Art from Plastic Bottle Caps Collected by Students

Plastic bottle caps often become food for the fish and birds.  That's a bad thing because plastic isn't meant to be food.  

The students at Carmel River School decided to put all those colorful plastic caps we find tossed on the street, or on the beach, to good use: Make a huge mural on an ugly wall inside the school yard.

Here are more ocean critters made from bottle caps that will become part of this mural at Carmel River School.

Take A Field Trip Now to a Recycling Center

A piece of plastic found on the beach
that washed ashore with
the kelp.  

Trash--mostly plastic--is causing serious harm to our oceans and all the creatures that live in there.  So, recycling our trash is one way to help our oceans become healthy.  

Here's LeVar Burton taking us on a field trip to a recycling center.

What Do You Like Most About the Ocean?

Sea and Sand 

Sand in my pocket,
Sand on my hair,
Sand is everywhere.
The sea is blue,
The sea is warm,
And it makes me smile like a teddy bear. 


Sania Nadkarni 
Kindergarten, Cupertino

1st Grader, Tanisha Sandeep Pidshetti, likes to surf.

Her drawing also took 1st place in the 

2014 Coastal Art & Poetry Contest

And it looks like 11th Grade student, who took 1st place for this entry in her age group, Emily Li,

appreciates the treasures found on the seashore.

To read more poetry by kids and see the winning pieces of art, visit: 2014 Coastal Art & Poetry

Youth Commits To Sea Turtle and Ocean Health

When Casey Sokolovic was 8-years-old, a field trip  to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island, North Carolina, inspired the 3rd grader to make a difference.  

Now 15-years-old Casey Sokolovic has racked up a page of awards and recognitions (with her premier award coming this May--the 2014 Christopher Benchley Youth Award).  Her mission, is Love A Sea Turtle (L.A.S.T.), a project  that raises awareness of ocean conditions and an "educational outreach program and an outdoor environmental summer science camp that traces the path of fresh water to the coast," as noted on the Love a Sea Turtle website.

During this year's  MLK Day of Service, L.A.S.T. organized "..over 125 volunteers – 98 were Boys & Girls Club members! Together, we cleared and cleaned trails, removed invasive species, constructed a fossil pit, assembled fishing line recycling containers, and shared a Monday Meal," says Casey's blog.

Watch these baby sea turtles rush to the ocean

About sea turtles from Defenders of Wildlife

• Sea turtles are one of the Earth's most ancient creatures. 
• The seven species that can be found today have been around for 110  million years, since the time of the dinosaurs. 
• The sea turtle's shell, or "carapace" is streamlined for swimming through the water. Unlike other turtles, sea turtles cannot retract their legs and head into their shells. 
• Their color varies between yellow, greenish and black depending on the species.

The Singing Elephant Seals of Piedras Blancas

The Three Elephant Seal Tenors of Piedras Blancas

Northern Elephant Seal weaners (pups that were born this winter and are now weaned from their mothers) can be heard singing, yapping, barking, and just raising a ruckus on the beach as they teach themselves how to swim and dive.  Once they master their basic skills, each weaner will leave--on its own time schedule--for its first six months, or so, at sea.

The next time they begin to return to the beach where they were born will be late summer and early fall. 

Finding Diseased Sea Stars in Tide Pools

Sea star missing legs. Photo from UCSC

When exploring tide pools anywhere between Alaska and California, watch out.  You might find a sea star (starfish) missing legs or looking really gross.

What is wrong with them?  

Up and down the Pacific west coast, sea stars have a disease called Sea Star Wasting Disease.  It can kill a group of sea stars within just 24 hours or a few days.

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, along with

A leather star (Dermasterias imbricata) just beginning to show signs of the disease, seen on San Juan Island in October 2013; Photo: Keith Rootsaert

other researchers remain unsure why this disease has hit the west coast sea star population so rapidly.  There is a bacterium (vibrio) that scientists have identified through pathology.  And warmer ocean waters are also suspected as a cause.

With an adult, you can participate in observing the sea star wasting symptoms.  Visit www.seastarwasting.org.

Penguins--Slip, Slap, And Slide

Funny Penguin Videos

&

How Much Do You Know

About Penguins?

 

 How many different kinds of penguins are there?

1 kind? 16 different kinds? 

Find the answer here:  www.penguinworld.com

 

  Do all penguins live on ice?

Find the answer here:  Discovery Kids

  

 What is the smallest penguin in the world?

Find the answer here:  Sea*Thos Foundation

 

What is the biggest penguin in the world?

Find the answer here:  National Geographic

But here's the biggest penguin ever: