Earth Day at Caron's Beach House - Part 1

When I started writing the business plan last spring (2009) for Caron's Beach House, it became so clear to me that I had to make Supporting our Future a critical part of my mission statement.  It's funny how this has really changed my outlook on simple every day life.  I have become a better recycler at home, a smarter cook with less processed foods/packaging,  a better garbage picker upper, I try very very hard not to drink bottled water and if I do, we re-use the bottles. The simplest change that I have made is that  I always take an extra bag with me to the beach to pick up plastic and other debris - nothing needs to end up in the swirling garbage dump in the middle of the Pacific.

So, here's what I did and what I wrote for the "Caron's Causes Page": http://www.caronsbeachhouse.com/servlet/the-template/charitablecauses/Page  (the entire page)

Supporting our Future:

Caron’s Beach House has made a commitment to support various charitable organizations through your generous purchase of our products. This is a very significant part of our mission statement as a company; giving back to our communities, protecting our environment and supporting important humanitarian efforts for education, health care and well being. We are inviting our customers to join us. To further those efforts, Caron’s will be featuring a variety of beach house style décor products in which a potion of the proceeds will be donated to support our favorite organizations.

And this is how I ended that page after highlighting several of my favorite organizations - 

"Because living on the coast is our passion, we believe in thoroughly researching our products, striving to find sustainable home décor items, and to also work with manufacturers that also share our vision whenever possible. We also support beach cottage industry artists, and their artistry in our “Beach Finds” collection (check here often for new items!)

As part of the commitment to support our earth’s future and oceans’ health, Caron’s Beach House will also recycle, re-purpose, and re-use as much of our packaging material as we can (bubble-wrap, peanuts, cardboard) – don’t be surprised to find that your shipments might not be packed in a brand new box!"

And, I do stick to this philosophy. Some days it's a lot more work, but I feel so much better when I ship a box out to a customer and know that in some small way, I am helping the oceans.

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day and as a way to support Ocean Conservancy.Org here's what we are doing:  The best part is that up until May 7 - all donations to Ocean Conservancy's Science program will be doubled! 

This year we will be donating 25% of the sale proceeds from your generous purchase of the hand-crafted iridescent glass reminders of the sea! 

Two colors available; purchase either the Sea Green, or the Marine Blue Starfish before May 2, 2010 and Caron's Beach House will donate 25% to Ocean Conservancy.Org - one of our favorite causes to support! 

This organization works tirelessly to bring awareness of our Oceans' plight  - they also have been the instigators of the largest volunteer effort, EVER.  Last September, 498,818 volunteers in over 100 countries picked up 7,446,130 pounds of trash.  

That's what I call amazing work!!  Please join me in supporting the continued effort of this great organization - take a look at their website, they can actually help you organize your own beach clean-up day!

www.OceanConservancy.Org

I have some shipping to do - and then I am headed to Half Moon Bay with my extra bag to pick up plastic...Have a fabulous Earth Day!  Here's a few photos from HMB, last week's walk before the surf got me!

Simply Starfish!

Am fascinated by these creatures!  We are so lucky in the Northwest to have so many varieties and colors - blues, greens, orange and many shades of purple. The neon purple of the starfish to the left is real, and  not retouched by photoshop! (Trust me, I haven't found my disk yet to install on my new laptop! )

The following pictures are a collection of starfish photos that I have collected all summer to share with my beachcombing fans. I have been so fortunate to have lived all of my life by the water, sometimes I forget how lucky!  Many of these photos were taken at minus tides right here on my family's beach, at nearby Manchester State Park, or at Waterman Dock, also within minutes of my house.  Hope you enjoy and learn a little too!

Starfish are best found at very low tides, and can be easily found clutching pilings, in tidepools, and hiding in rock crevices.  They are classified as "echnoderms", with knobby spines on their backs, their skin has soft fuzzy clumps of oxygen absorbing tissue. 

Each of their feet is tipped with a tiny suction cup which helps a starfish hang on tight when a wave washes over them.  So cool; having neither heads, nor tails, they can change direction without turning around! Using their tube feet, starfish can pry open mussels, clams and even oysters ( my dad HATES starfish for this reason!) just enough to insert their inside-out stomachs into their prey's shell and digest their victim.  


