You can support the WHALE TAIL^® Grants Program by purchasing a WHALE TAIL^® License Plate.

A front yard is transformed by the Ocean Friendly Gardens Program

Surfrider Foundation

The Surfrider Foundation's Ocean Friendly Gardens Program helps people apply CPR to their garden—Conservation, Permeability and Retention—to revive their watersheds and oceans. These environmentally friendly gardening techniques use less water, eliminate the use of chemicals, prevent or at least cleanse runoff, and create wildlife habitat. A Whale Tail^® grant is supporting two Ocean Friendly Garden (OFG) education and training series—one in Santa Barbara County and one in Ventura County. Each series consists of five sessions: a Watershed Basics Class covering the fundamentals of CPR; a Hands-On Workshop in a highly visible garden to evaluate it for CPR and develop design ideas; a Garden Assistance Party to turn the garden into an OFG and post an OFG yard sign; returning to walk the neighborhood to identify gardens that could become ocean-friendly with a little help, or ones that are already eligible for a sign; and a special workshop for landscaping professionals.

The program keeps going even after the four workshops, because any recipient of a new garden agrees to serve as a model for the neighborhood and to "pay it forward" and help with creating another OFG in the future.

The series in both counties are underway this spring. To participate or to get more information, please contact Surfrider's Ventura County Chapter or the Santa Barbara Chapter.

Before	During	Catching Rain

Sampling Pacific Mole Crabs at Fort Funston, San Francisco

Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association

On an unusually warm September day in San Francisco, teens from Thornton Continuation High School in Daly City descended on the beach at Fort Funston, planted rows of orange flags near the surf line, and began scooping up sand at each flag. They would then run up the beach to their classmates, rinse the sand away, and see what they were left holding. Quite often they were left holding small Pacific mole crabs. Having done this before, the teens knew how to measure them and determine whether they were male or female, and after marking down the relevant data, they would return the crabs to their sandy home and scoop up the next sample.

These students were participating in the LiMPETS program overseen by the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association. "LiMPETS" is short for "Long-term Monitoring Program and Experiential Training for Students." It is a hands-on science education program for middle and high school students, who monitor either the distribution and abundance of the Pacific mole crab (an important food web link on sandy beaches), or the distribution and abundance of 33 invertebrate and algae species at specific rocky intertidal sites along the coast. After the data collection is complete, students enter their information into the LiMPETS database, which is used by students as well as researchers to track the populations of key indicator species over time. A Whale Tail^® grant is helping 1,500 Bay Area youth participate in this program.

Tuolumne Salmon Fry Release

Tuolumne River Trust

The Tuolumne River Trust operates the "Trekking the Tuolumne River" program which teaches elementary students in the Central Valley about the Tuolumne River, its value to the community, and how to be good stewards of the river. The program includes classroom activities, help in developing service learning projects, and hands-on activities at outdoor classrooms at the river to learn about watersheds, water quality, the riparian ecosystem, and the salmon lifecycle.

A grant from the Coastal Commission supported the addition of a coastal component to provide students with a more thorough understanding of the Tuolumne's connection to other rivers and the ocean. Students followed the journey of the salmon as they learned to trace the river on a map to the Delta and the Pacific Ocean, learned how river conditions effect conditions downstream, visited salmon spawning grounds during the fall migration, hatched salmonids in their classroom, released the salmon fry into the river, played games mimicking how salmon find their way back to the same river where they hatched, and traveled to the ocean to visit The Marine Mammal Center and Rodeo Beach in the San Francisco Bay Area.

This new coastal component was initially added at Salida Elementary School in Stanislaus County. It is a Title I magnet school for science, math, and technology, where two-thirds of the students come from underserved backgrounds. Their teachers received training so they could continue the program on their own. The Trust intends to expand this new component into other schools in the future.

