Dockweiler Cleanup

My name is Jonathan Leal and I'm in Hasmik Barsamian’s English 101 course and our English classes were asked to participate in a cleanup of Cal State La’s, Dockweiler Beach on Sunday the 23^rd of October. At first of course everybody was skeptical about it, who wants to give up their weekend to cleanup a smelly beach (JK). I know that a bunch of my class and I were deciding on ways to avoid it but when the day came closer I was actually looking forward to it, I think we all did. With all the focus on the environment being in danger it’s the least we can do. I mean helping pick up some trash on a beach for 2 hours that’s not that bad and it turned out to be fun because we had friends there doing it with us. To begin with we all had to meet up at the beach and I offered to carpool and ended up taking two classmates which I was fine with, helping out the environment after all. We showed up to the beach and to my surprise a bunch of people were there to help, not just my whole class, but a lot more. Then they told us how we could contribute to cleaning up the beach, by picking up styrofoam, plastic, glass, basically anything man made. So my whole class decided we would do this as a large group and we all proceeded down the beach with the bags, chart, and gloves they gave us. At first we were goofing around a little bit but then we started to see a lot of trash in areas some would be decently clean and some just covered in trash. (We called the trash covered spots gold mines or jackpots.) So we ended up making it our duty to get the most tally marks for our charts to turn in. And all of a sudden everyone started yelling out things they were finding. Not one person didn’t participate; everyone was picking up trash and calling out what was found. After about 30 minutes I started writing down on the chart and at first we started very slow a couple of wrappers here and there but then a jackpot would come and the chart started filling up quickly. After about an hour or so we had found a plethora of hazardous materials toward the environment such as plastic rings, plastic pieces, glass, styrofoam, and a large amount of candy wrappers that was probably the most of something that we had found. Even though it was only 2 hours we were all pretty much exhausted and decided to walk back and we were quite a ways from where we initially started. And when we finally got back the teachers explained how much it helped, and if interested, we can volunteer to do it again. We ended up filling up around 3 to 4 bags which isn’t bad. And I have to say even though I missed football and sleep, that I'm glad I instead helped the environment, even if it was in a little way.

Healing the Bay @ Dockweiler Beach

Hello! My name is Brandon Lee and I'm currently attending CSULA and I along with my fellow classmates participated in cleaning up the beach. At first, I was excited to help clean the beach, but then I realized it was much more than cleaning the beach. Healing the bay is a way to understand nature and see the impact we as humans do to our environment and it is sad. Seeing all the trash laying around, and countless dangerous objects that can be harmful to people and animals everywhere. This just shows how careless we are as humans and what we are doing to the environment. Yet, I am very happy that I had the opportunity to give back to the environment and take part in something that changed our planet. Hopefully by my actions cleaning the beach, people will understand how important it is to keep our beaches clean and save our world from littering and carelessness.

Cleaning Dockweiler Beach

Hello my name is Kevin Sakamoto. My classmates, from English 101 at CSULA, and I participated in a beach cleaning event called Heal the Bay at Dockweiler Beach. I had never done anything like this before so I was interested to see what it would be like. When my classmates and I were told that this was one of the cleanest beaches I was hopeful that I wouldn’t have to pick up very much trash, but when we got there I realized that even one of the cleanest beaches is pretty dirty. It made me wonder what the dirtiest beaches looked like. My classmates and I helped clean the beach from 9-12 Sunday morning and managed to fill several bags full of trash. While cleaning the beach I realized the number one thing we found was cigarette butts. It was unbelievable how many we found. We also found a lot of plastic and Styrofoam pieces. The worst thing is that all these little pieces of trash are mistaken as food by the wild life and are hazardous to their health. We even found a knife and a car sunroof. There were many other weird thing found that should not be on a beach. All this made me realize how filthy people can be by not throwing away their trash. Next time I got to the beach I will be sure to throw all my trash away to help prevent harm to the environment. Cleaning the beach was a fun experience and opened my eyes to how little things can help out the environment.

