Santa Barbara Channelkeeper

Keeping Watch for Clean Water

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May is American Wetlands Month 

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May is American Wetlands Month, and a perfect time to take a moment to appreciate these beautiful habitats and all that they offer to wildlife and communities. 

What are Wetlands? 

A wetland is land that is covered by water—salt, fresh, or brackish—either seasonally or permanently, that functions as its own ecosystem. Freshwater wetlands include bogs, swamps, and wet prairies. Saltwater wetlands include salt marshes and mangrove swamps.  

Why are Wetlands Important? 

Wetlands are one of the most productive and biodiverse habitats on our planet. They provide important shelter and breeding, nesting, feeding, and wintering habitat for a wide range of species. In fact, while wetlands cover only six percent of the Earth’s land surface, forty percent of all plant and animal species live or breed in them and more than one-third of the threatened and endangered species in the United States live exclusively in wetlands.  

Many fish and shellfish species such as flounder, sea trout, spot, croaker and striped bass and shrimp, oysters, clams, and blue and Dungeness crabs need coastal wetlands to survive. Many birds such as ducks, geese, woodpeckers, hawks, wading birds, and songbirds in addition to mammals such as black bears, raccoons, otters, and deer, rely on wetlands for food, water, and shelter. 

Wetlands absorb excess rain or river water, so they protect communities against flooding and sea level rise. Additionally, wetlands help remove excess nutrients, toxic substances, and sediment from water that flows through them. They are so effective at improving water quality they have been referred to as the “kidneys” of a watershed.  

How do wetlands fight climate change? 

Wetlands are one of the planet’s best carbon-storing tools. When natural debris such as leaves, animal waste, and other high-carbon matter settles from the water’s surface to the bottom, it’s buried by sediment, sequestering carbon. Research indicates that coastal salt marshes can sequester approximately 1,940 pounds of carbon per acre per year, helping keep greenhouse gases out of the environment. 

We need to Conserve and Restore Wetlands 

In the past century, most wetlands have been drained, filled, and disconnected from the flowing rivers and streams that once brought them life. In California, more than ninety percent of the wetlands that once spread across the state have disappeared.  

This May, we invite you to explore a wetland near you. Observe the incredible biodiversity, enjoy the natural tranquility, and reflect upon the importance of preserving and restoring our remaining wetland habitats for the species that rely on them and the communities that they enrich. Each of us can be a voice for the wetlands. 

Explore a wetland near you! 

Honoring Local Impacts of the Clean Water Act on the 50th Anniversary

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Clean water is central to our identity and way of life on the South Coast. The health of our ocean—and the creeks, rivers, wetlands, and watersheds that flow into it—directly affects our community’s health and happiness, our economy, and the ecological richness that makes this place so unique.

This month, we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, which has played an important role in improving the water quality of the Santa Barbara Channel and its watersheds, as well as waterways across the nation.

Before the Clean Water Act, only one-third of America’s waterways were considered clean enough to be fishable or swimmable. Many of our nation’s waters were contaminated by sewage, oil, trash, industrial pollution, and agricultural runoff.  Rivers in some areas were so polluted that they caught on fire. In response to public outcry, in October of 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to address water quality issues by regulating the amount of pollutants discharged into our natural water systems and establishing national standards for water quality.

The Clean Water Act represented a milestone in our nation’s environmental history. It took significant steps to stop dumping raw sewage and untreated industrial waste into our waters. It set a goal to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters for the use and benefit of everyone. It also gave every person the right to enforce the law when the government fails to protect clean water. 

Since then, Channelkeeper and other Waterkeepers across the United States have used the Clean Water Act to stop pollution, to prevent habitat destruction, and to set water quality standards that ensure our waterways are healthy for both wildlife and people to use and enjoy.

In fact, the Clean Water Act forms the backbone of Channelkeeper’s work. In 1999, Santa Barbara County had the highest number of public health warnings for poor water quality of any coastal county in California. Since then, Channelkeeper has leveraged the Clean Water Act to improve water quality along the South Coast by motivating polluters like Halaco Engineering Co., the Ojai Quarry, and Southern California Edison to clean up their operations. We have also used the Clean Water Act framework to effect policy changes to better protect our community from sewage overflows, industrial pollution, and agricultural discharges.

