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  • Home
    • Our Mission
    • Chapters >
      • Volunteer Florida
      • Texas Beaches
      • Columbia South Carolina
      • Brazil Ocean Blue Chapter
      • California Beaches
      • Newport Beach Clean Up Oregon
      • Oregon Chapters >
        • Periwinkle Creek Restoration
        • River Projects Photos
      • Long Beach Peninsula, WA
      • Beach Cleanup Photos
    • Board Members
    • Contact Ocean Blue
    • 501 C 3
    • FAQs
    • Site Map
  • Resources
    • How To Volunteer
    • How to Cleanup a Beach
    • Oregon Coast
    • Coastal Beach Projects
    • Easy Beach Cleanup Ideas
    • More Resources >
      • Ocean Currents
      • Fungi Clean Water Projects
      • Willamette River Maps
      • Facts about the Ocean
      • Plastic Pollution
      • Marine Debris Program
      • Surface Ocean Currents of The Atlantic Ocean Currents
      • How Many Oceans Are
      • Marine Wildlife
  • Ocean News
    • Ocean Blogs
    • Press Release
  • GET INVOLVED
    • Corporate Sponsorships
    • Sign Your Name >
      • Save The Florida Panther >
        • Ban Plastic Fireworks
      • Pledge Two Per Day
      • Ocean Pledge
      • Plastic Wrapped Food Petition
    • Proud Sponsors >
      • Boeing Partnership >
        • Patagonia Partnership
        • Dorsal Partnership
        • CloudBees Ocean Partnership
        • Boxed Water Partnership
        • Advancing Women Executives
        • Sunriver Brewing Fundraiser
        • Brewers For Beaches
        • Wells Fargo Supports Clean Beaches
        • Dudley’s direct donations
        • Partnership w/ Bondi Sands
        • Block 15 brewing Company of Corvallis, Oregon
  • Volunteer
    • Create A Cleanup
    • Our Projects >
      • SE Oak Creek Stream Project
      • Adopt A River or Beach
      • Deschutes River Cleanup
      • Manzanita Beach Oregon
      • June 9th Is Oregon Ocean Day
      • Volunteer
      • Share Your Photo
    • Share Your Favorite Oregon Beach
  • Donate
    • Donate Today
    • Give!Guide Ocean Blue
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    • Gift A Evergreen Tree
  • Donation Store
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Environmental News

10/28/2019

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Best Ocean Cleanup Halloween Costumes 2019

 
​Raise awareness for marine creatures by dressing up as your favorite DIY marine animal By Karisa Boyce
Shark Halloween costumes for Children
So you love the ocean and you want to represent and raise awareness for your favorite ocean dweller and aren’t sure where to start. You have arrived at the perfect place for inspiration. This simple guide will help give you ideas and get your creative juices flowing with Ocean Blue’s top 5 picks for Ocean themed costumes:

​Jelly Fish Sea Creature Halloween Costume Ideas

Jellyfish Halloween Costumes
Grab a clear umbrella, add some led lights and streamers

Coral Reef ​Halloween Costume Idea

Coral Reef Halloween Costume Idea
Coral Reef - Get crafty with discarded pool noodles on an old hula hoop.

Squid Halloween Costume Idea

Squid Halloween Costume Idea
Squid - Add ribbons to the bottom of a bright colored t-shirt and paint or use felt to make eyes at the bottom of the shirt.

Whale Halloween Costume Idea

Whale Halloween Costume Idea
Whale - Cut out and paint cardboard, one for each side and strap it over your shoulders.
Comments

10/25/2019

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After Halloween Portland Cleanup W/ Give!guide Nonprofits

 
Nonprofit Calibration Portland Cleanup W/Give!Guide 
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This is a call to all Portland nonprofits and volunteers who care about keeping our streets and waterways clean! Ocean Blue challenges you to a neighborhood clean up! We have done all the hard work of setting up the event and are ready to collaborate. You say you care about the city and that ain’t no trash talking, is it? So we challenge you to bring out your supporters who will register for $10. And then your legions of do-gooder trash warriors will collect as much street rubbish as they can until the whistle is blown. 


Which ever organization collects the most garbage wins a 50-50 split of the registration pot. Ocean Blue will receive the other 50% to continue to do it’s good work cleaning the waterways and educating the public about how the Ocean is a mirror reflection of our city streets. This Halloween litter cleanup is a collaborative community effort to clean the city streets before debris is carried into the Willamette and Columbia Rivers to our one world Ocean.


