My recent vacation...

I went to the beach last week in Fort Lauderdale. For those of you who haven't been: it's beautiful. The beach that I was on was clean and the water beautiful. I then traveled 10 minutes down the road to a less used beach. I was amazed at the difference in water quality and upkeep of the beach. There was litter everywhere. I now understand how some people can remain so uninformed about how polluted our ocean water is; it's because we always visit the nice and clean beaches. We rarely venture to the ones that aren't constantly used and kept up. Most of the trash I saw was simple litter: cigaret butts, plastic cups, one deflated soccer ball.... but it was still a powerful reminder that the Pacific Trash Vortex isn't a far away entity. Our wasteful lifestyles affect the very beaches we go to on vacation. We just don't always see it.