Our beaches are beautiful places to enjoy your Sand Cloud all year round. The salty sea is the ultimate playground, and the sandy shore serves as a great break spot for your much needed R&R.
However, our oceans are in danger. There are a staggering amount of threats to our shores and seas. Sadly, while we may have the best intentions, all of us pose a risk to this environment.
So what can we do to help? Here at Sand Cloud, we have come up with 14 ways you can help protect marine life and save our beaches.
1. Take care of your trash (properly)
Be sure to recycle any plastics you use at home or bring to the beach. Always double check your packaging and the bin you are disposing it in to make sure you found the right match.
2. Change your packaging
Along with recycling disposable packaging, why not switch to a more eco-friendly option? Try reusable glass, wood, or metal instead. Also, try biodegradable plastics to decrease the amount of leftover packaging littering the shores.
3. Feed yourself, not the animals
If you do decide to bring food to the beach, make sure it’s for you, and only you! Don’t disrupt the diets of the animals, such as birds or fishes, that are sharing the shore and sea with you.
4. Cut the 6 pack
Don’t worry, you don’t have to cut root beer out of your diet to help out! Simply grab some scissors to cut apart the plastic wrapping of your 6 pack to make sure marine animals don’t get caught in the holes.
5. Join a clean-up!
If you live near the beach, tag along to a local clean-up. Team up with an organization or plan it yourself! Check out the San Diego Pacific Beach clean-up we hosted with San Diego Coastkeepers this past June.
6. Adopt a beach
Wanna go a step further? Take a beach under your wing! As an organization, community, or group, you and fellow beach-lovers can adopt an area to regularly maintain and clean up.
7. Contact your local rep
Get political! Call or write your local congressman (or woman!) about important issues facing your ocean community. Be the voice for the marine life that can’t speak up for themselves.
8. Consume sustainably caught seafood
If you eat seafood, research the fish you buy and restaurants you eat at to. Make sure you are not contributing to an unethical and unsafe practice.
9. Change your sunscreen
Buy organic sunscreens, or look with a sun protectant with safe ingredients. Keep your skin safe from harm, while also decreasing potential threat to the ocean.
10. Be an ocean-friendly pet owner
If you bring your pets to the beach, make sure to clean up after them. Even if you are no where near the sea, read pet food labels, never flush cat litter down the drain, and don’t mix wild-caught saltwater fish with your aquarium friends (or the other way around).
11. Take a safe trip
When you’re planning on taking your trip off-land, be sure to travel the waters responsibly. Research eco-friendly cruise lines, and be a respectful kayaker, canoer, or boater by acknowledging the presence of marine life (don’t throw anything overboard!).
12. Donate to the cause
Give money to charity! You can donate to one of our three partners, or another local organization close to your ocean-loving heart. You can also contribute by supporting a marine national park in your area.
13. Spread the word
Hey, why not talk to your family and friends about all you learned? Educate everyone you love so that they can help do their part to protect the oceans we all love.
14. Buy a Sand Cloud!
That’s right, even online shopping helps out! Sand Cloud donates 10% of our net profits to protect marine life. (Spending hours on our online store isn’t such a guilty pleasure anymore, huh?)
Follow these 14 tips to help keep our beaches safe and clean. Do your part to protect coral reefs, decrease marine litter, and save the lives of ocean animals. Join us in our efforts to keep this ecosystem safe, not just for you and your friends, but for and all the marine life you share the shore with.
