DANA POINT : Ship Plans 22-Port Trip Along Coast

Since boarding the 145-foot Californian in Dana Point 11 days ago, a crew of teen-age sailors from the San Diego area have spent much of their time swabbing decks and unfurling sails.

And as the April 22 observance of Earth Day approaches, the Californian, a replica of a 19th-Century tall ship, promises the same for other teen-agers along the state’s coast when it embarks Monday on a 22-port journey. The Californian will carry a message about the importance of the ocean environment as it journeys north along the coast.

The teen-agers’ stint aboard the tall ship was a real-life lesson in marine ecology and served as a firsthand look at the numerous threats to sea life and California’s fragile 1,200-mile coastline. Even plastic bottles tossed carelessly into the ocean are proving dangerous to marine life.

“The fish and the sea gulls think they are food and choke on them,” said 16-year-old Elyse Olson, who spent Thursday afternoon scrubbing decks and shining brass fittings after the ship docked in Marina del Rey. The ship’s home port is Dana Point Harbor.

The 7-year-old ship’s first stop on its seven-month journey--called Coast Link 90, The Year of Ocean Literacy--will be San Francisco, where visitors will walk the decks and view a recycling exhibit on Earth Day.

The ship will sail as far north as Eureka before turning south at the end of summer.

Along the way, the ship’s eight-member crew will be augmented by other environmentally conscious groups to spread the word that the ocean is a finite resource that needs special treatment, said Steve Christman, director of the Dana Point-based Nautical Heritage Society.

The society, which owns the sailing vessel, decided to launch the project last year because of concerns about mounting threats to the California coastline. Those concerns peaked, Christman said, during the recent Huntington Beach oil spill when miles of Orange County shoreline were fouled by black, gooey residue. As a result, the issue of offshore oil drilling, Christman said, is again a hot topic.

“During our port visits, people kept talking about these issues,” Christman said. “We want the citizens of this state to become more and more aware of how closely related the environment is to their own lives.”

The tour is being funded by Pepsi-Cola and the city of Chula Vista, Christman said.

In each port, visitors to the ship will be asked to sign a “Coastal Pledge,” to help stop pollution of the ocean and the shoreline.

“We are asking people to take an active role,” Christman said.

Environmental lessons are also taught to the student “cadets,” who spend 11 days at a time on the ship, learning how to avoid using environmentally harmful products, such as plastic foam products, plastic utensils and similar products. In addition, all paper and aluminum goods used on board are recycled, and even tuna has been scratched from the ship’s menu as a protest over the killing of dolphins by some commercial fishermen.