I Must Be a Mermaid is an ocean and plastics awareness project. Through grants from the Avila Beach Community Foundation, with a a donation from the Rossi Foundation and Mike and Shirley Ritter this projects starts and continues the conversation about how plastics get into the ocean and the damage they do. Each Friday as the sunset at Avila Beach we handed out over 1600 pouches that were then stitched into Mermaid purses (swell shark egg sacks). Then small pieces of plastic was collected. The stuffed purses were then showcased on the main thoroughfare to the beach. As a secondary project the Junior Guards created “zines” (self-published magazines) about the ocean and plastics. These were then distributed and shared.