Ban the Bag Monster!

On Halloween It’s In The Bag!

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

With the sounds of Halloween here and little ones eager to take their trick-or-treat bags door-to-door, SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel are thinking how nice it would be to keep those bags out all year.

Not just for Halloween candy, apples and treats, but for everyday items, dairy and meats.

When you bring your own reusable bag on shopping trips, instead of using plastic bags from the store, you can reduce the amount of plastic pollution in our environment.

Did you know that each reusable bag equals 400 single-use plastic bags?

Or that 600 plastic bags are thrown away every second in California?

Every year 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide. Of those, 100 billion bags are used in the United States alone.

That’s a lot of plastic bags…most of which end up littering our streets and polluting our waterways and oceans...

endangering sea life – who get tangled in the bags or ingest them – and ultimately entering the food chain.

That’s even scarier than the ghosts and goblins roaming around on All Hallows Eve.

Fortunately California can help stop plastic pollution by voting on November 8^th to get rid of single-use plastic bags. It’s easy. Just Vote YES on 67, the proposition to Ban the Bag.

The Surfrider Foundation (which is dedicated to protecting our oceans, waves and beaches) and other environmental groups, including the California Coastal Commission and the Sierra Club, have long supported legislation to ban plastic bags.

YES on 67 will eliminate single-use plastic bags at grocery stores and other retailers in California. When the plastic bags disappear, so will Bag Monsters – ghost-like, spooky spirits made from discarded plastic bags.

For now, though, they’re still out there. So, heed this Halloween warning:

Beware the Bag Monsters…and Don’t Litter! 

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Stash Your Trash on Halloween

When you’re dancing around the fire

watch out for goblins, ghosts and gyres.

It’s nice to have a yummy treat…

Good and Plenty’s, Reese’s Cups, and candy corn to eat.

But, don’t toss your trash on the beach

when recycling cans are in reach.

Remember that Bag Monsters are always near.

You never know when they’ll appear.

With bulging eyes and shark-like teeth to chew,

If you litter, they’ll get you!

Happy Halloween!!!

Patti and Sunny

SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

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Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given. 

Poachers Have Pangolins Up A Tree

Endangered Animals Want to Be Left Alone

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

Do you know what a pangolin is? Most people have never heard of these solitary and nocturnal creatures that live in hollow trees and burrows.

The cute, anteater-like animals, that are native to Asia and Africa, are the only known mammals to have scales. They also hold the unwanted distinction of being the #1 most-poached and trafficked mammal in the world.

With more than a million pangolins killed in the past decade, the pangolin is on the road to extinction unless laws are enacted - and enforced - to save it. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has the pangolin on its Red List of animals threatened with extinction.

What makes pangolins such a desirable target for poachers? It's because of the high demand in the Asia marketplace for their scales, which are used in everything from making jewelry and accessories to medicines and haute cuisine.

Medicine shops in Asia sell the scales as a cure for virtually anything from arthritis to cancer. Restaurants grind up the scales for smoothie drinks and to use as spices in soups and stews. Pangolin meat is also served as an "exotic delicacy" that's said to be an aphrodisiac.  

Ranging in size from 1 - 31/2-ft-long, pangolins' bodies are covered in scales made up of keratin (the substance in human hair and nails). A type of body armor provided by nature to protect it, the scales have had the opposite effect, putting pangolins at risk from poachers who can sell the scales for hundreds of dollars per pound.  

In June 2016, 4 tons of pangolin scales were seized by Hong Kong authorities after they were found in a shipment originating from Cameroon, Africa. The value of the scales was estimated to be $1.25 million. The smuggled shipment was labeled on the manifest as "sliced plastics."

SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel learned that the illegal trafficking of wildlife around the world is over $20 billion. What's more, pangolin trafficking is getting worse each year, fueled by the growing middle class in China and other Asian countries, such as Vietnam. In those cultures being able to afford the pangolin scales and meat is viewed as a sign of status and wealth.

The pangolin's name is derived from the Malay word pengguling - "to roll up." That's what a pangolin does when it's scared or defending itself, curling up into a ball with its head tucked underneath its tail. Normally, this - along with it's armor of scales and the ability to emit a skunk-like odor - would be enough to keep predators at bay.

But,when the predator is a global network of poachers, pengguling provides scant protection.

 Like an ostrich putting its head in the sand, the poor pangolin is defenseless...
unless people around the world step in to stop the illegal trafficking.   

SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

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Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.