Friday July 10, 2009, 4:25 pm
1. Be green
Reducing your carbon footprint, conserving water, eating organic food, being vegetarian, and buying nontoxic products can help lessen global warming, which is causing water temperatures to rise, upsetting the oceans’ delicate balance.

2. Don't wash your car in the street
Not only does it use 60 percent more water than a commercial car wash, but the detergent runoff ends up – untreated – in streams, lakes, and the ocean.

3. Pick up after pets
A recent US Geological Survey study of streams and creeks in Kansas showed that pet-waste germs made up approximately a quarter of the bacteria in samples collected from local waterways. When enough bacteria get into the ocean, they can cause beach and shellfish-bed closures and threaten the drinking supply.

4. Watch what you wash down the drain
Cooking grease, excessive food waste, and trash in sink drains and disposals can accumulate in city sewer lines and cause blockages that create sewage overflows into the ocean.

5. Use natural personal-care and laundry products
Everything you put on your body eventually goes down the drain when you shower, as does the water from your washing machine. Waste-water treatment plants are not equipped to filter out these types of chemicals.

6. Be a blue boater
Use nontoxic cleaning products and paints over a dropcloth, recycle used oil, and schedule regular maintenance to avoid fuel and lubricant leaks.

7. Organize clean-ups of nearby beaches
Last year, volunteers collected almost 18,000 pounds of debris from 130 miles of coastline, according to Coastsweep, a UMass-Boston group that organizes statewide cleanups. For more information on how to start one in your neighborhood, check www.coastsweep.umb.edu. Right, volunteers pick up beach trash in Santa Monica, Calif., during the 2008 International Coastal Cleanup.

8. Use cloth shopping bags
Plastic bags cause the deaths of 100,000 marine animals each year when the animals mistake them for food, so if you must use them, always recycle them in the bin at your supermarket.

9. Choose your fish carefully
Many marine species are overfished, and some have high levels of mercury and PCBs. Do your research by searching “ocean-friendly seafood” at the New England Aquarium’s website, neaq.org, or browsing sites like blueocean.org (its fish phone can send a text message report to your cellphone) and montereybayaquarium.org.

10. Cut up monofilament fishing line, string, and rope before discarding, and never let balloons drift off
Seabirds and other creatures can get tangled in lines, and marine mammals often mistake balloons for food. Right, volunteers and wildlife organizations help release Patsy the Manatee in Homestead, Fla. She was rescued in April 2009, after her flipper became severely entangled in fishing line. During her rehabilitation, veterinarians determined Patsy was pregnant. The veterinarians cleared her for release so she can continue to heal on her own and deliver her calf in the wild.

11. Vote with the environment in mind
Lobby your legislators to end harmful fishing methods, set tougher safety standards for oil spills, and keep shoreline development in check, among other things.

12. Use less plastic and always recycle
According to Greenpeace, about 10 million tons of plastic ends up in the ocean annually; much of it has collected in a spiral in the north Pacific. The “garbage vortex” is the size of Texas, and it’s not getting any smaller.

13. Help prevent air pollution
Air pollution contributes to water pollution and increases acidity in oceans and lakes. You can reduce your output by avoiding aerosols and driving less, for starters.

14. Use only natural lawn products, and plant trees and shrubs around your property to lessen erosion
About 60 percent of soil that’s washed away ends up in waterways, bringing pesticides, fertilizer, and terrestrial bacteria with it.

15. Don't flush unused or expired medications
Hormones, antidepressants, painkillers, and other drugs are showing up in our water supply and harming aquatic life. Crush unused pills and throw them away in kitty litter, used coffee grounds, or other unpalatable items.

16. If you have a saltwater fish tank, buy only Marine Aquarium Council-certified fish and never return them to the ocean
Pacific lionfish is just one species that has proliferated in the southern Atlantic and Caribbean after hobbyists released the fish when they got too big for their tanks. A single lionfish can reduce recruitment of other fish on a reef by a staggering 85 percent, and these apex predators are threatening both commercial fishing and tourism.