After Halloween Portland Cleanup


Anyone can participate for Free -OR- choose to Enter for $10 to represent a local nonprofit that is a part of the Willamette Week Give!Guide 2019

Nonprofit to clean up the most pounds splits the pot with Ocean Blue!
No limits to number of non-profit participant entries.
Ride a bike to earn extra "pounds for the climate" and your nonprofit!
Win Costume Contests and more! Prizes from local businesses TBA...

Meetup at McMenamins Kennedy School front lawn on Saturday, November 2nd. Activity begins at 11am with winner being announced at 2pm.

All participants register here. Only those who enter for $10 will be counted as part of the competition. But anyone who wants to participate and help clean our city is welcome to participate in non-competitive litter pick up.

Prize Giveaways for Cleanup

Event Rules for the Portland Cleanup

Facebook Event Link Check It Out!

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10/23/2019

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CloudBees Employees Volunteer Santa Cruz California

 
​Software provider CloudBees joins Ocean Blue to Cleanup Santa Cruz Beach by Karisa Boyce
Create a Beach Cleanup with Cloudbees
Companies are more involved in giving back to the environment than ever before. As climate change protests and ocean cleanup efforts ramp up, corporate leaders are stepping up for our shared planet. CloudBees is one company who is rising to the occasion in collaboration with grassroots nonprofit, Ocean Blue Project, simply by cleaning a local beach. 

​CloudBees was one of several companies to sign up for an Ocean Blue Create a Cleanup project. The company also opted to become an Annual Corporate Member by donating to support more beach cleanups. Memberships also fund youth education and awareness through service-learning projects, internships, and a K-12 class program called Blue Schools centered around educating on marine debris, microplastics, and local watersheds.

​Over the summer, CloudBees employees gathered with Boy and Girl Scouts at Seabright Beach to volunteer Santa Cruz. Emanuel Gaspar of CloudBees reached out to Create a Cleanup earlier in the summer for CloudBees Bee-Good initiative. Emanuel led the efforts, ensuring there were burlap bags available to gather trash and help keep plastic bags off the beach. Together, they cleaned up mostly land-based debris, which is trash that people often bring to the beach and forget to take home. 

​Companies with employees who work inland and away from any coast can plan local stream or river projects. Our Ocean is a mirror reflection of our city streets because everything flows downstream eventually making its way to the Ocean. When debris and oil enter street drains that flow to the river, they become Ocean bound. Let’s work together across the United States, as CloudBees did to volunteer Santa Cruz, with Ocean Blue, in cleaning up marine debris at a local source, our urban streams, and rivers. 


To Create a Cleanup at your favorite beach, stream, or river, reach out to karisa@oceanblueproject.org.
Comments

10/17/2019

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After Halloween Portland Cleanup w/ Give!Guide & Ocean Blue

 
​This is a call to all Portland nonprofits who care about keeping our streets and waterways clean! By Karisa Boyce
Picture
This is a call to all Portland nonprofits and volunteers who care about keeping our streets and waterways clean! Ocean Blue challenges you to a neighborhood clean up! We have done all the hard work of setting up the event and are ready to collaborate. You say you care about the city and that ain’t no trash talking, is it? So we challenge you to bring out your supporters who will register for $10. And then your legions of do-gooder trash warriors will collect as much crap as they can until the whistle is blown. 


Which ever organization collects the most garbage wins a 50-50 split of the registration pot. Ocean Blue will receive the other 50% to continue to do it’s good work cleaning the waterways and educating the public about how the Ocean is a mirror reflection of our city streets. This Halloween litter cleanup is a collaborative community effort to clean the city streets before debris is carried into the Willamette and Columbia Rivers to our one world Ocean.

Anyone can participate for Free -OR- choose to Enter for $10 to represent a local nonprofit that is a part of the Willamette Week Give!Guide 2019

Nonprofit to clean up the most pounds splits the pot with Ocean Blue!
No limits to number of non-profit participant entries.
Ride a bike to earn extra "pounds for the climate" and your nonprofit!
Win Costume Contests and more! Prizes from local businesses TBA...

