Pacific Ocean

Recently I was shocked to hear of an area in the Pacific Ocean somewhat north of a line between San Francisco and Hawaii that is simply a heap of trash twice the size of Texas! Just as things tend to drift toward the drain in your bathtub when the water is being emptied, this trash has gravitated to this area for decades because of prevailing wind and current conditions. Could this be true? On occasion, there are stories that are too wild to believe. Maybe this one fits that category, or maybe it doesn’t.

As the Newport Mesa crowd arrived at the St. Regis Resort Saturday night they were bombarded by demonstrators making their voices heard concerning democratic issues in Vietnam. The president of Vietnam was in Orange County over the weekend meeting with business leaders promoting trade between the East and West. The local crowd was, in fact, headed to the St. Regis for a benefit dinner on behalf of Miocean Foundation. Guests in limousines and high-profile vehicles became targets for demonstrators as they pulled into the porte cochere of the hotel as it was assumed the shiny black cars might be carrying government dignitaries or perhaps even the arriving president of Vietnam.

Students marveled at electric cars on the lawn outside the Robert B. Moore Theatre on Wednesday after listening to a two-hour lecture on the dangers of the amount of plastic amassing in the Pacific Ocean. Dubbed “Green Coast Day,” Charles Moore, a Long Beach ship captain, talked to 300 students inside the theater, explaining how the Pacific has become a depository for millions of tons of plastic due to the prevailing clockwise atmospheric currents that continually swirl around trash with no end in sight.

On Monday, the story goes, a group of Costa Mesa residents are going to suggest to the City Council that the name of the city be changed. Costa Mesa-by-the-sea seems to be floating near the top of the list because, after all, Costa Mesa floats near by the Pacific Ocean, we guess. Though we've yet to cover any surfing contests in Costa Mesa. So, yeah, back to the name game. There's the Costa part of the city's name, which translates nicely into "coast" in English.

The Surfrider Foundation’s Newport Beach Chapter will hold its first RockWater Run March 28 to raise awareness of pollution in the Santa Ana Watershed. The organization hopes to make it an annual event. At midnight, runners will depart from the mountains of Big Bear, descending 100 miles alongside the snowmelt as it travels through the Santa Ana River and into the ocean. The run is divided into four 25-mile legs, each run by a different team of runners who will alternate mileage to cover the distance.

Sign ups are now available for the inaugural RockWater run from Big Bear Lake to Newport Beach. A brainchild of the Surfrider Foundation Newport Beach Chapter, the race kicks off at midnight following the spring equinox on March 21 and follows the entire distance of the Santa Ana Watershed along its course from the mountains to the sands of Orange County. The 100-mile relay lets runners choose a distance that is comfortable for them and allows substitutions at any point along the course, organizers said.

Turtles often mistake floating plastic bags in the ocean for jellyfish, and they eat them in their entirety. Sea birds think those tiny blue beads of pre-manufactured plastic are actually fish eggs, and they swallow them whole. Their digestive systems can’t take it, and the creatures end up starving to death. The end result is dead fish and more dead sea birds as plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean mounts. As many as 1 million sea birds die each year and up to 100,000 sea turtles die from the consumption of plastic, that inanimate object that has frustrated environmentalists for decades.

Some doomsday prophesiers maintain that Southern California is destined to break off from the mainland during the “Big One,” the future earthquake expected to decimate the state. But half a millennium ago, cartographers thought California was, in fact, an island. An exhibit showing examples of the peculiar geographical error is on view at the Sherman Library & Gardens in Corona del Mar. The show was the idea of library Director William Hendricks. “He’s always been fascinated with that topic,” librarian Jill Thrasher said.

Though the Ocean South Course at Pelican Hill Golf Club was closer to the water, I always thought the Ocean North Course was a better layout. The South had two holes on the water, and though they provided spectacular views, they were nothing outstanding as far as golf hole design. Golf course designer, Tom Fazio, who created the courses in the early 90s, designed the back-to-back par threes on purpose to give the golfer two holes on the Pacific Ocean. The No. 12 is 159 yards from the back tees and the No. 13 hole is 131 yards, though two greens are utilized on that hole to give it a little more characteristic.