Fresno students at the Kids' Ocean Day Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup in Monterey

Fresno Chaffee Zoo

What do kids do when they step onto a beach for the first time? Some look toward the horizon, others watch the moving waves, quite a few marvel at how unusual it feels to walk on sand, and just about all of them enjoy it. Fresno Chaffee Zoo has been bringing Central Valley schoolchildren to the shores of Monterey since 2001, and for some of them, the trip is their first opportunity to visit the California coast. The Zoo's Education Department is able to do this through Whale Tail^® funding for the Kids' Ocean Day Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup Program. Zoo staff visit participating schools in the spring, teaching students about marine life and the ocean environment and how their actions impact the health of the ocean, even many miles away. Then in the second part of the program, the students ride buses over 150 miles to do something about the pollution problem they've learned about.

In May of 2011, 185 fifth-graders from Carver and Yokomi Elementary Schools in Fresno picked up 4,600 pieces of litter at Monterey Municipal Beach, which at first glance looked clean to begin with. What do some of them like best about seeing the ocean for the first time? "Its beauty," said one student. "Being next to it," said another. Besides conducing a beach cleanup, they also got time to play ball, dig for crabs, and find other ways to enjoy the sand and the water.

Oakland High School Sea Lion Bowl team members, courtesy of Katie Noonan

Romberg Tiburon Center

What are the two most common ions in seawater? What does SCUBA stand for? What are zooxanthellae? San Francisco State University's Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies helps host the "Sea Lion Bowl" in northern California. Part of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, this is a challenging quiz-style high school science competition with regional events and national finals.

A Whale Tail^® grant from the Coastal Commission is helping support the Sea Lion Bowl's Diversity Initiative, which recruits Bay Area public high schools that are classified as low-income or have significant populations of students of color. Once a school is accepted to participate, it will select up to 25 students to take part in tutoring and mentoring in the ocean sciences, field trips to marine science research or education facilities, practice sessions with other schools, extended-learning college classes in marine science, and an introduction to careers in the ocean sciences. Their teachers receive educational resources and professional development opportunities. At the end of the program, the students conduct team research projects and compete against other regional teams.

In 2011, two teams in the Diversity Initiative competed in the Sea Lion Bowl: San Lorenzo High School and Oakland High School. Congratulations to both teams, including Oakland High, which won the 4th-place trophy.

Superpowers! exhibit at Ty Warner Sea Center

Ty Warner Sea Center

The Ty Warner Sea Center in Santa Barbara is currently showing a one-year exhibit called Superpowers! It highlights local "superpowered" marine life of the Santa Barbara Channel, the "villains" that threaten them, and the ability of people to become "heroes" for the ocean through everyday actions

The exhibit is written in English and Spanish and starts with a superhero dress-up station where visitors can put on capes as they travel through the different stations. It is then divided into three areas:

1. Aquariums and a touch tank featuring local marine species with especially interesting abilities ("powers") that increase their chances of survival (including sea creatures that regenerate and mantis shrimp which are strong enough to throw punches), and an interactive strength meter where visitors can compare their strength to the power of crab claws.

2. A focus on threats to these species ("villains") such as discarded plastic bags or oil in the water and how people are also threatened by loss of marine life. This area includes a tank with floating jellyfish next to a tank with floating plastic bags (illustrating how the two look similar), an interactive watershed model showing how pollutants flow to the ocean, and fish swimming in an aquarium lined with simulated trash.

3. Positive solutions featuring a computerized kiosk where guests can make pledges to be an ocean hero, an electronic matching game featuring solutions to ocean pollution, and real-life local ocean heroes, all of which are intended to inspire visitors to be ocean heroes themselves.

Camp S.E.A. Lab Girls Surfing Lesson

Camp S.E.A. Lab

Camp SEA Lab ("Science, Education, and Adventure") offers hands-on marine education programs around Monterey Bay aimed at fostering life-long excitement, scientific understanding, and a sense of stewardship for coasts and oceans. Programs include summer day camps, summer residential camps, an outdoor school, training for teachers, and workshops for families. Camp SEA Lab is affiliated with CSU Monterey Bay. Scholarships are offered to include youth from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the sciences.