Healing the Bay

Hello, my name is Enrique Gomez. I am a student in a English 101 class at Cal State L.A. This past Sunday my class participated in an event, "Heal the Bay", where we went to Dockweiler Beach to clean it. My group decided to only clean the streets behind the beach area. I was shocked at all of the trash we found lying around the area. I'd imagine the actual beach has a lot more trash. We found a lot of the same trash over and over again, such as plastic bottles, plastic/beer bottle caps, and cigarettes. As if that wasn't enough, we also found a knife at the top of a hill. Why are all of these objects just lying around? People could get seriously hurt, especially from the knife we found. The beach is suppose to be a place where people can simply relax without having to worry about getting hurt. However, these dangerous objects are making it difficult to do so. I didn't realize how horrible the trash at beaches were before. I am glad that my English 101 class decided to attend the "Heal the Bay" event over the past weekend. Not only did we clean the beach for our own safety, but also for the safety of all the animals that come across this garbage on the beach daily. I would hate to see what the other beaches' garbage is like.

A Day at the Beach

It is very interesting to find out what our beaches look like and really take the time to see what buried treasures we can find. At least for some beaches it can be done like Dockweiler Beach, where we were able to clean up the beach and create research for those who are trying find out what is killing our marine life. For the most part I feel happy that we, the Stretch Composition class, were able to take a Sunday off and use our energy for something effective and efficient for the ocean and it inhabitants. All of the trash that our class was able to pick up and throw away was remarkable. Not only the amount, but also the size of each object. For example, my team found about 10 glass bottles of beer, a Styrofoam cooler, and a few paper and plastic bags. And how not to forget the hundreds of cigarette butts we found lying around. People have to become aware of what they are doing so that this can be avoided. It is not fair that our marine life has to pay the price for our laziness. It doesn't take a lot of energy to take your trash to the trash can!

Helping The Environment

This past Sunday I was able to participate in a great event. As part of my English class I was able to go help out at the beach and see why they say the beaches are so dirty. While arriving there it was clear that i couldn't really see the beach I don't know if it was because the day was so foggy or because right next to the beach the air port is there and obviously the planes create smog in the air. Well besides that when arriving there we were given instructions to clean up the beach and pick up anything that looked to be out of place. Some of the things we didn't pick up were things that looked dangerous or something harmful. While walking around the beach with my classmates we discovered various things that didn't seem to fit into the beach environment. For example we found socks laying around like if it was a laundromat, we found tampons GROSS!!, we also found allot of cigarette buds. A beach is suppose to be a friendly environment where you want to take your family for a nice time not to see all these disgusting things. As part of the clean up we were given bags and a tally marker to check of how many things we found and the number of times we found them. I was along with all of my classmates and it made it feel like we were a group and not just one person doing all of the work. I was able to cooperate with all of the guys and see how they all work and also find out that we can all work together. It made me feel good that I was doing something to help out this planet and that even though it is not as big of a clean up as i wish it could have been it made me feel good to know that I was doing something to help out. While doing all of this it make me think about the comic i had read in our book called As The World Burns and it shows that if we do not do anything to save the world it will end up dying. We must also think about the animals that are living here and we must also learn that we are not the only ones living in this planet. It makes me feel great knowing that I am not the only one that thinks this and also that I was able to make a difference for one day.

- Stephanie Rodriguez , Instructor: Hasmik Barsamian

Bay Needing Healing

Hello. My name is Mike Landaverde and I participated in an event that allowed me and my peers to clean Dockweiler State Beach. They told us this beach was one of the cleanest beach in the Los Angeles area, but that day it appeared to be far from clean. This beach was covered with all kinds of trash, from ocean to where the street met, and this was hard to believe to be the cleanest. What we did at this event was get into groups and get even in the most uncomfortable places to be to pic up trash and all kinds of objects that where not suppose to be lying around that seemed like a potential threat to all kinds of life, both human and animal. Why we chose to do this matters a lot, because this shows that marine life is very important to us. Apart from that, we as humans enjoy the beach several times in a year, and many are exposed to dangers of getting hurt or sick, just like life in the ocean. Even if it was just one beach and it was for such a short time, we eventually were able to pick up multiple bags of trash and make somewhat of a difference that probably would have prevented health risks.

Heal The Bay

Cleaning the beach wasn't exactly my idea of a Sunday morning, but it was really fun. My English 101 class was invited to help clean Dockweiler Beach. My classmates and I found a diversity of trash, from cigarettes butts to styrofoam pieces, and plastic bags. Healing The Bay was a really interesting experience, I learned a lot from it. I would've never paid attention to all that trash if it wasn't because we actually went to clean the beach. At the end, there was a lot of trash collected, and I realized that our time and effort was worth because even though the beach wasn't perfectly clean, we picked up a lot of trash that could have ended up hurting plants and animals in the ocean. We really made a difference. Yes it's not that much trash when you actually start thinking about all the trash there is in every beach, but little by little it starts to be something and something is better than nothing.

