What You Can Do For The Oceans

PREVENT WATER POLLUTION

What goes down the drain, runs off lawns and farmland, spills from sewers and industrial outflows or seeps from septic tanks eventually reaches the sea.
• Reduce runoff, which poses the most serious pollution threat to coastal waters, according to the Pew Oceans Commission. Maximize plants, bricks, gravel that promote water absorption, rather than pavement that lets it run into storm drains. Channel rainwater onto plantings. Wash car on lawn.
• Pick up after pets: Keep cats indoors and don’t wash pet waste down storm drains; cat feces have caused toxoplasmosis in California sea otters.
• Use nontoxic home & yard pest control: use compost & cuttings instead of synthetic fertilizers. See www.Birc.org, www.panna.igc.org and The Green Guide's “Common Sense Home Pest Control” (GG 91) and “Garden Prep” (GG 96).
• Buy organic food farmed with soil-conserving methods free of toxic, synthetic pesticides and algae-promoting fertilizers. Buy local at farmers’ markets. See The Green Guide's internet and mail-order resources.
• Clean without toxic chemicals: See The Green Guide's “Household Cleaning Supplies” product report.
• Keep out of drains: Cooking grease (a major cause of sewage spills),motor oil, solvents, old paints/pesticides. For safe disposal how-tos, call local sanitation dept. or 800-CLEANUP (www.cleanup.org).

CONSERVE WATER

Produce less polluted wastewater and keep your septic tank in good shape.
• Use efficient appliances and fixtures: Washing machines, dishwashers, shower heads, faucets, low-flow toilets. See www.waterwiser.org.
• Don’t let taps and hoses run when washing hands, dishes, car. Turn off shower while soaping.
• Water yard efficiently: reuse dishwater; irrigate at coolest time of day; use drip systems and less-thirsty plants.

EAT FISH THAT’S SUSTAINABLY CAUGHT OR FARMED

See "Best Fish List for Your Health and the Sea's."

REDUCE MARINE DEBRIS

Marine debris strangles and contaminates sea life.
• Don’t use disposable plastic items such as bags, lighters, six-pack rings.
• Help clean up beaches and streams.

VACATION RESPONSIBLY

• Do not touch or walk on coral reefs: Stirred-up sediment can choke coral. Don’t feed fish.
• Conserve, con’t cruise: Cruise ships do great damage ramming or setting anchor on coral reefs and dumping fuel, bilge water or sewage at sea. For certified greener Galàpagos cruises, see the SmartVoyager program at www.ra.org. For campaigns to regulate cruises, see www.bluewaternetwork.org
• Protect, don’t collect tropical aquarium fish, live coral or jewelry and other products made from coral, sea turtles, marine mammals. See www.worldwildlife.org/buyerbeware, and www.coralreef.gov/trade.cfm.

RESOURCES

Sustainable Seafood

Download The Green Guide's Best Fish Picks card

Seafood Choices Alliance www.seafoodchoices.com

Chilean Sea Bass Campaign www.environet.policy.net/marine/csb/

Caviar Emptor Campaign www.caviaremptor.org

Audubon Society www.audubon.org

Monterey Bay Aquarium www.montereybayaquarium.org

Environmental Working Group www.ewg.org

Environmental Defense www.environmentaldefense.org

WorldWildlife Fund www.Worldwildlife.org.

Oceans Conservation

Blue Frontier: Saving America’s Living Seas (W. H.Freeman, 2001, $24.95); Blue Frontier Campaign (202-387-8030).

Island Stewardship: Guide to Preventing Water Pollution, West Maui Watershed Committee/Hawaii DOH (808-586-4309)

Hawaiian Coral Reef Ecology (Mutual, $26.95)

Pew Commission on the Oceans report, at www.pewoceans.org

EPA's Coral Reef Protection Site www.epa.gov/OWOW/oceans/coral

International Coral Reef Initiative www.environnement.gouv.fr/icri

Surfrider Foundation www.surfrider.org.