My Watershed, the Ocean, and Me: Kid’s Green Map includes downtown Santa Monica, the Santa Monica Pier, and the adjacent Santa Monica Bay. The purpose of the map is to highlight the marine life found under and near the pier and adjacent beaches, and to illustrate the impacts of pollution—stemming from downtown and pier activities—on these resources.

The habitat communities found under or near the pier, and which support different animal communities include the:

• beach

• sandy sea bottom

• breakwater

• pier pilings

• open ocean and

• Santa Monica Bay watersheds

This map provides information about the creatures that live in the habitat communities mentioned above, such as:

• Arthropoda – crabs, lobster, shrimp

• Mollusca – mussels, snails, clams and octopus

• Echinodermata – sea stars, urchins, sea cucumber and sand dollars

• Cnidaria – sea jellies and anemone

• Chordata – sharks, rays, bony fish, dolphins, whales, birds and us

• Protista – sea plants

These habitats suffer from extensive water quality impairments, public health issues and marine life degradation associated with human behavior on land. This Green Map aims to support long-term water quality protection, pollution prevention and marine habitat protection and restoration by addressing a major cause of environmental degradation: lack of public awareness/concern.

The map focuses attention on a variety of critical resource issues, including: understanding ocean life; coastal water quality and public health; polluted storm-water runoff and illegal dumping; water conservation; the importance and biology of watersheds; and, a sense of belonging to a larger community with common environmental concerns.

Development of the Green Map was partially funded by the City of Santa Monica’s Environmental Programs Division (EPD) for use as an environmental education tool for residents, visitors, students and other community stakeholders. In addition, the map is used by Santa Monica teachers to help educate students about a variety of ecological issues in the watershed, including water quality and conservation, the habitat needs of animals and plants, the impact of consumer choices on the natural and built environment, and the interconnectedness of our actions and policy decisions.

Maps are available free of charge throughout in libraries, bookstores, parks, tourist information offices and farmers’ markets.