Curing the Bay!!

Hi my name is Alfonso Ramirez. My English 101 class had to attend Heal the Bay at Dockweiler Beach for a day. At first I was not really interested in participating but once I was done, I left with a different perspective of the beach. I never knew that the trash on the ocean and beaches were mistaken as food by animals. Cleaning the beach made me realize how much animals are in jeopardy. Most of the trash my partners and I found were simple stuff that could have been thrown away. I found a lot of cigarette buds, napkins, and bottle caps. I thought beaches were non smoking zones but yet I found a lot of cigarette buds! These items can easily be put into trash cans and be avoided by animals. The trash cans along the beach were all full and people just keep piling them instead of getting a new bag to throw the trash. There were other trash items such as diapers, boxes of alcohol and sodas, and a full pizza box. These items should not be on the beach at all. People are lazy, do not care about the environment, and do not realize the harm they are putting on animals. The most shocking thing I found was a ditch that was full of garbage. Just trash and trash piled together. It was a disgusting and disturbing view. I couldn't believe that people could live like that. Eventually the trash would end up in the ocean and animals would confuse trash for food. Animals have been found dead because of hazardous waste inside their stomachs. Plastic caps look edible for animals but they cannot tell the difference if it is food or not. Cleaning the beach was a life changing experience. I use to be one those people who would litter trash and wouldn't car. Now I am cautious and keep the animals in my mind. On my next trip to the beach if i see some trash on the floor, I'm not going to ignore but instead pick it up. I know picking up a little bit of trash isn't a lot but it is something. And something matters!

Heal The Bay!

Heal the Bay was such a great experience. I never knew how much trash could actually end up on the beach. There was a lot of trash that was stuck in the bushes and scrubs along the side of the road. A lot of the trash we picked up were cigarette buds and styrofoam pieces. All of the trash there were things that could have easily been put in a bin and avoided ending up on the floor. Most of the trash at Dockweiler was there because people kept piling and over flowing trash bins that eventually caused the trash to fall out. I found a plastic bottle that was trapped in a bush and realized that if a heavy storm were to hit, it would most likely end up in the ocean like a lot of the trash near the shore. We shouldn't even be drinking from plastic bottles because of the BPA poisoning it contains. I learned that most of the trash that ends up in the ocean, animals can confuse as food. There have been many cases were animals die of plastic poisoning because their digestive systems are not made to break down plastic. Plastic bottles are not only bad for our health, but also the health of marine animals. By making sure I properly disposed of the plastic bottle, I knew I was doing my part in saving a marine animal. It makes me realize and raise awareness that there are still many other beaches that have the same issue, not just the one we cleaned. I'm very glad I got to be a part of Heal the Bay! Now next time I go to the ANY beach, I won't just be getting in the water, I'll help clean it!

Laziness...is Fatal

Laziness…is Fatal

Hello everyone, my name is Antony Ghobrial and I am part of the English 101 course at Cal State La. As a class, we all went to Dockweiler Beach to clean it from many things like beer caps, glass bottles, cigarette butts, and many more miscellaneous items. I was astonished by how many cigarette butts there were considering the beach is a no smoking environment. There were chip bags and paper plates that covered up everything. I found a lot of things that should not have been there to begin with. There are many young children at the beach on a daily basis. If there are broken glass bottles then a fun experience at the beach could end up in the hospital. Animals are like little children, they do not understand what is right from wrong. If a seal finds a plastic bag, who is going to tell it that that is not a jelly fish? No one will, the seal will eat it and die. People do not usually think in the future. They mostly think about the here and now. If a common person sees that the trash can is too far away, they many just throw it on the floor due to their laziness. The reason why we cleaned the beach was very simple. We attempted to clean the amount of garbage found all over the beach so that more trash can end up in a trash bin and not in the ocean. I learned that when I am at the beach and I see trash, even if it is not mine, I should still pick it up because that tiny amount of effort can and more than likely will save an animal's life.

