National Audubon Society Specials: Danger At The Beach

Ted Danson hosts this sobering look at the increasing environmental problems plaguing our ocean coasts. Along with a camera crew, Danson, who is the founder and president of the American Oceans Campaign, visited sites on both coasts and talked to people about the problems. In Boston, restaurateur Roger Berkowitz will only serve fish which his crew has caught 100 miles or more out from Boston's polluted harbor. The water sewage treatment situation is awful: the main component is a steam-driven 1893 pump that one interviewee says the "Smithsonian Institution longs for." Over in New Jersey, coastal residents are up in arms over the sewage pouring into their waters from New York City. Further down the coast, Florida residents Bruce and Susan Bingham relate the story of their fight against a commercial cruise company which regularly dumped its trash into the ocean. On the west coast, Danson and company visit Arcata, California, where the community has found an ecologically sound way to handle the water sewage problem--by diverting the nutrient-rich sludge into a newly created wetlands park. Ultimately, Danger at the Beach serves as a consciousness raising tool concerning the dire straits our coastal waters are currently awash in. Near the program's close, one woman reminds us that a lot of people think an old car rusting in a stream doesn't really hurt anything. To those folk, she says: "How would you like my shoe in your oatmeal?" Good analogy. A superb, fast-paced, and very informative plea for environmental sanity. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (See AMERICAN PATCHWORK: JAZZ PARADES--FEET DON'T FAIL ME NOW for availability.)