Six-Rayed Star: Usually smaller starfish, lead-gray, olive-green, or orange with pinkish tones. Found a few of these! They feast on barnacles (our beaches are a smörgåsbord of barnacles!), small snails, small sea cucumbers and chitons.  They can be found in low tide zones from Puget Sound to the Channel Islands off of the California Coast.  I am guessing that this picture to the left is a six-rayed star, it was small, and sort of orange-brown..

Found one Sunflower Star. The one that I did find was very small and delicate. They start life with six arms, but can grow up to 40 cm across, and 24 arms! Orange, grey-blue or purple, they are soft and limp out of the water with very breakable arms. Enjoying a menu of urchins, clams, mussels, and dead fish (they pretty much eat anything!), the sunflower starfish moves very fast and is the largest intertidal star on the Pacific Coast. 

No worries if a starfish loses an arm - they can easily regenerate a new one! Check out this blue starfish that I found on the beach one day when we were hunting for rock crabs...  Can you see the start of a new arm growing?

Ochre Star: These can grow up to 30 cm across, with rows of white tipped spines running down their arms.  They are rough to the touch, and can be found mostly in shades of purples, reds, oranges. Slow growing, and dining on mussel shells, barnacles, limpets, snails and of course, oysters, this is the species that is the most common around my neighborhood. 

 Sorry that the photo of some very large deep brick-red starfish are hard to see! They were clinging to rocks, just barely underwater, near the Waterman Dock.  I was amazed at their gorgeous color..

Found a few green Ochre Stars, so unusual!
























At Manchester State Park, Alex and I had the best time scrambling over the rocks hunting for starfish in all of the crevices.  There were some areas that I could not climb down, so thank goodness that my son has no fear!  Here he is getting the shots of the small bright orange starfish that he found in a tidepool.

Final photos are some of the ones that we found stuck in the rocks at Manchester - come starfish hunting with us next time.  I think I am getting to be an expert on where to find them!

The Art of Rock Crabbing

Tools Required:

1. Super low tide (-3.1 or better)

2. Beach Shoes or Rubber Boots

3. Sturdy Rake

4. Big, Deep Bucket

5. Gloves (maybe)

6. ATTITUDE!

Rules:

1. Crabs must be 5 1/2

inches across the top of their shell to be legal

2. Must have shellfish license and can only take 6 per person (must also be Crab Season)

3. Leave the girl crabs on the beach (flip them over before putting them in the bucket to make sure)

4. Don't get your fingers anywhere near their strong front claws - OUCH!

Here's Alex, headed out on the hunt for the mighty Rock Crab! Note the determined stride, to find the wily creatures hiding under big leaf seaweed and in hidden holes under big rocks. Rock Crabs are distinctly different than Dungeness, shells are much tougher, brighter red in color and taste (I think) much sweeter than a Dungeness. They are definitely worth the effort!

I am a great bucket holder and picture taker, and perfectly happy to let Dad and Alex rake for the crabs under the bigger rocks, and wade out into the water to find them scuttling along underneath the layers of kelp. They are both wearing boots... my beat-up Keds won't withstand a rock crab pinch!

One of the best side benefits of rock crabbing is getting the chance to see all kinds of other sea life that we normally don't see because it is all covered up by cold, deep Puget Sound water. I found some of the most gorgeous, colorful sea stars that I have ever seen, and again am always amazed at nature's color palette.

Look closely at the photo on the right, for the girl crab hiding underneath the rock near the light purple sea star on the left.

Anemones galore on my mom and dad's beach!

Brilliant oranges and reds - have to be so careful though when shooting the pictures to not touch them, or they quickly shrink out of sight.

Alex and Dad easily found 11 crabs and I actually found 3 all by myself! Lots of girl crabs and crabs missing front claws that we decide to leave on the beach for next year. As you can probably tell from the photo, it is a little tricky to capture one and make sure that it doesn't pinch you. Here's Alex with one large rock crab on his rake before he deposits him in the bucket. We can put quite a few crabs in each bucket, and they usually fight for a while before settling down. So Critical to have a deep bucket to prevent escaping!

Next blog post: Now that you've caught 14 crabs, what do you do with them?