Ocean conservation should not be a matter of partisan division. Unfortunately, to a greater rather than lesser degree, it is. The Democrats line up on the side of government-sponsored global protectionism, the Republicans favoring Laissez-Faire capitalism and non-interference from government regulation of private business. Despite the philosophical chasm, there has been a meeting of divergent minds, specifically in American politics, on issues vital to oceanic welfare. Friday night in Laguna Beach, citizens whose political fortunes land on both sides of the aisle came together to raise $1 million for an organization called Oceana.

NEWPORT BEACH — It's a common assumption in Newport Beach that kids grow up with a connection to the ocean. However, many children live a 15-minute drive from the water's edge but have rarely, or never, dipped their feet in the Pacific. That's where "Day at the Bay" comes in. On Friday, 23 Santa Ana students, ages 14 to 19, from the Nicholas Academic centers spent their day at the bay. UC Irvine hosted the day, which began with a quick Back Bay lesson at the science center, then the teens took kayaks out on the water.

What is your plastic footprint? That question was posed by Charles Moore, a noted environmentalist who spoke recently at Orange Coast College about the tons of plastic trash floating and harming life in the Pacific Ocean. Moore, an avid boater, has been crusading against the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It’s scary stuff. Plastic in the water is harming marine life that mistakenly feeds on debris, or uses it as shelter, disrupting the food chain. Dead albatrosses, fish and mammals are being found with plastic caps, bags, wrappers and other byproducts of consumerism inside their carcasses.

Students marveled at electric cars on the lawn outside the Robert B. Moore Theatre on Wednesday after listening to a two-hour lecture on the dangers of the amount of plastic amassing in the Pacific Ocean. Dubbed “Green Coast Day,” Charles Moore, a Long Beach ship captain, talked to 300 students inside the theater, explaining how the Pacific has become a depository for millions of tons of plastic due to the prevailing clockwise atmospheric currents that continually swirl around trash with no end in sight.

Turtles often mistake floating plastic bags in the ocean for jellyfish, and they eat them in their entirety. Sea birds think those tiny blue beads of pre-manufactured plastic are actually fish eggs, and they swallow them whole. Their digestive systems can’t take it, and the creatures end up starving to death. The end result is dead fish and more dead sea birds as plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean mounts. As many as 1 million sea birds die each year and up to 100,000 sea turtles die from the consumption of plastic, that inanimate object that has frustrated environmentalists for decades.

I look at you, Catalina, every day. I am lucky to have the advantage of seeing you float on the Pacific Ocean right in front of me. I have an unobstructed view of you. You are like a secretive woman. Some days you disappear behind the clouds or the fog. It appears as if the ocean has swallowed you. At times you spread a thin veil over yourself, where I can only see your outline. Then the veil lifts and you are exposing yourself in such clarity that I feel that, if I extended my hand, I could touch you. At such a time, I can see the rock formation on one end of you, and the beige-brown color of the rocks.

Recently I was shocked to hear of an area in the Pacific Ocean somewhat north of a line between San Francisco and Hawaii that is simply a heap of trash twice the size of Texas! Just as things tend to drift toward the drain in your bathtub when the water is being emptied, this trash has gravitated to this area for decades because of prevailing wind and current conditions. Could this be true? On occasion, there are stories that are too wild to believe. Maybe this one fits that category, or maybe it doesn’t.

Some doomsday prophesiers maintain that Southern California is destined to break off from the mainland during the “Big One,” the future earthquake expected to decimate the state. But half a millennium ago, cartographers thought California was, in fact, an island. An exhibit showing examples of the peculiar geographical error is on view at the Sherman Library & Gardens in Corona del Mar. The show was the idea of library Director William Hendricks. “He’s always been fascinated with that topic,” librarian Jill Thrasher said.