Monthly Beach Clean up SUCCESS!

On Saturday, Seafoam Project hosted the monthly beach clean up for March. We were very excited about this beach clean up because previous rain had led to canceled beach clean ups and events for two months!
We had a great turn out and volunteers cleaned over 3,350 items of trash from the beach!

Check out pictures below!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out and helped us keep our beaches clean! We hope to see you again at our upcoming events for April!

Meeting in Ventura and Checking out the beach

Today Seafoam Project had the opportunity to speak at the Stormwater Public Information and Participation Subcommittee meeting in Ventura. We introduced ourselves to the subcommitee and let them know all about Seafoam Project and how we would like to help them in any way we can! From cleaning up local creeks and watersheds to beach clean ups and helping to get information out! 

Heading to the meeting at Ventura's Government Center!

We then took a trip to Sycamore Cove State Beach to go over our beach clean up that we will be hosting there this Saturday! Click here for more information about the clean up!

In the short amount of time that we were at the beach we filled a good portion of a trash bag!

Ventura Wetlands Restoration Project

Saturday, the 14th, was the Ventura Harbor Wetlands project! Volunteers removed non native ice plant in the area - it was a lot of work! We had a great time, and we will be back in January!

Volunteers removing ice plant from the area

Baby Vole or Hemmings that we found under plants we were removing. Don't worry, we took these little guys to a local animal rescue shelter! 

Welcome our newest Committee Director!

Yesterday the Board voted in Mara Werring (whom you might recognize from the membership newsletter) as the Director of our new Youth Committee! Mara will be heading events, programs, and campaigns geared at getting kids and teens involved with saving our oceans! We are excited to have Mara as part of the Seafoam Project staff! 


If you have any questions regarding our new Youth Committee or are interested in getting involved you can contact Mara by sending an e-mail to mara@seafoamproject.org

Behind the Scenes

Though there hasn't been too many updates recently on our blog or our website, there are lots of things going on behind the scenes! We have a new addition to our staff coming soon that we are very excited about! As well as lots of updates to our website, our campaign for sustainable seafood, our Youth Committee starting up, new events, and a number of other things that we can't wait to share with you all!


Our next event will be to help restore the wetlands! Volunteers 16 years old and older are invited to join us and the City of Ventura to clear the way for new native species of plants in the Harbor Wetlands. Our wetlands are vital to birds and mammals, including endangered species! Wetlands not only filter water before it enters our oceans, but provides food, shelter, and nesting grounds for migrating birds. For more information on this event go here!

Monthly Beach Clean up (October)

October 17th was our monthly beach clean up at Seaward Beach in Ventura, CA. We had a great time cleaning up the area and speaking with the community about Seafoam Project and the importance of keeping trash out of the ocean. 


California had been hit with a good amount of rain recently. Rain is great for the usually dry and hot California weather, but with rain comes heavily polluted waterways that drain directly to our ocean. Creeks, streams, and storm drains that trickle into the ocean were dumping full force during the rain, bringing large amounts of trash (urban runoff). 


During our beach clean up we were able to identify items of marine debris (trash) that had obviously come from urban runoff. We were also able to identify tiny broken and worn pieces of plastic that had been washed up from the ocean. As you know, these tiny pieces of plastic are ingested by marine life and cause hundreds of thousands of deaths for birds, mammals, and fish. 

Above, Hillary removes items of trash from the storm drain located near the sand. Storm drains have no filtration system in place so anything that enters will end up in our ocean.

Volunteers removed over 560 pieces of plastic from the beach that day!

Kim holds a "nurdle" in her hand. Nurdles are pre-production plastic pellets (what is made to make plastic bottles, containers, etc) and are incredibly harmful to the environment. To learn more about nurdles go here!

As always, thank you to everyone who volunteered! We hope to see you at our next monthly beach clean up! For more information about our November events check out our website's event page!

Sustainable Seafood

Seafoam Project is focusing on sustainable seafood: seafood that is caught and/or farmed with little damage to the environment. The high demand for seafood has been leading to destructive fishing and farming practices. You don't have to give up seafood, but instead should be aware of the best choices that are easily available! 
                    
Seafoam Project is working on an educational campaign to raise awareness regarding sustainable seafood and we cannot wait to share it with you! Until then, here is an interesting article we hope you will check out! 


Link to article: Imposter Fish