Letters To Assemblymembers Supporting AB1998

Team Marine's letter to Assemblymembers

Team Marine wrote and sent letters to eight members of The California State Assembly who play a critical role in the passage of AB1998. In the letter Team marine urges the Assemblymembers to vote for AB1998.

Excerpt form the letter
"California has a critical role to play in becoming a true leader in eliminating plastic bag waste and preventing the proliferation of plastic pollution in our communities. The passage of AB 1998 will be a major step in breaking our addiction to single-use bags. Please help us protect California's and the world's oceans for generations to come by voting for AB1998."

AB1998 Press Conference

Screen shot of Kcal 9 news clip of press conference

On Tuesday morning Team Marine met at the Santa Monica Pier for a press conference to show our support for AB1998. If passed AB1998 would ban all single-use plastic bags in grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies and regulate paper bags. Team Marine Captain Megan Kilroy and Coach Benjamin Kay spoke. Team Marine was joined by representatives of several environmental organizations such as Heal The Bay, Environment California, and The Plastic Pollution Coalition.

Follow this link to watch the video
http://cbs2.com/video/?id=136201%40kcbs.dayport.com

Team Marine Goes To Catalina

As a reward for winning first place in the Edison Challenge and second place in the QuickScience Challenge Team Marine spent four days at the USC Marine Wrigley Institute on Catalina island. While on the island Team Marine had a lot of fun snorkling, kyacking, hiking, stargazing and studying the unique marine ecosystem. Even on such a remote beautiful island Team Marine still spent a lot of time picking up single-use plastic from the beaches and in the waves.

Team Marine Wins Ocean Hero Award

Team Marine wins Ocean Hero Award

On April 5th Team Marine traveled by van to Sacramento to be part of Ocean Day at the California State Capitol Building on March 6. Representing the youth, the students met with various assembly members, senators, and staff to support bills AB1998 and AB925 that would reduce plastic marine debris and curb carbon dioxide emissions. They also encouraged state officials to establish a comprehensive network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that follow the scientific guidelines and draft new legislation that would make environmental sustainability a core subject in k-12 grade levels. The students also had a chance to lobby alongside various environmental organizations, including Heal the Bay. That evening, Team Marine attended a formal reception and sustainable seafood banquet with numerous state officials and ocean advocates and was given an Ocean Hero Award by a California steering committee composed of CalCoast, Environment California, Heal the Bay, the NRDC, Ocean Conservancy, San Diego Coastkeeper, and Surfrider Foundation. Lester Snow, Secretary for Natural Resources welcomed the students that evening, and Mike Chrisman, a director for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and former Secretary for Natural Resources presented the award to the students for their many contributions toward protecting the marine environment. Returning home along the coast, Team Marine visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium and camped in beautiful Big Sur.


Team Marine with Senator Julia Brownly who authored AB1998 which would ban all single-use paper and plastic bags in California

TEAM MARINE HOSTS SCREENING OF THE MOVIE TAPPED.

EVERYONE CAN COME! ITS COMPLETELY FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!!!!!


Click on the picture if you cant read it.

When: March 24th @ 4pm
Where: Santa Monica High School Barnum Hall
601 Pico Blvd.
Santa Monica California 90405
Cost: FREE
Sponsored by Team Marine and The Daily Ocean.

Wanna know more about the movie? visit. www.tappedthemovie.com

Team Marine Submits To The QuikSCience Challenge

Pictured above: Team Marine jumps for joy after submitting their project


This is Team Marine's 3rd year participating in the QuickSCience Challenge. The QuickScience Challenge is sponsored by The USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies and Quiksilver, Inc. The Challenge is a multi-faceted competition where teams must create and present environmental lesson plans, develop a multimedia project, write a research proposal, come up with a new solution for an environmental problem and do community outreach. We submitted their project on February 19th but we are far from being done helping the environment!


Pictured above: Team Marine at USC submitting their project


Pictured Above: Team Marine celebrates by going out for some thai food.