Meetup at McMenamins Kennedy School front lawn on Saturday, November 2nd. Activity begins at 11am with winner being announced at 2pm.
Picture
​All participants Register here. Only those who enter for $10 will be counted as part of the competition. But anyone who wants to participate and help clean our city is welcome to participate in non-competitive garbage pick up.
Comments

10/5/2019

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Willamette Fall River Cleanup w/Sunriver Brewing Company

 
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Published by Ocean Blue Project
“PSA” Press Release for Immediate Release 
 
Willamette River Volunteer Cleanup W/ Sunriver Brewing  
 
On Saturday October 12th, with Sunriver Brewing Company Employees, will join Ocean Blue for a beach cleanup celebration. Sunriver Brewing Co. is a Bend Based Brewery that has a mission to give back to our beaches. This is event is one three beach cleanups we have organized together for this summer.  
 
Ocean Blue Project, an Oregon-based national nonprofit, was founded in 2012 in Newport by father and son Richard and Fleet Arterbury. Ocean Blue got its start doing volunteer beach cleanups in Oregon and opened a chapter in Bend one year ago, researching the Deschutes River that flows into the Columbia River, eventually emptying into our one world Ocean.  
 
Sunriver Brewing quickly took the lead in the Ocean Blue Brewers for Beaches Initiative after Ocean Blue reached out at the beginning of this year. Brewers for Beaches seek out ways to care for our waterways that we rely on to drink and keep our beer tasting good.  
 
Having grown up in Tillamook, Sunriver Brewing director, Ryan Duley, was excited to support Ocean Blue as the award-winning brewery’s main cause. What was so exciting about this partnership is not only were they willing to give a large cash donation in support of cleanup efforts, Sunriver Brewing also pays their employees to be involved in community cleanup events.  
 
After hosting a Pint for Cause event last February, where a portion of the day’s sales were donated to Ocean Blue, Sunriver Brewing patrons became excited to get involved. One customer mentioned to a bartender, “For several years, I’ve wanted to come to an Ocean Blue beach cleanup, but it’s been hard to make it to a beach cleanup at the coast.” Overhearing this comment, Arterbury collaborated with Duley to bring a cleanup to the Bend community.  
 
Ocean Blue also provides experiential service learning projects and internships for students of all levels. Sunriver Brewing is a key partner for providing educational opportunities. One volunteer, a local high school sophomore, is planning to attend college near home to study conservation biology. The student arrived at the cleanup with his father, a Sunriver Brewing employee, and appreciated being able to learn outdoors for a Fall river cleanup. Dad got paid to be there while his son was able to give back to his local watershed by cleaning up the Deschutes River.  
 
What comes next for these dynamic partners? Join us on October 12th in Eugene, Oregon meeting at the Willamette River. For more information about upcoming beach and river cleanup events or how you can support Ocean Blue projects visit ​www.oceanblueproject.org​ or reach out to ​Karisa@oceanblueproject.org​.  
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Willamette River Cleanup Event Details 

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10/4/2019

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Ocean Blue Restores Brazilian Habitat, One Tree at a Time

 
​The Amazon’s biodiverse and less known neighbor is being restored by Ocean Blue, one tree at a time. By Karisa Boyce
Stream in Brazil restoration project by Ocean Blue Project
The Amazon Rainforest is the most biodiverse tropical rainforest on the planet. We value the Amazon for its canopy that 1 in 10 wildlife species in the world depend on for life and for the untapped potential of medicinal sources. While the Amazon has experienced at least 7,457 fires in September alone, a little less known neighboring biome called the Cerrado region has felt at least 8,012 fires this September. 

The Amazon is vital for global biodiversity and combating carbon dioxide levels. The Cerrado region is arguably equal in importance to its neighbor to the west. The Cerrado region is a vast wooded grassland that covers over 20% of Brazil. Being the world’s most biodiverse savanna region, 5% of the Earth’s flora and fauna call Cerrado home. 

Approximately 70% of the biomass in the Cerrado is underground and may hold up to 118 tons of carbon per acre. Agricultural practices that began in the region during the mid-20th century, along with the more recent rapid expansion of the soy and beef industries, have caused mass deforestation of about half of the region’s biomass. If current trends continue, the Cerrado will lose tens of millions of native vegetation acres by 2030. 