There is still work to be done to defend our community’s right to clean water and healthy habitats, but we hope you’ll join us in honoring the 50th anniversary of a law that has improved the health and safety of the ocean, creeks, wetlands, and rivers that we love and continues to help keep our waterways, wildlife, and community vibrant.

Monitoring Plankton to Protect Wildlife, People, and Ocean Health

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Did you know that one teaspoon of ocean water can contain over a million living creatures called plankton?  These microscopic plants (phytoplankton) and animals (zooplankton) drift with the ocean’s currents and play a fundamental role in many ocean systems. Plankton are tiny yet vital organisms.

Phytoplankton form the base of the ocean food web. Small marine creatures like zooplankton, crustaceans, and small fish eat phytoplankton and are in turn consumed by whales, squid, and larger fish, which become food for top ocean predators like sharks.

Phytoplankton concentration is influenced by several factors, including light availability, temperature, and nutrients.

Phytoplankton produce their own nourishment using the energy of the sun in a process called photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, phytoplankton release oxygen into the water as a byproduct. Scientists estimate that about 50% of the world’s oxygen is produced via phytoplankton photosynthesis.

Phytoplankton are also responsible for most of the transfer of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the ocean. During photosynthesis, they consume carbon dioxide and later release it through respiration or as biomass when they die and sink to the bottom of the ocean.

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Why Monitor Plankton?

Channelkeeper conducts plankton tows to help monitor algal blooms in the Santa Barbara Channel. When environmental conditions in ocean water change, sometimes caused by an overabundance of nutrients such as nitrogen or phosphorus from fertilizer runoff, sewage treatment plants, and other land-based sources, phytoplankton populations can grow rapidly. This is called a “bloom.” Some blooms only result in a change of the water’s color (like the coccolithophore bloom that made the ocean look milky blue in Santa Barbara a few years ago), while others can be harmful, depleting oxygen in the water, blocking sunlight, or secreting toxins. Harmful algae blooms, some of which are known as red tides due to their reddish-brown color, can sicken and kill marine wildlife and negatively affect humans who are exposed to them.

While out on our boat conducting MPA Watch surveys, our team collects samples which we send to the California Department of Health. We do this in an effort to better understand harmful algae blooms and to protect both people and wildlife from their effects.

Tiny Creatures Provide Big Insight

Monitoring plankton populations is also key to assessing the health of the marine environment. Around the world, plankton are used as indicators of the health of water due to their short life span and sensitivity to both short-term and long-term environmental changes. Studying plankton helps scientists understand many things about the ocean, such as changes in fish populations, pollution, and climate. Learning about these tiny yet vital creatures can help us better understand important ocean systems and more effectively protect wildlife and the environment.

A Snapshot of the Planktonic Community

A plankton tow is a way to collect a sample of marine microorganisms. This snapshot of the planktonic community reveals what plankton populations are flourishing, any imbalances, and can provide clues about water quality.

From the deck of our boat, the R/V Channelkeeper, our team submerges a fine-meshed net with a jar at one end to collect the plankton sample. We send it down 30 feet in the water column and pull it back up using a rope. This is called a vertical tow (as opposed to pulling the net horizontally through the water). The net is sunk and raised three times. Then, we pour the liquid trapped in the jar into a fresh bottle containing a small amount of preservative. We place the bottles in postmarked boxes and mail them to the California Department of Public Health for lab analysis. These samples are analyzed for toxin-producing species, and they reveal trends in phytoplankton distribution along the coast.

What We Sometimes Find

Diatoms
These microscopic phytoplankton plankton are a food source for zooplankton. Diatoms have cell walls made of silica and many form long chains of cells.

Coccolithophorids
Large blooms of these phytoplankton create milky white areas in the ocean that are visible from space thanks to the calcium carbonate plates that make up their cell walls.

Copepod
Considered the most numerous multicellular animals on earth, these tiny crustaceans are a food source for many other zooplankton and fish.

Krill
These zooplankton are important source of food for many marine mammals and seabirds.  They are an important part of the food web.

