This Weekend in the Ocean

Happy World Oceans Day, everyone. Now in its 26th year, World Oceans Day started as an annual event to embolden "the voice of ocean" and coastal communities around the world. The event traditionally includes cleanup activities and conservation efforts, as well as a variety of fun events and, dare we say, parties — it’s easy to have fun and pick up trash at the same time. 

There are World Oceans Day events being held across the globe. Here in California, there are beach cleanups scheduled for today in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Tonight, the Lark Theater in Larkspur will host a free screening of Albatross, "a love story for our time in the heart of the Pacific."

Tomorrow, the Shark Stewards will hold a "March 4 Oceans" between 2  and 6 p.m. at the Sports Basement in the Presidio. On Sunday, June 10, the Surfrider Foundation will host a beach cleanup between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. at Ocean Beach — people are meeting at Stairwell 17 across from the Beach Chalet. 

Also in the Bay, local sailor Matt Woll is hosting a kickoff event to launch a new nonprofit that recycles used plastic water bottles and converts them into a type of gravel — called plavel — that can be used in drainage systems. "Plavel Water" aims to "develop, produce, fundraise, promote and mobilize communities in the repurposing of plastic water bottles as plavel." The launch party will kick off today at Washington Park in Pt. Richmond between 4 and 6 p.m., on the corner of East Richmond and South Garrard.

An engineer by trade, Woll works for Questa Engineering, which is located in Brickyard Cove. Questa says that plavel offers a "major and untapped opportunity to recover and convert plastic water bottles into a viable and useful building material, providing significant benefits to water conservation, environmental quality, public health, sanitation, and green building design." 

Questa says that humans are buying and immediately discarding plastic at the staggering rate of one million bottles per minute. While many of us recycle, less than 30% of plastic makes it into the blue bins in the US, and less than 10% worldwide. The horrific pictures of sea life tangled in plastic should be evidence enough that too much waste ends up in the ocean.

Also this weekend, we will be in Alameda for the grand opening of a new West Marine. At 8 a.m., Vice Mayor Malia Vella and Councilman Jim Oddie will officially open the store with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The first 100 customers will receive a free West Marine Gift Card valued at $5-$100.

We will have a booth in the parking lot, and will be selling hats and subscriptions, starting a raffle for T-shirts, and of course, we’ll have a few bundles of the magazine to give away (oh wait, it’s always free!). Please come down, say hi, hang out, and tell us a good sailing story.