An empty Japanese fishing vessel discovered March 20 drifting off the coast of western Canada has prompted officials to reexamine the mass of tsunami debris heading toward North America. The ghost ship was spotted just after the one-year anniversary of Japan's devastating 75-foot tsunami in March 11, 2011. It is now believed that pieces of the wreckage will arrive sooner than expected, and it remains unclear whether or not SoCal beaches will be in its path. more ›

We're coming up on the one-year anniversary of the tsunami in Japan this Sunday. In anticipation of the anniversary, Heal the Bay says it has been fielding a lot of questions about what has happened to the estimated 20-25 million tons of debris that flooded into the ocean that day. more ›

As part of the continued effort to ban single-use bags in Los Angeles, Heal the Bay has dubbed Thursday, December 15 "Day Without A Bag." The event is appropriately timed, as L.A. City Council is expected to move forward with a sweeping ban on single-use shopping bags next week. more ›

The proposed pilot program to put an off-leash dog beach in Santa Monica has been buried like Fido's favorite bone, after state officials made it clear this week they will not approve the plan. more ›

Hold on to your man boobs, Simon Cowell. Judgment is now glowering upon you and your Verizon "X-Factor" app promo. In the TV spot, Cowell tosses cell phones from the balcony of a Malibu beachfront home, deeming them "rubbish," "junk," "useless," "embarrassing," "pointless" and "whatever" - using the beach as his personal garbage can. Mark Gold, president of Santa Monica's environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay doesn't see the commercial as "whatever." more ›

A Santa Monica non-profit has been sitting up and begging for an off-leash dog beach for some time, and now they "have been thrown a bone," quips The Santa Monica Daily Press. more ›

After today's rainfall, the first significant shower since March, Heal the Bay urges Southlanders to steer clear of the Pacific for the next 72 hours. Swimmers are also advised to avoid contact with storm water that pools or streams along the beach. more ›

Long Beach, a city infamous for its poor beach water quality, has been doing its homework and received gold star AND smiley face stickers on its latest report card. Heal the Bay released its 2011 End of Summer Beach Report Card - a report of beach water quality - on Monday, awarding Long Beach with excellent marks for its "dramatic improvement," per Monday's press release. more ›

The mural "Oceans at Risk" was painted by street artists Risk and Retna and sponsored by the environmental group Heal the Bay. The group was hoping to leave the four-story mural up until next Saturday's statewide clean-up of California's beaches. But it might not last until the clean-up next Saturday — or if it does, it will be a very, very expensive billboard. Santa Monica City is threatening to levy a $5,000 daily fine on the mural, which took months of painting. The problem is it was never properly permitted. more ›

Shoppers, your 6-month grace period is over: Tomorrow begins a life of BYOBag for shoppers in Santa Monica, as the city's Single-Use Carryout Bag Ban goes into full enforcement September 1. Under the ban, all 1,900 Santa Monica retailers are prohibited from giving customers single-use plastic carryout bags. more ›

Saturday saw the return of the Santa Monica Pier Paddleboard Race and Ocean Festival as thousands of spectators watched hundreds of competitors from age 9-70+ honor the once popular Southern California sport of paddleboarding, according to Surfline. more ›

A charmless, desolate block-long traffic median in South Los Angeles is about to become the neighborhood's newest "pocket park" thanks to the efforts of Heal the Bay, some local school kids, and an infusion of grant funding from California State Parks. Located at the intersection of McKinley Avenue and E. 87th Street, this "dead" space is about to become the WAYS Literacy and Fitness Park, a green space that promotes sustainability and health by using water recycling and other eco-friendly practices and giving locals a new place to play and exercise. more ›

Things are still a little fishy in Redondo Beach's King Harbor, as the great dead sardine clean up goes into its third day. "The work was about half way done Wednesday with an estimated 35 tons of fish scooped up from the surface," reports the Daily News. Authorities estimate about 95% of the fish on the surface have been removed. more ›

After years of threats from the plastics industry, Santa Monica has finally passed a single-use plastic bag ban, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press. The council voted 4-0 to approve the ban which will go into effect this September. Plastic bags will no longer be available at any retailers in Santa Monica except for take-out restaurants and food delivery. more ›

Who knew the waters that lap the shores of Long Beach were such a hot bed of headline-generating eco-focused news? 2010 was a banner year for environmental issues at the national and state level, and the Long Beach Gazettes.com takes a look back at the year at their beach. more ›

It was a landmark day yesterday for those working to preserve marine life in Southern California, as the California Fish and Game Commission approved a set of Marine Protected Areas, serving as " the final step in a multi-year collaborative process to establish a network of safe havens for marine life throughout the region," according to Heal the Bay. more ›

Did you know that an average Californian uses 500 to 600 plastic bags each year? For those still toting groceries and other sundries in plastic from the store to the car to the house, Thursday offers an opportunity to convert to a plastic bag-free life. A Day Without a Bag is an annual event aimed at promoting awareness of the harm single-use plastic bags cause the environment, and to encourage consumers to trade their plastic for eco-friendly reusable bags. more ›

Los Angeles County could become the largest municipality in the county to pass a ban on single use plastic bags...if the Board of Supervisors vote accordingly today. more ›

Environmentalists are divided over the proposed $7 million plan to restore the Malibu Lagoon, according to the LA Times. Tomorrow the Coastal Commission will consider the plan, which will see to it the lagoon's "stagnant, polluted waterways" be drained and rectified in order to better its "ecological health." more ›

When the surf's was up in California this summer, it was pretty safe to go in the water. The annual End of Summer Beach Report Card issued by Heal the Bay shows that 92 per cent of the state's beaches have "good-to-excellent water quality," reports MyFoxLA. more ›

After hearing about the extraordinaire amount of blue whales feeding off coast this year, Heal the Bay's staff, including head honcho Mark Gold checked it out this past Sunday. The results were stunning. more ›

The effort to ban single-use plastic and paper bags from grocery stores failed to win support in the State Senate last night, effectively killing the bill. Now there's talk of next steps, which a coalition of local leaders had previously warned of. more ›

Despite its beauty and household name among local beaches, Paradise Cove has been one of the most polluted when it comes to water quality. Last year it received an F. Why? "High levels of fecal indicator bacteria," according to Heal the Bay's annual beach report card (eek!). But this year it jumped to a B, thanks to a... more ›

There is some bittersweet news about L.A.'s local beaches. According to the latest report card from Heal the Bay, things are improving, but beaches in L.A. County continue to exhibit some of the lowest grades in the state. Based on routine monitoring of beaches where "water samples are analyzed for bacteria that indicate pollution from numerous sources, including fecal waste," the annual report card shows that 79% of the 86 beaches in the county earned A or B grades during dry weather. more ›

Once a popular sport at the Santa Monica Pier dating back to the 1940s, paddleboarding is riding a comeback wave with a competition to kick off the summer on June 12th. more ›

While everyday should be a day without a plastic bag, today is that day where we emphasize it. Heal the Bay sponsors the annual event in which free reusable bags are given away to help reduce the more than 6 billion plastic bags used by Los Angeles County residents each year. Eek! That's a horrible fact. Changing the lifestyle is not so hard. In our experience, the most difficult hurdle to overcome was remembering to take the bag with us every time we headed to the store. more ›

A state water board's administrative error has basically left a polluting company off the hook. In what Heal the Bay president Mark Gold calls "one of the most polluted beaches in Santa Monica Bay"--that would be Paradise Cove in Malibu--a mobile park owned by the Kissel Company "has been one of the largest sources of fecal pollution to the beach." Ew! So here's what happened: more ›