Meroplankton
The larvae of many bottom-dwelling invertebrates like crabs, starfish, mussels, clams, and lobsters all begin as larvae in the plankton before they settle on the bottom and become the more familiar adult creatures. These organisms are called meroplankton, because they only spend part of their lives among plankton, as opposed to holoplankton, or organisms that spend their entire lives as plankton. 

Pteropod
These gelatinous zooplankton are relatives of snails. Pteropods feed using a mucous web that they trap food particles with.

Threats to Plankton


Ocean acidification poses a significant threat to phytoplankton. When excess carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion is absorbed by seawater, a series of chemical reactions occur that result in the increased concentration of hydrogen ions. This increase causes seawater to become more acidic and causes carbonate ions to be less abundant. These carbonate ions are essential for calcifying organisms to build and maintain their shells, skeletons, and other structures. Scientists speculate that a more acidic ocean will cause some types of plankton to grow slower and others to grow faster, changing the balance and affecting the food web.

Plankton are also threatened by plastic pollution and microplastics billions of tiny bits of plastic, less than five millimeters in size. Plastics float, block sunlight, and do not degrade. By blocking sunlight, plastics disrupt phytoplankton’s ability to produce energy through photosynthesis, causing them to die off. Zooplankton can also consume microplastics and die from blockages in their digestive tracts. Because they are a primary food source for many marine creatures, when plankton populations diminish, many other species are affected throughout the ocean food web.

Connecting Kids with Nature to Spark Wonder and Inspire Environmental Sensitivity

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If you’ve ever followed a hermit crab’s footprints across a tidepool, built a fort in the wilderness, or listened closely to a bird’s song, you understand the sense of wonder and quiet joy that activities in the wild can inspire. For kids, the natural world can be a place of curiosity, creative play, and discovery. 

A growing number of studies suggest that connection with nature has significant physical, psychological, and academic benefits for kids. Time in the wild can also inspire greater sensitivity to the surrounding world, a deeper understanding of environmental issues, and real-life opportunities to practice problem-solving. 

Channelkeeper’s education programs aim to nurture environmental awareness and stewardship in young people with the understanding that today’s youth are the decision-makers of tomorrow. Their environmental ethics are critical to our planet’s future. By fostering a connection between young people and the natural world, we hope to inspire the next generation of clean water leaders. 

To extend our discovery-driven curriculum beyond field trips and classroom visits, we’ve gathered a few fun, hands-on educational activities for young explorers and families to experience together. Learn about how water moves through a watershed and the ways in which it can become contaminated. Discover the fluid dynamics of the water cycle. In addition, we’ve included some special places to explore with activities such as rock hopping in Mission Creek at Rocky Nook Park, tidepooling at Coal Oil Point, bird watching at the Goleta Slough, and reading inspiring stories in the shade of a tree.

We hope that you share these activities with a special child in your life and enjoy a moment in nature together.

Activities:

Make a Watershed 

Have you ever wondered where water goes when it rains? In this simple activity you can make a model watershed and watch how the water flows over the land.

  • Crumple up a piece of plain office paper and then smooth it back out most of the way- it should remain a bit crumpled, showing small ridges (high points) and valleys (low points). 
  • Imagine that this paper is a section of land. Find the ridgelines (the tops of the fold-lines). 
  • Use a washable blue marker (not permanent) to color along the ridgelines on your land. The blue color from the marker will help you follow the path of the precipitation.
  • Use a spray bottle of water to create a rainstorm over your land. The goal is to create gentle sprays of mist. 
  • Spray the bottle once, and observe the precipitation. Has the water begun to move in your watershed? If not, then lightly mist again, until the precipitation starts traveling on your watershed. 
  • As your rainfall accumulates, observe the pathways where the excess rainfall travels.

Explore your watershed. With your finger, trace your stream (the path of the blue marker) all the way back up to where it starts at the top of the ridge. When you reach the top, this is the edge of the watershed for your stream and lake. Trace the entire edge of the watershed with your finger by following the ridgeline.  Everything inside, the downward-sloping area you have just outlined is the watershed for your stream or lake.

