LISA PORTER
Staff Writer
LISA PORTER/Staff Photographer
An ironic greeting welcomed Tom Jones, an extreme endurance athlete, as he paddled into Surfrider Beach, Malibu, on Saturday in an effort to raise awareness about ocean pollution. He is attempting to become the first person in history to travel the entire Calif. coast on nothing more than a 14-foot paddleboard in his Campaign for a Plastic-Free Ocean.
Among signs that read “Beach Closed: Avoid Water Contact” were small fish, octopi, small crabs and sea slugs: all dead, likely because of the Lagoon breach in Malibu early that morning that spilled sewage straight into the ocean.
The spillage couldn’t have been timelier with the arrival of Jones, an environmentalist and advocate for cleaner oceans. He said that his purpose for the journey is to get more people involved.
“Something needs to be done,” said Jones about ocean pollution and his journey. “Maybe I can be the guy responsible for knocking over the first domino.”
Jones and his team started their journey Aug 7, although the scheduled start date was Aug.4, on the coast of Oregon and Washington and plan to end at the Mexican border on Nov 4.
Jones is not only an extreme athlete, but a motivational speaker, international kick-boxing champion and child advocate. He has run across the US once and across California twice. He grew up in the foster care system and only has a sixth-grade education level, but he still continues to take on challenges. He said this particular journey came about because of the amount of pollution he saw as a surfer.
At this point in his journey, Jones has traveled about 640 nautical miles, or 736 miles. He said he paddles 10 to 20 miles a day and at night has a trainer rub out his hands which often fall asleep. Jones said the journey hasn’t been easy, citing many dangers such as shark infested waters, too-close-for-comfort encounters with Orca whales, fog, winds up to 50 mph and swells up to 12 feet. Jones is followed by a Jet-ski and is monitored by his team and his manager, Larry Westfall, a Pepperdine University board member.
Westfall said he agreed with Jones that ocean pollution is a major problem.
“It, [pollution], is devastating to our human existence because the ocean is our biggest resource,” said Westfall. “In the next ten to thirty years, we wont be able to use the beaches if nothings done.
“I don’t think people really know what’s going on here, we have a false sense of security.”
A United Nations Environmental Report said that there is an estimated 5.76 million tons of plastic in our oceans. That’s comparable to two-thirds of California in a plastic bag. There is also six times more plastic in the ocean than plankton off the coast of California, according to a recent study.
Most of that trash winds up in the ocean. Jones said he’s seen rubbish in isolated parts of the ocean, buckets upon buckets of trash, international debris, IV bags and numerous animals caught up or injured by trash.
At the beach, members of Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the ocean, passed around a petition to decrease or even ban the use of plastic bags in grocery stores.
“We’re trying to get people to take responsibility,” said Lindsey Jurca, member of Surfrider. “I’ve seen changes [in the beaches] in just four years.”
Malibu Divers, headed by Barbara Gentile, sent scuba divers into the contaminated water and they came back with plastic bags, bottle caps, milk cartons and other assorted items. A spectator found a shoe discarded a yard from the surf.
According to Jones, the Malibu area has some of the worst beaches for ocean pollution, second only to Santa Cruz. He said he only fell once into the water at Zuma Beach and the next day he got a sinus infection. Westfall and Hirtz also said that Santa Monica Beach and Sunset Beach are some of the dirtiest beaches that they have traversed along the coast.
Hirtz encouraged beach goers to be proactive in cleaning up the ocean. He said that the trash on the beach right now is like someone walking down the beach, dropping a plastic bottle every two feet and leaving it there.
“If you see it there, [trash], and leave it there, it’s just as bad as putting it there,” said Hirtz.
Jones said he believes ocean pollution is a serious concern and is life threatening not only for animals but for mankind as well.
“If responsible people looked at the issue, then they’ll see what I do,” said Jones before shaking his head. “It’ll be too late. We won’t wake up and smell the garbage fast enough.”
For more information on Tom Jones and his journey, California Paddle 2007, visit http://www.californiapaddle.com/Index.cfm.
10-24-2007
