Thanks for the Beautiful Beaches!: Play Now | Download (550)

With Memorial Day Weekend, the “unofficial” start of summer, we highlight ways to thank the ocean for our beautiful beaches. Brian Baird, Assistant Secretary for Ocean and Coastal Policy for the California Natural Resources Agency, discusses everyday actions we can take to help clean up our coasts and ocean. Actor and activist Edward James Olmos adds his powerful Thank You Ocean message, “Don’t Trash the Beach.”

For more information, visit:

• California Coastal Cleanup Day
• Thank You Ocean Marine Debris page
• Thank You Ocean Pledge
  

 Litter in the Ocean: Play Now | Download (563)

The majority of the debris that ends up on our beaches and in our waterways comes from litter and urban runoff. Learn more from Eben Schwartz with the California Coastal Commission. (Photo courtesy NOAA Marine Debris Program/Ocean Conservancy)

For more information, visit:

• California Coastal Commission
• NOAA Marine Debris Program
• Thank You Ocean Marine Debris Page

 The Ocean and Rain: Play Now | Download (549)

This winter NOAA is predicting greater rainfall than normal. On this report, we ask the question: How does rainfall affect the ocean? Bridget Hoover, Director of the Water Quality Protection Program for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, describes how various pollutants accumulate during the dry season and are washed into the ocean when it rains. (Photo courtesy of Warren Yogi)

For more information, please visit:

• Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Citizen Watershed Monitoring Network
• Coastal Watershed Council First Flush
• Heal the Bay Swimming Precautions

 California's Coastal Cleanup: Play Now | Download (150)

With so much trash and litter entering our ocean every year, the problem of preventing and reducing marine debris is an urgent challenge that we must meet to preserve the health of our ocean. On this report, we talk with Eben Schwartz with the California Coastal Commission and Jolyn Bibb with Whole Foods about California Coastal Cleanup Day which annually brings tens of thousands of volunteers to the state’s beaches and inland shorelines to remove the debris that has accumulated over the course of the year.

For more information, visit:

• California Coastal Cleanup
• Marine debris