This is sad news for already endangered wildlife like jaguars, giant anteaters, armadillos, and maned wolves. It’s also putting water quality at risk for streams and rivers that people depend on for drinking water. The director of Ocean Blue Project, Richard Arterbury, believes that the best solution for the region is to halt deforestation and begin immediate recuperation with planting of native trees and shrubs that have been lost to fires and that wildlife depend on for survival. 

Ocean Blue Project board member and Regional Director of Brazil, Marina Losi Monteiro grew up in Goiás, a state of Brazil, situated in the Center-West area of the country that is home to both the Amazon and Cerrado regions. The name Goiás derives from the name of an indigenous community. Right now, Monteiro is working with the local government of Nova Veneza and Brazabrantes cities of Goiás, to restore a local stream, with goals to prevent water pollution, and air pollution. 
Brazil Map for Planting Trees by Ocean Blue Project a Nonprofit.
Streams and rivers are the lifeblood for inland areas like the Cerrado, and each of these eventually flow to our one world Ocean. Monteiro stated, “There is one little spring that falls to a bigger one called Ribeirão Cachoeira and that one falls to a river called Meia Ponte which is the one that provides water to many little cities, like Brazabrantes with a population of more than 3,000 people and the metropolis Goiânia where over 1.3 million people live.”

Beginning at the stream headwaters, called the “nascente” or “olho d’agua” which means “spring” in Portuguese, Monteiro is establishing habitat for target species including a fish called Piauçu (Leporinus macrocephalus), whose survival is threatened by degradation and predatory fishing. The South American Tapir, or Anta in Portuguese (Tapirus terrestris), is also being targeted because it is the largest surviving native land mammal that is also very important for seed dispersal. Another target species for the project is the Giant Anteater or Tamanduá Bandeira (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), the icon of Cerrado whose current status for survival is critical. Tamanduá Bandeira is one of four living anteater species and the only living member of genus Myrmecophaga. 

The restoration and wildlife enhancement project in Brazil’s Cerrado region is being developed to educate youth from local schools while enhancing wildlife habitat for target species like Piauçu, South American Tapir, Giant Anteater and many more. Plantation of native shrubs and trees will stabilize water temperature as canopy grows to shade the area while the roots will help prevent erosion and sedimentation of the stream and sequester carbon dioxide underground. 

Monteiro is doing more than plantation events with local youth as Marina and her family are also leading their community in cleanup efforts. On International Cleanup Day on September 21st, volunteers removed a lot of plastics, glass bottles and metals by the local stream, Ribeirão Cachoeira. That cleanup project also allowed the volunteers to have more contact with nature and become more aware of local plant and animal species. Monteiro is now planning more cleanup events and environment education projects for and with the community.

Water Pollution Facts

Did You Know? 
​Did you know that planting trees cleans the ocean? It’s because water flows downstream and inland water sources end up in the ocean eventually. Here’s a quick rundown of how it works: 

  1. Trees provide shade for streams and rivers, stabilizing water temperatures. Water that’s too warm grows algae and stable temperatures provide habitat for wildlife to thrive. 
  2. Trees stabilize river banks, creating a buffer zone and reducing erosion. The more stable a bank is, the cleaner the water will be. 
  3. Tree roots filter polluted stormwater. Before rain water washes dirty streets into waterways, organisms that exist in symbiotic relationships with the trees keep toxins from flowing into waterways.
  4. Tree roots suck up excess water. When heavy rains arrive the roots help reduce flooding. Flooding contributes to erosion and polluted stormwater runs into streams and rivers.
  5. Trees create wildlife habitat and birds spread seeds from native plants to create more habitat.
  6. Trees take in carbon emissions so the ocean doesn’t have to.

Within a year or two after planting you can rest in the shade under the tree you plant. Not only do trees help clean the ocean by reducing sediments that cause water pollution, they reduce dependency on coal and provide economic value to communities. Shaded homes require less energy to cool, lowering carbon emissions and reducing energy costs. ​Read more on Plastic pollution facts:

Photos of before planting trees in Brazil

Stream erosion
Restoration Project in Brazil by Ocean Blue Project

Meet Marina Monteiro Researcher for Ocean Blue Project

Marina Monteiro Board Member and Researcher for Ocean Blue Project
For more information on how to get to join Monteiro and Ocean Blue projects in Brazil, reach out to karisa@oceanblueproject.org. Help combat climate change and clean the Ocean, one plant at a time. ​
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