Camp SEA Lab's programs include a wide range of fun and educational activities such as: tide pooling, kayaking, learning to surf, learning to sail, snorkeling, researching marine animals, visiting the Seymour Center Aquarium, meeting with scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), learning about ocean science careers, building Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), examining plankton, dissecting fish, and learning about protecting the ecosystem of Monterey Bay.

Arcata Elementary School's North Pacific Gyre Art Installation

Arcata Community Recycling Center

In June 2010, the Arcata Community Recycling Center completed an art installation at Arcata Elementary School depicting plastic debris caught in the North Pacific Gyre. The school collected empty plastic bottles and arranged them on the playing field in a giant spiral, symbolizing plastic pieces swirling in the Pacific Ocean. Students also made sea animals which were shown entangled in the plastic debris. The installation was photographed from atop the ladder of an Arcata Fire Department truck. View a video of the project here.

A Whale Tail Grant funded this art project along with the accompanying education program, which included the bottle drive, in-school lessons about the ocean and marine debris, beach cleanups, touring the Recycling Center, and recycling the bottles afterward. The project was documented on video by other students at Sunny Brae Middle School.

The Cesar Chavez Club organized a 'friends group' for 47th Street Canyon in City Heights

San Diego Canyonlands

The non-profit San Diego Canyonlands was awarded a Whale Tail^® grant in 2009 to organize residents in underserved urban areas into "friends groups" to revitalize nearby, neglected canyon open spaces and restore the native habitats. They found a lot of energy from the youth groups in City Heights including the Hoover High School Eco-Club and the Cesar Chavez Club. The Cesar Chavez Club is taking on a leadership role in the campaign to restore open space canyons with creeks draining to the coast in the urban community of City Heights, San Diego.

Eight Club members helped with grassroots community outreach to establish a new canyon "friends group" at 47th Street Canyon in City Heights. On a Saturday morning in June they helped distribute flyers to promote a free guided tour in 47th Street Canyon. The students also distributed information encouraging people not to use non-native plants that take over natural habitats in the canyons and information on reducing the use of polluting chemicals and fertilizers in home gardens. The tour was held on June 27th and was a smashing success with 40 attendees. A new stewardship group for the canyon was established with strong and dedicated leadership. They now have routine monthly stewardship events in the canyon. The Cesar Chavez Club has continued to support the canyon group efforts.

Cesar Chavez said, "The only way I know how to organize people is to talk to one person, then talk to another person, then talk to another person." The flyers the Chavez club distributed brought the community together to talk about their neighborhood canyon, learn about the importance of the unique habitats in it, and now they collectively are transforming this open space into healthy habitat that is a safe, enjoyable community asset.

Student decorating reusable bags with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center

Pacific Marine Mammal Center's Pinniped Pollution Project

With help from a WHALE TAIL^® Grant and other donors, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center launched the Pinniped Pollution Project in October of 2008. This program has trained and motivated over one thousand elementary school children to change their polluting behaviors and become stewards of the marine environment. After modeling how trash travels from their playgrounds and streets into the ocean and seeing the results of this debris on the marine inhabitants, kids make the connection between the animals that they find so compelling and their behavior at home. Compelled to change, the work of giving them alternatives begins. Students are introduced to biodegradable products and participate in a shopping game that highlights the differences in trash production and packaging choices. They then summarize their lessons on a cloth bag that they take home with them. This becomes their new alternative to using throw-away bags as well as a teaching tool that they use to share what they have learned with others. "I taught my mom what I learned about making sure that trash does not get in the ocean," says Kayla, a 5th grader from Roosevelt Elementary. "We thought we were coming to learn about what we could do to save the seals, when in fact we learned how to save ourselves and the world," says Shirley MacLean, a 4th grade teacher from Jackson Elementary school.