Protecting the planet
one beach at a time

I love our coast. The Northern California coast soothes my soul and makes me a better person. And sadly, I see the results of humans dumping eight million metric tons of plastic debris in the planet’s ocean each year. So I walk the beaches from Muir Woods to Jenner with my cameras and trash bags. I always find interesting subjects to photograph and trash to collect. Lots of trash, so far I’ve packed out nearly seven tons. Reducing all trash, especially plastics in the ocean has become my mission.

My passion for the environment draws me closer to her, nourishing my desire to protect habitat and reduce our impact on the coast, especially priceless Tomales Bay. In the past 10 years of combing this coast on foot and by boat, I’ve learned about the devastation of plastics on birds, fish, marine mammals, and of course humans. Plastic trash on the beach arrives mostly from the sea, though visitors and locals also contribute to the mess. Sun, waves and wind grind this plastic mess into tiny particles that bind with other petroleum based toxins. These particles are eaten by fish and birds, and enter the complex food web of which we are a part of.

Trash washes up 24/7/365. My volunteer efforts include collecting trash, leading beach cleanup groups, public education and weaving together businesses, government and non-profit agencies with shared information to mitigate our impact. Our annual Beach Clean-ups and local individual efforts are dwarfed by the wave of new trash arriving every day.

This website is a culmination of my effort to bring the problem to the forefront, discuss solutions and share the beautiful, surprising, often times sad and maddening discoveries. You’ll find reports of my findings going back to 2010, from Beijing 2008 Olympics water bottles that continue washing up, the America’s Cup AC-72 boat pieces, the regular arrival of dirty hypodermic needles at Point Reyes National Seashore beaches, flushed by heavy rains from the streets of Berkeley, Oakland and elsewhere into San Francisco Bay and to the sea.

Silent gratitude comes from my board of directors and occasionally a human. I don’t have sponsors apart from the individual donations to this website.

To take an active role, come walk the beach with me. Join the effort: buy less plastic, reduce your use of single-use items, pick up trash wherever you may be, help spread the word and educate others, support those who promote public policy to bring fundamental change. And, if you can help my efforts, I would be thankful for your donation.

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Some of my tracks from hundreds of visits to this beach to remove marine trash.

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Board of Directors

More images from the exploration by NautilusLive and crew

Click on the words above “More images from the exploration by NautilusLive and crew” to see this entire post.

Nautilus has returned to port from the exploration of Bodega Canyon and is now headed to Astoria Oregon to study
the Olympic Coast NMS and Quinault Canyon

Here are some more screen captures I recorded while watching live last week.

An amazing adventure.

Click on an image to see a larger version.

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NautilusLive continues to explore Bodega Canyon

Click the above words “NautilusLive explores Bodega Canyon in Cordell Bank…” to see this entire post.

Point your browser here to see live video from ROV’s associated with Nautilus Live.

#nautiluslive
#oceanisblue

Here are some screen grabs from Tuseday night and Wednesday.

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NautilusLive explores Bodega Canyon in Cordell Bank NMS

Click the above words “NautilusLive explores Bodega Canyon in Cordell Bank NMS” to see this entire post.

Point your browser here to see live video from ROV’s associated with Nautilus Live.

#nautiluslive
#oceanisblue

Here are some screen grabs from last night (Monday)

A big shout out to the folks over at seapig.net. They love sea pigs and would be happy if you paid them a visit.

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Coral

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Coral

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Flat nosed fish, coral

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Octopus, coral, sea star and more

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ROV arm sampling coral

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Octopus

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To learn more about sea pigs, go see the experts here.

Sea Pigs

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Whale Watching off Bird Rock

Click the words above “Whale Watching off Bird Rock” to see this entire post

A few weeks ago a friend invited me to go out salmon fishing on his boat.

It had been over 40 years since I had last been out salmon fishing, so I was more than a little rusty.

He assured me we’d be fine, as he had been going his entire life.

Earlier in the week the salmon were being caught in great numbers.

This day, we caught one. The 40+ boats around us in the vast expanse of the Eastern Pacific pulled in a few as well.

But, this day was not really about salmon fishing.

Today was a day for whale watching.

We were surrounded by not just any whales either.

Blue whales! Everywhere.

Sometimes so close as they came up for air, the sound of their exhalations startled me as I peered at the fishing poles under tension on the opposite side of the boat.

With our skipper keeping an eye on the rods, and the other man aboard at the helm, I manned the long lens to record what you see below.

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common murres

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Blue whale

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common murre

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Blue whale

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common murre

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Blue whale

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A man truly in his element

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Sheep, cows & willets

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Heading north along route one, the most amazing sights are there for the viewing.


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