Cephalopodcast

David McRee (aka, the BeachHunter) has a new write up of the Point-of-Rocks area of Siesta Key, FL. Readers of this blog know my fascination with the place. Like most of Florida, there are a lot of tacky ads to wade through on the BeachHunter site (and an ocean of matted photos). But the information is thorough and can help you navigate through the half-flower hedges to the best public access beaches.

And why would you want to visit Point-of-Rocks? It’s the only area I know of on the SW coast of Florida that has tidepools.

• BeachHunter: Point-of-Rocks
• Previously: Cephalovlog #3: 60 Seconds of Rock-Flipping at POR.

Tomorrow is the International Coastal Clean Up Day.

In 1986, a staff member of The Ocean Conservancy was appalled by the amount of trash she found littering the shores of South Padre Island, Texas. She took responsible action by organizing a beach cleanup. In three hours, 2,800 Texans picked up 124 tons of trash from 122 miles of coastline. With that, Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup was born.

That event was just the beginning of a movement for cleaner beaches and waterways. Later, it grew to encompass the shorelines of 25 U.S. states and territories. In 1989, the Cleanup went international, with the participation of residents of Canada and Mexico. To date, over 6 million volunteers have removed over 100 million pounds of marine litter from a grand total of 170,000 miles of beaches and inland waterways.

If you are in my neck of the woods, the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program is having a shoreline restoration at Herb Dolan Park in Bradenton Beach. They need help removing rubble and planting 2600 plugs of Spartina grass. The Eco-Sarasota Meet Up Group is also organizing a cleanup on Otter Key.

And here is a funny idea from Jaehyung Hong mentioned over at Yanko Designs that is supposed to get kids excited about conservation. It is a piece of plastic that you stick other pieces of plastic into and is vaguely shaped like an octopus. But it seems a bit daft to me. There are only six openings for the legs.

• Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup
• Toy Octopus Encourages Beach Clean Up