Margo Pellegrino is a 43-year old mother who wants to draw attention to the plight of the world's oceans by making long-distance paddles down the coastline of the U.S., calling out to communities on the way to highlight critical ocean concerns. These include the impact of dumping sewage, fertilizers and plastics; of overfishing; and the acidification of our oceans.

Having paddled the East Coast and much of the southern Gulf Coast, the West Coast remained this year's "far tougher" challenge. She overnighted in Eureka after paddling from Crescent City to Trinidad in "near-perfect conditions" on Sunday, Aug. 8, and making the shorter Trinidad to Eureka leg on Monday. She left on Tuesday for the mouth of the Mattole River.

She's paddling a high-tech outrigger canoe, 21-feet long and weighing just 20 pounds, not including her navigational, communication and emergency equipment. Her one-person land crew, June Barnard, keeps in constant touch with her, while her position is updated automatically by GPS every few minutes. You can follow her progress at miami2maine.com.