Tag archives: Harry Rabin

Rabin’s Summerland Oil Short Film Heads to Washington, D.C.
By Joanne A Calitri   |   April 2, 2024

On the Wave Productions’ 22-minute documentary short film titled, Greetings from Summerland, Birthplace of Offshore Oil, is headed to Washington, D.C.’s bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. The film was produced and directed by filmmakers Harry Rabin and Joey Szalkiewicz. It premiered at the SBIFF and is scheduled for the Marjorie Luke Theatre for Earth Day. Its […]

Summerland Oil Mitigation Study Updates
By Joanne A Calitri   |   January 23, 2024

Following the huge funding of $500,000 to Heal the Ocean (HTO) by State Assemblymember Monique Límon, and an additional $105,000 donated from the Mericos Foundation, work has started on the Summerland Oil Mitigation Study (SOMS). The lead project managers are Ira Leifer of Bubbleology Research International in Goleta, and HTO’s Harry Rabin. Their first foray […]

8th Annual Polar Dip 
By Joanne A Calitri   |   January 9, 2024

It was a beautiful 64-degree, sunny Californian day on January 1, as the 8th Annual Polar Dip, founded by our town’s Hugh Margerum, took its place in history with over 300 people from babies to seniors getting in the Pacific Ocean on cue at 11:30 am. The public beach on Cabrillo Boulevard across from the […]

Organization Receives $500,000 to Continue Work on Oil Seepage Research
By Joanne A Calitri   |   December 5, 2023

In a momentous occasion on Tuesday, November 28, Heal the Ocean (HTO) was presented with a check for $500,000 from Senator Monique Limón representing California Senate District 19 and Assemblymember Gregg Hart representing the 37th California Assembly District, to support HTO’s Summerland Oil Mitigation Study (SOMS).  The study was proposed and started by Heal the […]

CA State Lands Commission and Heal the Ocean: Summerland Oil Updates
By Joanne A Calitri   |   September 5, 2023

A presentation of the status and action plan regarding the oil wells and seepage issues at Summerland Beach was done by Petroleum Production Engineer at the California State Lands Commission (CSLC) Walter Scott with Harry Rabin and Hillary Hauser of Heal the Ocean (HTO) at a public meeting held by the Summerland Citizens Association on […]

Oil on Summerland Beaches
By Joanne A Calitri   |   August 22, 2023

The continued efforts to contain the abandoned oil wells in the Pacific Ocean offshore to Summerland Beach took a new stride on Monday, August 14, at 10 am with the arrival of new capping methodology and the start of a 3D geological study titled, “Summerland Oil Mitigation Study” (SOMS), to fully map the oil reservoirs, […]

CSULB Shark Lab Fundraiser 
By Joanne A Calitri   |   June 27, 2023

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum hosted a fundraiser for the California State University at Long Beach (CSULB) Shark Lab titled, A Great Night of Great Whites, on Saturday, June 17. The twenty-dollar donation yielded a sold-out house of ocean enthusiasts from university researchers, students, surfers, photographers, museum members, and town luminaries like Hiroko Benko and […]

My Letter was Changed, Leaving Readers in the Dark
By Montecito Journal   |   March 28, 2023

Montecito Journal, thank you for printing the letter I wrote on the surveillance cameras placed at the Montecito Hot Springs and nearby. Unfortunately, changes were made to what I submitted, greatly confusing the matter. First, the quote from Lieutenant Ugo “Butch” Arnoldi’s February 21 email was altered. It’s not proper to alter quotes from people […]

Rock ‘N Roll Heaven
By Gwyn Lurie   |   October 27, 2022

There were many COVID casualties, beyond the loss of precious life. Like ceremony. So many of us were forced to say goodbye to loved ones without the spiritual and emotional closure that comes with gathering closely with community to celebrate the lives that were lost. One such loss that hit hard here was the passing […]

A Success Story: First Person Helped by Hands Across Montecito Leads Cleanup
By Heal the Ocean   |   September 14, 2021

The “Holy Grail” of abandoned homeless sites was tackled on August 30 in a cleanup being done by a team of homeless workers who have been enlisted by Earthcomb, the brainchild, and business of Andrew Velikanje. The site, located at the end of South Kellogg Avenue in Goleta, is the second in Heal the Ocean’s […]

Heal the Ocean
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 18, 2021

Heal the Ocean (HTO) has enjoyed a remarkable record of success, particularly for how the nonprofit that was founded barely more than 20 years ago to address contamination of the waters off Summerland from coastal septic system runoff has turned comparatively smaller donations into big projects. HTO smartly and enviably has leveraged modest sums to […]

Homeless Camp Cleared Prior to King Tides
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   January 21, 2021

An abandoned homeless camp surrounded by trash, bicycle parts, car batteries, flooded tents, and more became an eyesore on the “Graveyards” beach in Montecito, at the base of the cliff below the Santa Barbara Cemetery. In a recent newsletter, Heal the Ocean says they received a call about it from a concerned citizen last week, […]

A Great Cap to an Otherwise Strange Year
By Leslie Westbrook   |   December 31, 2020

My great Aunt Betty laughed when I bought my house in Summerland in the early 1980s. She told me that her husband, my great uncle Heywood, used to work on those wells when they lived in Summerland in the 1930s. Little did I know at the time that the very oil wells he worked on […]

Let the Games Begin
By Richard Mineards   |   April 18, 2019

The fields are impeccably groomed, the horses are ready, and the best of the best competitors are heading to our rarefied enclave for the hotly anticipated opening of the Santa Barbara Polo Club’s 108th season on May 5. The season at the Engel & Volkers stadium will feature an exhilarating summer of action-packed tournaments and […]

Into the Shark Zone
By Lynda Millner   |   August 30, 2018

Jaws came alive at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) recently with the screening of shark movies by filmmakers Harry Rabin and Tom Piozet, along with Dr. Chris Lowe of the Cal State University Long Beach Shark Lab. It was a look behind the scenes of the Weather Channel’s show Into the Shark Zone and […]

The Rain Event
By Richard Mineards   |   March 22, 2018

Montecito documentary maker Harry Rabin‘s latest work, The Night It Rained Boulders, about the recent fire, flash floods, and mudslides in our rarefied enclave, has been showing on The Weather Channel. The 44-minute film took two months to come to fruition with Harry, 64, starting shooting December 4 with the outbreak of the Thomas Fire, […]