Come out and celebrate music on Friday May 13th with Slugs and Roses (Grateful Dead) and The South 46 Band (Allman Brothers) at Don Quixotes in Felton.

This is a benefit for our oceans, so come out and dance the night away. Knowing your doing good for the planet.

Aloha
Rich Sundance Owen, Executive Director

Taken from an interview we recently did.

1. What are some of the issues ECC/Ocean Gyre Cleanup Project aims to tackle.

The Atlantic Gets Its Own Great Plastic Garbage Patch

by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 02.24.10

Plastic marine debris collected in a surface plankton net tow. Photo: Sea Education Association.

Though it hasn’t garnered nearly as much attention as its plastic-ridden analog in the Pacific, the North Atlantic Ocean too has its very own gigantic patch of floating plastic waste. Recently the 5 Gyres project has brought some attention to it, and now BBC News reports that scientists from the Sea Education Association have completed a 20 year study on it:

In studying the problem, researchers completed over 6,000 passes with towed nets in the Caribbean and North Atlantic. Over 80% of the plastic pieces were found between 22 and 38° north latitude.

More than half of them picked up floating plastic on the water surface, mostly pieces of plastic from consumer products and plastic bags. Most of the pieces were no more than one centimeter across. The maximum density of plastic was found to be 200,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer–which is similar to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

WATCH VIDEO: Pacific Plastic, The Garbage Patch – The largest collection of waste plastic is in the Pacific where garbage has collected from all around the globe.

SEA Sailing From Bermuda This Summer for Further Plastic Study
Expanding on this research, SEA is planning another expedition this summer to study the accumulating plastic. The expedition will sail a 3300 nautical mile route some 1100 miles southeast of Bermuda, exploring a region not previously sampled. Sail is most often used not-literally these days, but in this case it is literal: The SEA expedition will travel on a 134-foot long brig rigged ship, the SSV Corwith Cramer.

These simple systems can be set up any size and scaled up as need, experience and funding expand. Truly the wave of the future.

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/fish/publications/reports/land-based-recirculating-aquaculture-systems

Even considering where your water comes from.  Do you happen to know?  If you do, great!  If you don’t, how would you find out?  This new appreciation for understanding the system allows each of us to stop and re-connect back to where WE MATTER in the overall picture.  This is the KEY to our continued success as a species: the evolution of knowing what provides for our current way of living and what it would take to sustain our lifestyle at this level. Consider how much Mother Earth has provided us unconditionally. Now it is time to give back to her.

Our focus at ECC and our greatest Mission is to act as a catalyst for becoming reconnected to our Oceans and our Earth. When we connect with nature, we also connect back to the deeper part of ourselves. This deeper connection then serves as a vehicle for transformation and benefits the whole!! In short, it is a path to peace, a feeling of unity with others, with our Oceans, with our planet, with our shared home. This is the ‘Elemental Key’, the GIFT of the New Decade upon us. It is something we will continue to strive for in our own interactions as humans, leaders and co-creators.

The ‘Gyre Cleanup Project’ offers us that doorway into the evolutionary process by connecting US together with a common VISION of a Healthy Planet.  The first step however is to make that connection back to SELF, before we can give to others.  This is what we continually put into question; how we can be sure to care for our own wholeness and our individual impact on this planet?  Starting with our own actions helps us to take ownership of our impact and recognize that by making even small changes, we can make a difference. Have you noticed that it is easier to point fingers or blame than to take positive action? Well, we would like to make taking inspired action for a bigger Vision the norm!! Know that we here at the ECC, Gyre Cleanup Project, push ourselves into a new paradigm of connectedness and oneness in every interaction: first with ourselves, then with others and ULTIMATELY our planet!  Will you join our mission to transform our view of Self within the Whole? Will you make the shift from blame to taking ownership of that which we can influence?

As you can see we view 2010 with 20/20 vision and know that the time is NOW to embark on the Journey of Oneness, to open the Elemental Key and to take responsibility for our actions.

Dear Ocean Defender’s Alliance Supporters and Fellow Ocean Lovers:

It’s been an interesting and dramatic year and decade for ODA, our nation, and the world on a whole. The start of the 21st Century marks the birth decade for ODA and the wonderful accomplishments to date in the water and onshore – all of which we could not do without your generous help and support!

Despite the widely acknowledged and increasing negative impacts the human population is having on our small planet, as you know there are many smart individuals and organizations fighting for a healthy and sustainable environment on various fronts, some for decades, surely making a positive and lasting difference.  Several of you work for these critical causes, and we thank you for your tenacity, trailblazing, and grace.

However, the year and decade ahead holds new challenges for the environmental movement and the entire human race, not to mention our struggling animal friends in the dwindling wild.  For the first time in history, far-reaching climate and ocean issues are forefront on most educated peoples’ minds.  Perhaps more importantly, our elected officials, authorities, and major corporate lobbies are finally reacting to the urgent messages from scientists and independent NGO/NPO’s, and seem to be working towards diplomatic solutions, such as the MLPA here in California.  We can only hope they are not too late to the table on regional and international concerns, and adopt the appropriate policy and action based on sound science.

Over the past decade, ODA has made significant progress towards enlightening Californians about the unseen habitat and wildlife destruction caused by abandoned commercial fishing gear, and taking direct grassroots action to correct this growing problem.

In the beginning of 2009, the LA Times sent staff to report on ODA’s 14-diver coalition formed to begin mitigating the Infidel, a fishing boat wreck featuring a monster-sized net accidentally sunk in 150-feet of water just off Catalina Island.  This story led to a significant flurry of similar news articles including some major national coverage.  Although we made a lot of progress in 2009 at the Infidel and have greatly reduced the fishing net’s deadly threat to marine wildlife, we still have nearly half the net to waiting to be removed in early 2010 and can’t wait to finish the project.

ODA is very proud to have almost completely removed all the sunken commercial nets off the wrecks of the Olympic and Georgia Straits, as well as significant progress at Old Marine Land and the challenging deep water Caissons. On recent check-up dives to the mitigated wreck sites, we were thrilled to see large fish using the artificial habitat that were not witnessed while covered with nets (sshhhh….don’t tell the fishermen!).  Moreover, we’ve made great strides with repairing and outfitting our 38-foot flagship, the “Clearwater”, and appreciate all those who have helped us at the dock.

While 2009 has been our best year in terms of mission success, public awareness, and vital basic funding, we look forward to a great start for 2010, and there are numerous new commercial fishing debris-contaminated sites we plan to fully mitigate in the months and years ahead.

With that said, we hope you and yours have a joyful Holiday Season, and take time to reflect on the decade behind while you plan accordingly for the year and decade coming up soon.  Please visit our website (www.oceandefenders.org) for the latest information, calendar, and unique ways to help support ODA in enduring our life-saving mission.

Happy Holidays!

Kurt Lieber
President and Founder

Scott Sheckman
Executive Director

And All Your Friends at ODA

WWW.OCEANDEFENDERS.ORG

PS:  SAVE THE DATE – SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2010 – ODA’s first major fundraising event at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Tentatively featuring fascinating presentations by Captain Paul Watson and Helicopter Pilot Chris Aultman of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (featured extensively on Animal Planet’s popular “Whale Wars” series). Also great food and entertainment. Tickets will go on sale soon!

Ocean Defenders Alliance is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  Donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law – please consult your tax adviser.