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Action Projects Environmental Justice Save The Bay Correlation to CA State Content Standards for Science: Correlation to CA State Content Standards for Social Studies:
Save The Bay has worked to make it safer for people to fish for food from the San Francisco Bay. Studies have shown that seafood from the San Francisco Bay contains contaminants, and warnings have been issued about the amount of fish to eat from the Bay per month. Unfortunately, many low-income people, especially Asian-Americans, African Americans, and Latinos, depend upon the Bay as a source of food. What can you do to make eating from the Bay safer for people? This action project begins with learning about issues that affect the water quality of San Francisco Bay, such as non-point source pollution and toxic hot spots, and finding out who fishes from the San Francisco Bay and what fish they are catching and eating from the Bay. The action project is to develop ways to help protect people who fish from the Bay now, and to ultimately improve the water quality of the Bay so that in the future people can safely eat fish from the Bay. This activity will take some research time (a total of 3 or 4 hours), mainly using the internet and free materials that you have to order from organizations (order these materials now, so you will have them when you are ready to research). After conducting the research, the amount of time spent taking action is up to you, from an afternoon painting storm drains to a weekend spent at a fishing pier. Order a copy of Estuarywise from the San Francisco Estuary Project. Contact Liz Blair to request your free copy. Friends of the San Francisco Estuary Order Fish consumption brochures, poster, video, and the study Fishing for Food in San Francisco Bay: Part II, from Save The Bay. Contact Amy Hutzel at Save The Bay for your free copies:
Who Dirtied the Waters? Find answers to the following questions:
A great activity to demonstrate how our Bay has ended up such a mess is to simulate the history of pollution. You need these materials: clear, 1 gallon or so, wide-mouth container filled with tap water, 15 film canisters with masking tape labels and materials inside (listed below), and a stir stick. Film canisters:
Hand out the film canisters and ash; one for every one or two people. Have one person read the following story. When the characters from the film canisters are mentioned, they should pour the contents of the film canister into the water container and give it a stir. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful bay. Freshwater flowed down from mountains and hills and ocean water came in from the ocean. The fresh and salt water mixed, forming an estuary that teemed with wildlife. The tide came in and out. Fish swam in the bay, mud creatures burrowed in the mud, plankton floated through the water, thousands of birds flew overhead, grizzly bear and tule elk waded through the wetlands. A river flowed into the Bay, carrying sediment that settled to the bottom, forming homes for plants and animals.
Questions for thought:
The second step is to find out what fish are being caught in the San Francisco Bay, what the health warnings are, and who is eating fish. Use the following web sites. Also, use the Save The Bay materials that you: Fish Consumption brochures, Save the Bay's report, Fishing for Food in San Francisco Bay: Part II, and a poster and video that demonstrate safer fish consumption. www.sfei.org/rmp/posters/fishcontam/index.htm
http://www.oehha.ca.gov/scientific/fish_doc.htm Find answers to these questions:
Now that you have learned about the health hazards of fishing for food from the San Francisco Bay, it's time to take action to protect the water of the Bay and the people who depend on the Bay as a source of food. There are many things you can do to save the bay. Look through the book Estuarywise for some initial thoughts. Brainstorm about ways to improve the Bay's water quality. Below are two action projects you can undertake to improve water quality and to educate people who eat fish from the Bay about health warnings. 1) Label storm drains in your neighborhoods with warnings—"Do Not Dump, Flows to Bay". Contact your county's Public Works department or Stormwater Program to get stencils and further information about stenciling (such as what storm drains need stenciling, how to stencil, and how to be safe).
After labeling the storm drains, let your neighbors know by distributing brochures, either brochures from the Public Works department or brochures that you create and photocopy. These brochures could let people know what you have done and that only rain should flow down storm drains. 2) Visit a fishing pier near you and set up a table on a weekend with brochures and signs describing the health warnings and how to more safely eat fish from the Bay. Get extra brochures and posters from Save The Bay. Be sure that you have a number of people working with you at the table for safety. While you are working at the table, conduct a survey of fisherpeople. Find out their age and race/ethnicity, how many fish they eat each week or month, and what types of fish they eat. Also ask whether or not they know about health warnings and whether they know of ways to minimize their health risk. You can send your information to Save The Bay. |
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