Pacific Ocean

The morning of Aug. 24 will forever be etched into the memories of those waiting to see the tidal pools of the Bolsa Chica wetlands, shimmering under overcast skies, reconnect to the Pacific Ocean after more than a century. Spectators and environmentalists lined the Pacific Coast Highway bridge over the inlet beginning at 4 a.m. to see ocean waters moving gingerly into the tidal inlet. The moment was the zenith of 30-year efforts to save and restore a big chunk of the 1,200 acres of wetlands.

Tidal pools at the Bolsa Chica wetlands Thursday morning shimmered under the shadow of dark clouds bunched together, having waited more than a century to reconnect to the Pacific Ocean. For people waiting since 4 a.m. to see the Pacific Ocean moving gingerly into the tidal inlet, the moment was the zenith of 30-year efforts to save and restore a big chunk of the 1,200 acres of wetlands. “This is the real thing,” said Jim Trout, project coordinator of the California State Lands Commission, which owns the wetlands.

Now that three cities have gone on record against the waiver I hope that the Orange County Sanitation District will start thinking ahead -- before November, 2002 -- to what they can do to lessen the effect of the untreated sewage on the Pacific Ocean. It takes time to build infrastructure and the sanitation district should be planning right now for a beneficial change in treatment. Our ocean resources are finite. We must not continue to treat the ocean like a poor cousin.

Charles Moore remembers Bolsa Chica State Beach when, in his words, it looked like “Tin Can Beach.” But the empty baked bean containers he stepped past as a young surfer didn’t worry him nearly as much as the material he now sees on the shore. “We didn’t have plastic trash,” said Moore, a Long Beach resident. “We had metal trash. It was still an eyesore. But at least it was biodegradable.” The ship captain and scientific researcher, who ran a woodworking and finishing business for 25 years, has become a crusader in recent years against the plastic that lands on the shore and in the ocean.

The beach was Larry Kurbatoff's playground -- literally -- when he attended Newport Beach Grammar School in the late 1940s. As a child, he kicked fiercely and went high into the air on a swing set that offered a breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean. This is normal, Kurbatoff thought as a child living in Newport Beach. But as a 64-year-old resident of Bermuda Dunes, Calif., he realizes how lucky he was to be beachside for so many years. Kurbatoff moved from Orange to Newport Beach when he was in kindergarten.

I am new to this community, having lived for many years in Long Beach. It is a fine thing to live so close to the enormity of the Pacific Ocean and for the most part, my family has adjusted to the differences we find in terms of population, distances between points A and N, and the myriad of sensory details that make up daily experience. My daughter and I, wanting to get to some comforting vibration, decided to go to the candlelight vigil on the pier on Thursday evening.

For seasonal lifeguards Jesse Heydorff and Alex Scurr, traveling abroad is nothing new; they toured Europe together. But for their next trip, the longtime buds will journey in another direction, crossing the Pacific Ocean to the shores of Northern New Zealand as the next participants in the California/New Zealand Lifeguard Exchange. Now until the spring, Scurr, 23, a resident of Costa Mesa and Heydorff, 24, of Los Alamitos, will piggyback the best Kiwi lifeguards all along the coast, learning new techniques and even getting their hands on some new technology.

What is your plastic footprint? That question was posed by Charles Moore, a noted environmentalist who spoke recently at Orange Coast College about the tons of plastic trash floating and harming life in the Pacific Ocean. Moore, an avid boater, has been crusading against the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” It’s scary stuff. Plastic is harming marine life that mistakenly feeds on debris or uses it as shelter, disrupting the food chain. Dead albatrosses, fish and mammals are being found with plastic caps, wrappers and other byproducts of consumerism inside their carcasses.

I look at you, Catalina, every day. I am lucky to have the advantage of seeing you float on the Pacific Ocean right in front of me. I have an unobstructed view of you. You are like a secretive woman. Some days you disappear behind the clouds or the fog. It appears as if the ocean has swallowed you. At times you spread a thin veil over yourself, where I can only see your outline. Then the veil lifts and you are exposing yourself in such clarity that I feel that, if I extended my hand, I could touch you. At such a time, I can see the rock formation on one end of you, and the beige-brown color of the rocks.