Find the Solution to Pollution 

  • Gather up 4-5 clean glass jars, masking tape, paper coffee filters, and a magnifying glass. 
  • Collect water from different sources including tap water, a creek or lake, or even the ocean making sure to label each jar with the water source.
  • Fit the coffee filters just inside the mouths of additional large, wide-mouthed jars. 
  • Take one of the water samples, and slowly pour the water through the filter into the other jar. Repeat for each water sample, pouring it into a new jar with a fresh coffee filter. 
  • Open each filter and examine it through the magnifying glass. 
  • Analyze the filters. Which filter is the most discolored? Which filter caught the most particles? Did any of the samples leave a colored residue on the filter? 
  • Discuss how the water in creeks, rivers, and the ocean can become polluted. Where do pollutants come from? 
  • A major cause of water pollution in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties is nonpoint source pollution, or contamination that comes from more than one source. As water runoff moves over land, it picks up and carries natural and human-made pollutants into our creeks and rivers, which eventually drain into the ocean. What steps can we take to reduce water pollution in our area?

Create a Water Cycle Model

  • Use a permanent marker to draw the water cycle on a Ziplock bag (if possible, reuse a plastic bag for this activity). You can create your own interpretation of water collection, evaporation, condensation, and precipitation or follow this easy video.
  • Pour about ⅓ cup of water into the bag. You can add one or two drops of blue food coloring to the water if you choose, but it’s not essential.
  • Find a sunny window and tape the bag to the glass.
  • Check in on the water cycle bag at different times throughout the next few days. Do you see water droplets form along the bag from the condensation? Eventually, you may see streaks along the side of the bag as the droplets grow and drop down the side, representing precipitation. From there, the water will recollect and pool at the bottom, mimicking the water cycle we experience on Earth.
  • Rinse out the plastic bag and reuse it for other household needs!

Outdoor Adventures:

Visit Mission Creek in Rocky Nook Park
Rocky Nook Park is not only free to visit, its creek area is a special place to connect with nature. Practice your rock hopping skills and get to know Mission Creek’s pools while looking for tadpoles. How many different kinds of water bugs can you find? Pick up 5 pieces of trash to leave the park a little cleaner than you found it.

Low Tide Beach Walk
Check the tides and head to the beach to explore during low tide! How many creatures can you count? Can you find the wrack line, the horizontal line on the beach where kelp, driftwood, and insects collect? This accumulation area plays an important role in beach ecology. How many hermit crabs can you find in a tidepool? Can you find a sea star? Their populations are just starting to recover following a wasting disease. Be sure to leave them on the rock where you observed them! Check for low tides at Tide Predictions – NOAA Tides & Currents

Some of our favorite tidepools to explore include Tarpits Beach in Carpinteria, Leadbetter Beach in Santa Barbara, and in the Campus Point Marine Protected Area at Coal Oil Point in Isla Vista.

Watch the Birds
We’re so lucky! The Santa Barbara area has so many great opportunities to observe birds, including many species that pass through seasonally. Have you ever spotted a red tail hawk? How about a snowy egret? We challenge you to find your favorite bird! What sort of habitat does it prefer? What does it like to eat? What sounds does it make?

Visit the Goleta Slough, Lake Los Carneros, and Santa Barbara Bird Refuge for some excellent birding and check out the free ebird app for help with bird identification and cool facts!

Read books outside!

Have you ever read a book with your feet in a creek? How about under a tree? Borrow a few books from your local library or find them online and head outdoors! Some of our favorites include:

  • Once Upon a Watershed by Dianne Bennett
  • The Big Book of the Blue by Yuval Zommer
  • Deep in the Ocean by Lucie Brunelliere
  • All the Way to the Ocean by Joel Harper
  • The Little Creek that Could by Marc Angelo
  • The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
  • The Watcher: Jane Goodall’s Life with the Chimps by Jeanette Winter

New Report Outlines a Comprehensive Approach to Prevent Ocean Plastic Pollution

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[En Español]

How can we address the global issue of plastic waste? A new report published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS), titled Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste, not only evaluates the United States’ contribution to plastic production and waste generation, it also offers recommendations for reducing the amount of plastic that makes its way to the ocean.

