EOS's blog

The Dana Point City Council will discuss the issue of those toxic "single-use plastic bags" -- you know, those flimsy, thin plastic bags with handles (also known as nooses to many marine animals) at the top -- in Dana Point on Monday, Sept. 26, 2011 at 6pm at City Hall.

We would like to encourage all the Earth/Ocean Society Members to come to that meeting to show support for a proposal to ban those bags in Dana Point. Also, please take a moment to add your voice to this easy online petition (you can do so anonymously  if you choose): 

Click here to view the full details of the petition, or you can also just use this nifty widget below to have your voice heard:

Just look at the support that is pouring in from around the world for that petition!

Thank you.

Once again, a donation from the Dana Point Earth/Ocean Society helped sponsor a weekend trip to Catalina for the 5th graders at R. H. Dana Elementary School.

Did they enjoy the fun-filled educational experience? Here's what some of the kids had to say....

Here are some memories of our Earth/Ocean Society's annual meeting and party in February 2011. The weather was really wet and rough outside and yet we were happy to see more than fifty people join us inside the Dana Point Yacht Club. Highlight of the event was E/OS giving a $3500 check to R.H. Dana Elementary School to help the 5th graders spend a learning weekend on Catalina Island.

The year just ended was another busy one for the Earth/Ocean Society as we continued our goal of educating everyone we can about the need to protect our ocean and our earth.

E/OS appeared at various functions around Dana Point and manned our special booth to call attention to our goal of keeping Dana Point clean. We organized cleanup days and merged our efforts with the ZeroTrash people. We now pick up debris from our streets and beaches the first Saturday of every month.

We supported the fifth graders at R.H. Dana Elementary School and subsidized their annual weekend visit to Catalina Island. We supplied each classroom at the school with modern emergency kits, replacing their outdated ones.

E/OS joined other Southland cities in a continuing attempt to rid our streets and cities of plastic and styrofoam containers that are so devastating in polluting our ocean waters and killing thousands of sea birds and fishes.

As 2010 ended, we added three new members to our board: Keith Johannsen, Ed Conway and Joel Bishop. Ed is the past chairman of the Dana Point Chamber of Commerce. Joel is a past mayor of the City of Dana Point. We look forward to significant contributions from these three gentlemen who bring so much talent and expertise to our organization.

We want to thank you for supporting the Earth/Ocean Society, and hope you renew your membership in E/OS as we plan to make 2011 our most active and successful year so far. Help us keep our ocean and earth clean!

Sandie Howard, President

Be sure to have a look at this fantastic photo album created by E/OS board member, Bob Fairbanks: 

We lost. And so did California.

Yesterday, August 31, the California State Senate voted against AB 1998, the bill that would have banned most plastic bags from many of our supermarkets and other retail outlets. The vote was 21-14 in spite of an estimated $25 million is being wasted every year in California in cleaning up these bags that will take a thousand years or more to disintegrate.

But losing yesterday shouldn’t stop us from trying to clean up our act here in Dana Point.

We all realize how critical Dana Point is to our harbor. Too many plastic bags will find their way down to the sea, our own beautiful harbor. Many cities in California have banned the use of these single-use bags, most of which escape recycling and wind up polluting our streets and beaches to eventually kill much of our ocean wildlife. San Francisco has banned their use. So have Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach and Malibu.

Dana Point hasn’t joined this honor roll yet. Let’s encourage our elected officials now!

Please, right now, phone city hall or write to your city council. Write letters to the Dana Point News and the Dana Point Times. Write to the Orange County Register. Let’s keep the pressure on until we get rid of these damnable bags right here in our City.

Let’s clean up our mess!

Dana Point City Hall – 949-248-3500

Mayor Steven H. Weinberg : sweinberg@danapoint.org
Mayor Pro Tem Scott Schoeffel : sschoeffel@danapoint.org
Council Member Lara Anderson : landerson@danapoint.org
Council Member Lisa Bartlett : lbartlett@danapoint.org
Council Member Joel Bishop : jbishop@danapoint.org

We’re making a big mess, Dana Point. Too many of us aren’t getting rid of all the plastic bags and paper bags we get from stores and restaurants. And too many of those bags are winding up in our ocean, polluting the environment and actually killing seals and sea birds and the fish who ingest them.

But there’s something you and I can do about this mess, if we act right now!

This great mockumentary produced by the Heal the Bay group, shows us the full life cycle journey of single use plastic bag in an urban, coastal community.

by Bob Fairbanks

The fifth annual Neighborhood Cleanup Day in Dana Point was a happy event. Youngsters from R.H. Dana Elementary School were joined by more than 100 other volunteers to help clean up Dana Point's Lantern Village, our Town Center and the harbor area on a sunny day in April.

The volunteers came from near and far. Not just our locals, but college students from Riverside and San Bernardino came to help. So did our city's Environmental Department and the South Coast Water District.

Lots of bags were filled with stuff picked up all around town. And lots of pizzas were then consumed by the clean up crews.

We happily discovered that there was quite a bit less to be picked up on our Dana Point streets and grounds this year. Maybe we're getting the message across to the public : work together to keep our earth and ocean clean!

Click here to see the full photo album:

April 17, 2010 brought our 5th Annual Neighborhood Cleanup Day. And what a day it was!

Kids from RH Dana Elementary School joined groups from Dana Hills High School, UC Riverside, Chaffee College as well as a good number of local volunteers, the City of Dana Point's Environmental Dept., and of course, the great folks from the South Coast Water District.

Here are some photos: 

Also, here is a link to a great slideshow of photos from The Orange County Register:

http://www.ocregister.com/news/dana-244592-day-point.html