Take a Moment This Weekend to Participate in Earth Day

Each year Earth Day, April 22, is marked by millions of people around the world. It is a “day of action to change human behavior and create global, national and local policy changes.” That action can be broad scale, or even as simple as going out into your own neighborhood and picking up trash that has accumulated along the street, or, in our case, along our waterways.

As sailors, we see a lot of the trash that floats along the surface of the water. What we don’t always see are the pieces that sink to the bottom, get caught up in river banks and between rocks, or are too small to be immediately visible. And that’s without considering the pollution from oils and other liquid contaminants that find their way to the streams and oceans.

The San Francisco Bay Area has miles of watery beauty that we can all enjoy. But we’re not the only ones out there. Give a moment’s thought to the marine creatures whose home we play upon: seals, porpoises, dolphins, and in the right season, whales, along with myriad fish and seagrasses, all of which play an important role in the biodiversity and health of the Earth. We need to do our part to help preserve and protect these beings, and in the long run, ourselves.

Today, and across the weekend, while you’re out sailing or walking the docks, take along a couple of bags (hopefully recycled or degradable) and fill them with the unsightly, unhealthy bits of trash that are in your immediate vicinity. If we all do a little, the planet will benefit a lot.

Here’s a short quiz we found on on the Earth Day website — Whale Conservation Quiz.

By the way, another way we can all help is to ditch the single-use plastic. We’ve opened up our new Latitude 38 store and are stocking the perfect boat drinkware. Check it out.