17. Flex your consumer power
Learn about companies’ environmental policies and buy only from those that promote green – and blue – practices. Don’t buy products that exploit the oceans, such as coral calcium, shark cartilage supplements, and coral jewelry, and if you take fish oil, you can substitute equally healthy flaxseed oil.

18. It might seem basic, but don't throw trash into waterways
Cigarette butts, which take up to five years to break down in saltwater, can kill birds and aquatic animals that mistake them for food.

19. Don't use antibacterial soap
Its most common ingredient, triclosan, is not completely removed during waste-water treatment, and is toxic to marine organisms.

20. Don't use soap in or near open water
Only three parts per million can kill sea urchin embryos, for example.

21. Dispose hazardous waste properly
Take motor oil, paint, antifreeze, pesticides, and solvent containers and leftovers to a hazardous waste drop-off site rather than pouring them into storm drains or sewers. Clean up spills rather than hosing them into the street.

22. Service your septic system
Make sure your septic system operates properly by having it inspected and pumped at least every three to five years.

23. Take up scuba diving
It’s safe and will help you appreciate the underwater world.

24. Make a donation
If you can, provide financial support.

25. Learn more about ocean health...
...and pass on your knowledge to others.
On the web

* Blue Ocean Institute
* Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation
* Monterey Bay Aquarium
* Natural Resources Defense Council
* New England Aquarium
* Ocean Conservancy
* Oceana
* Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Friday July 10, 2009, 6:49 pm
26. Don't use plastic
27. Don't use POPs like DDT Chlorinated Hydrocarbons, Organo phosphates.
28 Avoid surfactants in weedkiller and "soil wetting" agents.

Saturday July 11, 2009, 7:26 am
Thank you Michael! More suggestions are welcome!
Hugs,
Ana

Saturday July 11, 2009, 1:41 pm
When the lakes are lowered here for the winter (Tennessee) you would be amazed at all things you can find and clean up...I have found more fishing lures and equipment this way than I have ever purchased.

Sunday July 12, 2009, 5:49 pm
Thanks for the tips, they were great!!!

Sunday July 12, 2009, 11:38 pm
DON'T EAT FISH AT ALL!!!!

Monday July 13, 2009, 12:06 am
Thanks Ana..
Great article..
Noted..

Monday July 13, 2009, 9:28 am
Thank you very much !!! I will necessarily apply them in an everyday life :)

Monday July 13, 2009, 12:45 pm
Great post

Monday July 13, 2009, 2:51 pm
This was such a terrific article I had to print it out. Notes on pet waste, watch what you flush down the drains etc. People just don't get it or they just don't seem to care. Don't they know that they are causing so much damage to our ocean we are killing off all the wonders that the great ocean has to offer.

In 1960 I still remember, hearing don't eat Swordfish it has to much Mercury in it...I was young, but heard that in a restaurant....

If BAD then look at all the distruction the human race has done since then, it is so sad. Wish people would get their light bulb on and take care of MOTHER EARTH...she (mother earth) has so much beauty to offer. Living in San Diego (near Mexico) they are always putting up notices after rains that the water is contamated and today on the news it said that kids digging in the sand (to make sand castles or look for sand crabs) are getting sick at a alarming rate -- news said take your antibacterial hand wash to clean your childrens hands -- Clean their hands and to it away from anything that is going to be going into the oceans.

Ana -- you really know what you are talking about...I think you should be on the San Diego News station and SOCK IT TO THEM - THE PUBLIC. If this human race goes on like we have the past 50 years there isn't going to be anything left but trash and we will be living on it.

That is just my opinion.

Monday July 13, 2009, 8:01 pm
Thanks Ana, this is good.

Wednesday July 15, 2009, 5:47 am
Noted with interest,thanks Ana.

Saturday July 25, 2009, 11:50 am
All of these are simple acts everyone should follow.