Waking up early on Sunday morning to go help clean a beach on one of my days off, considering having a long night the night before, it felt kind of skeptical to me. But once my ride picked me up from my house to go to the beach, I had a different perspective of the day. Just as i thought, I had a good time at the beach, on top of getting the feeling that you did something good for your community. Getting to my experience cleaning the beach, me and the group that i was cleaning up with found a significant amount of pollution on the beach. We found a metal rod just laying in the sand. We also found a large amount of plastic wrappers, which was one categories that consisted of most of the waste. I actually found a piece of bamboo and it made me think if it had drifted all the way over here from Japan. Other groups that were helping clean up the beach found some pretty bizarre pieces of waste. One group actually found a really sharp knife in the sand, where someone could of hurt themselves with. Another group found a tampon, which i thought was pretty funny. At the end of the day, my group had collectively gathered 4 bags filled with trash. At the end of our "cleaning session," my group gathered around a bon fire pit and hung out for a bit before we headed home. I'm sorry that i cannot provide any pictures but I'm pretty sure a member that was in my group will post some of this pictures that we took. But overall, I had a great experience and knowing that I contributed in making this world a better place makes me feel good about myself. I hope that everyone that went out and helped out Heal the Bay clean up the beach continue to do good gracious as such and for those who could not make it, I hope you can contribute in anyway to our environment. :D

Heal The Bay

I was able to participate in the Heal The Bay to clean the beach. It felt great to help out and pick up the trash that people don't throw away because I knew I was doing a good thing. I was able to pick up a shoe, many plastic bottles, and a blanket that was in the sand. I had a great time at the beach and I would go again to help and clean up.

Heal the Bay: Dockweiler Beach Clean Up

On Sunday, September 27th, 2011, from 9:00am until 12noon, I headed down to our school beach on a mission to clear the sand and water of harmful and unsightly pollution. Our purpose while attending Heal the Bay: Dockweiler Beach Clean Up, was a beach cleanup in which we removed trash and recyclables from our California State University, Los Angeles beach at Dockweiler. Coastal and beach cleanup is extremely important and one of the largest volunteer events in the world. As many might ask, “why are beach clean ups so important”? California's coast and waterways collect trash and debris from places all over. This trash, if not removed, can be harmful and even fatal to all manners of marine wildlife, can damage our state's economy, and can even become a human health hazard. Coastal cleanup is a great way for us students and families to join together, take care of our fragile marine environment, show community support for our shared natural resources, learn about the impacts of marine debris and how we can prevent them, and most importantly to have fun!

I was able to make a difference by helping preserve and clean our Cal State LA, Dockweiler beach. We try to keep it clean because a clean beach helps to make our environment a much cleaner and healthier place to be. I felt proud after seeing the difference, how the beach looked after the cleanup. When we first got there, there were trash bags, bottles, chip bags, wrappers, as well as gross things such as condoms. Trash, even though this beach is considered to be one of the cleanest beaches within Los Angeles, still after being cleaned, still had trash and recyclables spread everywhere. But, walking through the foggy beach weather, after finishing, all I could see was sand, even more sand, and the beautiful beach. The way in which this experience connected to larger themes discussed in our class would contain themes such as restoring and issues concerning our environment. Also, this could somewhat tie into the theme of the American dream and as to what exactly you appreciate America to be. The trash and waste I found at Dockweiler is essentially detrimental and dangerous, not only to fish but also marine wildlife everywhere. As we noticed, as I found a somewhat big Styrofoam ice chest and glass bottles, these objects can and will eventually break down and be very dangerous for thousands and thousands of not only fish, but as well as other marine life it comes into contact with.Everyone went home with bright smiles on their faces knowing that they did something for their environment. We gathered all our debris and recorded the number of pieces collected. Other trash items included food packaging, cigarettes, plastics, and so on. It was surprising to see that beaches are polluted by such trash.

This experience opened my eyes to what’s happening around me. We are so preoccupied with unnecessary things – don’t forget that there’s a world out there that needs attention. It needs our help. We were the ones that brought bad changes to the environment, but we are also the hope for a better and cleaner world. The Earth is the only inhabitable planet. The future lies in our hands. As we work together to make a difference, this is the best gift we can give to Mother Earth, who has sustained us and nurtured us for a long time. In order to change and better society, we must all do our own part!

Today cleaning the beach overall was a great experience. There was a lot of trash on the beach something we found were just crazy. For example a sofa cushion in the rocks, and a metal pipe in the sand.I was amazed on how much trash there was and even with a squad of like 100 people cleaning. I was disgusted on how many cigarettes butts and tips i picked up, if they were to keep something out from the beach it should be smoking. Overall it was fun and had a great time picking up trash,we didn't manage to clean it all up,However we made a great impact on the environment. We have to keep our beaches clean.