
Entangled by ropes around its tail, the approximately 30-foot
humpback was moving into deep water. The animal also
had four large ball floats attached, but, more importantly,
it was being dunked by a 1,000-pound cod trap around its “flukes”
or tail fins. According to Van Sommeran, the whale
did not appear to have any immediately life-threatening injuries
to its body, but it did appear extremely fatigued.
At about 12:30 pm that afternoon, the Monterey vessel Silver
Prince arrived on the scene; and the general consensus was
that it would be impossible to assess the tangle without putting
divers in the water as any attempt to do so would likely have
resulted in cuts to the whale’s flukes. As a last
resort, two experienced divers were then deployed and proceeded
to cut and untangle the ropes from the whale with dive knives.
Soon thereafter, several killer whales closed in to within
about 100 meters from the humpback; and the divers promptly
exited the water until the killer whales were observed to
have left the area.
Some 15 minutes later, the divers re-entered the water and
quickly finished cutting the ropes. The whale, which
was surmised to be a sub-adult (or less than six years old)
was freed at 12:56 pm and immediately swam full stream toward
the west. Afterward, the crew of the Astirix and the
Silver Prince retrieved two large buoys plus some line and
tackle. Unrecoverable, the cod trap sank to the ocean
floor, its 30,000-pound captive now freed.
When asked how the whale become entwined in the fishing gear,
Van Sommeran said, “Sometimes whales play with the brightly
colored floats and get tangled playing with them…usually
young whales. Boats sometimes run over nets at night,”
he added, “and this can tangle and cut the gear so that
it floats all wrong and snaps or cinches onto an investigating
or distracted whale.”
The Pelagic Shark Research Foundation maintains a Stranding/Collecting
Unit specializing in sharks, fishes and large marine animals.
For more information, please visit their web site at:
www.pelagic.org.
Santa Cruz Sentinel Article:
9/4/2006
- Entangled whale freed of fishing gear
Surfrider Foundation
Chapter Website of the Year!
Winter 05-06
The Santa Cruz Chapter is stoked to announce that this site
has won the "Chapter Website of the Year" award
from the National office of the Foundation as announced in
the Winter 05-06 Making Waves!
Surfrider says: "These awards serve to recognize those
chapters which through their efforts set the mark for the
rest of us to follow...
Thanks to the Carl Yoshihara at OnePixelDesign, the new site
is fresh, fun and informative. A clean navigation layout makes
it easy to explore the site. Once past the welcome page, visitors
can find information on the type of projects or programs the
chapter is working on, what sort of activism opportunities
the chapter offers (everything from tabling to beach clean-ups,
to Beachscape). Santa Cruz's long-running Blue Water Task
Force program was especially well represented, with a regularly
updated and easy to read water quality reporting page.
Thanks to local amateur and professional photographers Mike
MacDonald, Howard McGhee and Bruce Topp, and Jim Littlefield
(chapter chair). The site also utilizes a stunning amount
of local imagery throughout, embellishing the experience.
Mounting Evidence of Red Tides'
Harmful Effects on People
Sea Web Ocean
Update, March 2006 issue
'According to Gregory
Bossart of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution: "Recent,
frequent red tides off the west coast of Florida correlated
with a 54% increase in emergency room admissions for respiratory
illnesses, including, pneumonia, asthma attacks, and other
respiratory problems." Bossart and others implicate brevetoxins,
compounds produced by the dinoflagellate Karenia brevis.' |