Our missing summer seems to have found us. It's been so hot here that our chickens are laying boiled eggs. Vic beat the heat this past weekend by taking a pelagic trip with his birding class. They joined members of Sea & Sage Audubon Society on a cruise on the Sea Explorer, one of the vessels operated by the Ocean Institute in Dana Point. Vic reported that they had a fantastic cruise, with clear skies and glassy seas. The smoothness of the trip made it far easier for Vic and the other leaders to point out birds on the horizon and for the students to get their binoculars onto the birds.

What is your plastic footprint? That question was posed by Charles Moore, a noted environmentalist who spoke recently at Orange Coast College about the tons of plastic trash floating and harming life in the Pacific Ocean. Moore, an avid boater, has been crusading against the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” It’s scary stuff. Plastic is harming marine life that mistakenly feeds on debris or uses it as shelter, disrupting the food chain. Dead albatrosses, fish and mammals are being found with plastic caps, wrappers and other byproducts of consumerism inside their carcasses.

Charles Moore remembers Bolsa Chica State Beach when, in his words, it looked like “Tin Can Beach.” But the empty baked bean containers he stepped past as a young surfer didn’t worry him nearly as much as the material he now sees on the shore. “We didn’t have plastic trash,” said Moore, a Long Beach resident. “We had metal trash. It was still an eyesore. But at least it was biodegradable.” The ship captain and scientific researcher, who ran a woodworking and finishing business for 25 years, has become a crusader in recent years against the plastic that lands on the shore and in the ocean.

I look at you, Catalina, every day. I am lucky to have the advantage of seeing you float on the Pacific Ocean right in front of me. I have an unobstructed view of you. You are like a secretive woman. Some days you disappear behind the clouds or the fog. It appears as if the ocean has swallowed you. At times you spread a thin veil over yourself, where I can only see your outline. Then the veil lifts and you are exposing yourself in such clarity that I feel that, if I extended my hand, I could touch you. At such a time, I can see the rock formation on one end of you, and the beige-brown color of the rocks.

Kody Afusia made a recruiting trip across the Pacific Ocean over the weekend and it confirmed what he already knew. The Ocean View High senior lineman wanted to continue his football career with the University of Hawaii. Afusia has committed to the Warriors, he said Monday night. “I felt like they were all family,” Afusia said. “I’ve liked the school since I was 6, 7 years old. When I got there, I just felt like it was home. I liked the dorms and I loved the weight room.

Start the new year with a dip into the Pacific Ocean at Huntington Beach’s 10th annual Surf City Splash on New Year’s Day at the pier. Hundreds of people will brave the cold water Friday to raise money for the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum by running, jumping, diving or walking into the water. “It’s a very unique and very fun experience, and it’s good for the young and the old,” said Natalie Kotsch, the founder of the museum.

An entire generation of St. Bonaventure Church’s parishioners has grown up knowing Father Lionel Bouvier’s face. They are now bidding him an emotional goodbye, as Bouvier has made the decision to return home to Canada for good. Bouvier was ordained 57 years ago. He has served the congregation each winter at St. Bonaventure for more than 20 years, despite living in Canada for most of the year, Father Bruce Patterson told the church. Bouvier lived in Manitoba all his life and had a brother and a sister.

For seasonal lifeguards Jesse Heydorff and Alex Scurr, traveling abroad is nothing new; they toured Europe together. But for their next trip, the longtime buds will journey in another direction, crossing the Pacific Ocean to the shores of Northern New Zealand as the next participants in the California/New Zealand Lifeguard Exchange. Now until the spring, Scurr, 23, a resident of Costa Mesa and Heydorff, 24, of Los Alamitos, will piggyback the best Kiwi lifeguards all along the coast, learning new techniques and even getting their hands on some new technology.

More than 70 years ago, Norman "Si" Williams hopped a freight train in Minnesota and rode the rails cross-country, stepping onto the dirt of Huntington Beach. He's called the city his home ever since. Over the years, he's gained a reputation as a hard-spoken, soft-hearted man, a character who exemplifies the dual identity of Surf City itself. Williams celebrated his 92nd birthday on June 9 with a full freight of family and friends at his home off Palm Avenue, where he has lived since 1946.

The Amigos de Bolsa Chica conservation group received a major award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service, the agency has announced. The Sustainable Fisheries Leadership Awards went to eight individuals and groups in the country this year, honoring those who protect fish or aquatic natural resources. The group won the Coastal Habitat Restoration Award for its efforts to preserve the Bolsa Chica wetlands, culminating in the construction of a tidal inlet that connected a portion of the wetlands with the Pacific Ocean for the first time in more than a century.