Check out the QuikSCience Challenge Website

Team Marine Teaches The Youth

Pictured above: Team Marine teaches Mr. Guthrie's 8th grade science class at Culver City Middle School

We carpooled to Lincoln Middle School, Animo Leadership Charter High School, Culver City Middle School, and Santa Monica Alternative School House to give a presentation on our 10 R’s Curriculum. Each school varied with the age group we presented to, but overall we presented to grades 7 to 12. For each group we modified our lesson plan depending on the age group we were presenting to along with the language of our content. We first introduced ourselves and the documentary we had created concerning the negative impacts of single-use plastics and our Ten R’s solutions to the problem. As the video we presented ours Ten R’s power point which had content based on problems of single-use plastics, global warming, ocean acidification and our solutions. Then when we were done presenting we assigned students to four different stations the first one was based on the carbon cycle and explained to them the difference between a source and a sink. The second demo station was on ocean acidification which included dropping eggshells and chalk in vinegar to demonstrate how coral bleaching occurs. In addition to that demo we used a universal indicator to show how carbon dioxide makes the ocean acidic by blowing bubbles with a straw in distilled water. The third station involved two beakers filled halfway with the same amount of water, one beaker covered with a small net and an ice cube placed on both. Then we melted the ice cube on top of the beaker with the net with a hair dryer to show that glacial ice being melted by global warming can cause a higher sea level rise than sea ice melting. The last station included a club soda, a stopper with a tube, and tilted it towards the beaker with distilled water to show ocean acidification to show how carbon transfers to fresh water and makes the ocean acidic by verifying it with the universal indicator. Then after everybody had been to each demo station we played the carbon cycle game to see how much content they retained with station that pertained to it and handed out organic lollipops to those who guessed correctly.


Pictured above: Team Marine members Daniel Franco and Valerie Wacker do a lab on ocean acidification with 8th grade students at Culver City Middle School

Team Marine Research!

On Sunday December 20, 2009 Santa Monica High School’s Team Marine visited the Venice Storm Drain at the end of Rose Avenue and the Pico-Kenter Storm Drain at Pico Blvd. to investigate the incidence of plastic pollution in the debris zone around stagnant pools of storm drain water. In a twenty-five minute beach cleanup at the Venice storm drain, three Team Marine members collected 12.5 pounds of plastic trash consisting of 128 colored wrappers, 127 Styrofoam pieces, 101 clear wrappers, 68 bottle caps, 35 straws, 23 misc. hard plastic pieces, 14 food containers and lids, 9 grocery store bags, 5 water bottles, and 2 utensils.
A more detailed study was performed at the Pico-Kenter site. Using 50 meter measuring tapes, 1081 plastic bottle caps, 240 straws, and 30 utensils were collected from a 643.25 m2 debris zone around the storm drain pool (Figures 1 and 2). These total abundances amounted to an average of 1.68 bottle caps, 0.37 straws, and 0.05 utensils per m2. For Pico-Kenter, Team Marine also sorted a random selection of plastic pollutants into categories to help identify exactly what is coming out of the storm drains and will be entering the ocean upon the next flush (Table 1).

Check out what our partner and friend Sara Bayles is doing to raise awareness about marine debris!
http://www.thedailyocean.blogspot.com/

Teennick Halo Awards

Team Marine was recently featured on the TeenNick Halo Awards. Created and hosted by TeenNick chairman Nick Cannon, (pictured above with members of Team Marine) the first-ever TeenNick Halo Awards celebrates and recognizes four teenagers who are making a difference and have truly changed their communities. Megan Kilroy, the Captain of Team Marine 09-10 was one of these four teens. TeenNick and The Entertainment Industry awarded Team Marine $10,000 to continue their environmental efforts. If you would like to watch the entire show please visit

http://www.teennick.com/halo/

check out some of the press:

http://www.causecast.org/news_items/9413-halo-awards-celebrities-honor-teens-for-charity-work


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-cooper/nick-cannons-halo-shines_b_388166.html

http://www.teen.com/tv/q-and-a/teennick-halo-winner-megan-kilroy/

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/MsIbVfrXX0s/Nickelodeon+Halo+Awards+Recipients+Visit+Capitol/5kgIlMeCgjl/Megan+Kilroy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/10/AR2009121003945.html

http://www.s2smagazine.com/node/2261

Presentation to the Peace Troop

Members of Team Marine and Santa Monica High Schools Teach and Test Program gave a presentation to a group of 4th graders from Overland Elementary School called the Peace Troop.



Team Marine and members of the Teach and Test Program showed the girls our teach and test samples from the first flush. It was truly inspiring to see how enthusiastic they were about saving the ocean.