The NAS study, required by the bipartisan Save Our Seas 2.0 Act of 2020, reports that the U.S. generated more plastic waste in 2016 than any country in the world—a total of 42 million metric tons (MMT) and estimates that in 2016 about 1 to 2 MMT of US-generated plastic waste entered the environment in the U.S. and abroad. Previous studies estimate that globally 8 MMT of plastic waste enters the world’s ocean each year.

The report found that the leading sources of ocean plastics include stormwater systems, wastewater discharges, atmospheric deposits, trash from boats and ships, beach waste, and transport from inland areas by rivers and streams.

These findings underscore the urgent need for enhanced tracking and monitoring to gather comprehensive data and address knowledge gaps by employing technologies such as sensors, biochemical markers, and tracers, as well as the implementation of standardized measurements to collect meaningful data sets that are scientifically robust and comparable.

Recommended Interventions

What steps can the U.S. take to reduce the amount of plastic waste entering the ocean? The report recommends that a variety of interventions be implemented across various stages of plastic’s path from source to ocean.

As a fundamental step, the study suggests that the U.S. reduce overall plastic production to affect change throughout the waste stream. And, with system-wide solutions in mind, the report also recommends that the U.S. improve waste management infrastructure and accelerate innovations in material and product design to develop plastic substitutes that degrade more quickly or are easily recycled.

Physical interventions include frequent cleanups, improving the methods used to remove plastic waste from the environment such as extracting plastic waste from stormwater, and reducing the amount of plastic waste that enters the ocean directly from vessels via the establishment of waste disposal infrastructure, incentives for land-based disposal of fishing nets and gear, better tracking methods, and increased enforcement.

Ultimately, the report recommends the creation of a federal research and policy strategy that focuses on identifying and implementing interventions throughout the plastic life cycle.

The NAS report not only provides an informative assessment of the U.S.’s contribution to the global ocean plastic problem, but it also offers actionable recommendations that, if implemented, may position the US as a global leader in reducing plastic pollution and creating a more circular economy. In this sense, the report presents an opportunity to effect positive change and transform our nation’s approach to mitigating plastic pollution.

What Can We Do?

As an organization, Channelkeeper works to reduce the flow of plastic pollution to the ocean through an array of advocacy, monitoring, outreach, and education initiatives and as a lead community voice supporting the transition away from single-use plastics. We conduct cleanups, advocate for local ordinances to minimize distribution of these single-use plastic items by using less harmful alternatives, and we support a film plastic recycling program in partnership with Abblitt’s Fine Cleaners that converts plastic waste into pellets used for decking and other household materials.

On an individual level, each of us can take steps to reduce the flow of plastics into the environment. We can lessen the plastic used in our lives and choose products that come in minimal packaging. We can leverage our purchasing power to choose more sustainable options by purchasing secondhand items and products in bulk, and by reusing items rather than buying new ones. We can also simply recycle the plastic items that we use. Finally, we can support government policies that reduces plastic use. Support government initiatives at the city, county, state, and federal level to reduce the use of single-use plastics and hold businesses accountable for the packaging they produce.

In November of 2022, every Californian will have an opportunity to take action against plastic pollution by voting in support of the California Plastic Waste Reduction Regulations Initiative. If passed, the law would require the State to take steps to reduce plastic waste including requiring that single-use plastic packaging, containers, and utensils be reusable, recyclable, or compostable. It would also tax producers of single-use plastics and use the revenue to fund recycling and environmental programs.

We invite you to learn more about this upcoming ballot initiative and support federal legislation like the Federal Break Free from Plastic Act of 2020, which would hold plastic producers fiscally responsible for collecting, managing, and recycling or composting their products after consumer use and would establish minimum percentages of products that must be reused, recycled, or composted.

Reducing the amount of plastic waste that finds its way into the environment will require the combined efforts of legislative action, producer responsibility, and consumer pressure. Channelkeeper is pleased to support the transition away from plastic and continues to take an active role in pollution reduction through ocean pollution monitoring and prevention, in addition to political advocacy and community education.

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