On January 12th,Team Marine, with help from Heal the Bay, organized and hosted a beach cleanup and invited all of SAMOHI’s Marine Biology students as well as other members of the community. We collected trash all along the shore and especially around the mouth of the storm drain. With the trash we picked up we created an image of the Santa Monica Pier using items like cigarette butts, bottle caps, straws, styrofoam pieces, and other plastics. With the rest of the trash we created a sign of our motto ‘Rethink’. People walking along the boardwalk stopped to talk to us about what Team Marine does to help the environment such as informing people with our art about how the buildup of trash in the ocean affects animals, their ecosystems and ultimately us. Photographer Fabian Lewkowicz took some pictures of us creating our Santa Monica Pier inspired artwork and posted them on the Santa Monica Close-up’s Facebook, furthering our audiences. A big thank you to him and everyone who participated!
Written by Edie Cote
