Santa Cruz, CA – Save Our Shores (SOS) and 269 Star Spangled Beach Cleanup volunteers prevented1,497 pounds of trash and debris from polluting our beaches at 11 sites at the the annual July 5th Star Spangled Beach Cleanup. This is a great improvement from last year where we had 238 volunteers and 1,587 pounds of trash at just 7 sites
The Star Spangled Beach Cleanup is the second largest community cleanup of the year on the Central Coast. Santa Cruz cleanups took place at Cowell/Main, Seabright, Twin Lakes, Moran Lake, Capitola, Panther, It’s Beach, Davenport Main and Seacliff/Rio Del Mar Beaches. Monterey County cleanups took place at Del Monte Beach at Wharf #2, and Carmel Beach. Thank you to the to all our partner organizations who assisted with beach cleanups to make this a huge success.
New in 2013: In past years, Save Our Shores has seen trash cans overflowing at the beach on July 5th so we decided to fund the rental of four large dumpsters for Twin Lakes, Davenport, Cowell/Main and Seabright beaches. The trash at these beaches was severely decreased because of these dumpsters and State Parks staff mentioned that they made a huge difference for their cleanup efforts since the trash cans were not overflowing as much as in past years.
Girl Scouts at Rio Del Mar Beach
Top 3 dirtiest beaches, in order, determined by total poundage removed only, were: Cowell/Main Beach with 332 pounds, Seabright Beach 213 pounds and Moran Lake Beach with 167 pounds.
“We appreciate the community working with us to keep our beaches clean this July 4th and we hope that can continue throughout the busy summer season. We were happy to see that the beaches were much cleaner this year, it was a great effort by all,” said Laura Kasa, executive director of Save Our Shores.
Declaring their independence from plastic pollution, the July 4th Pollution Prevention Team consisted of 26 volunteers who handed out 2,255 trash and recycling bags at seven high-traffic beaches in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. The July 4th Pollution Prevention team spoke to 4,517 beach goers about plastic pollution yesterday. This effort has proved critical in stemming the tide of trash on our beaches.
Thank you to all of our volunteers and beach-goers who worked hard to keep our shores clean this year. We couldn’t have done it without you!
About Save Our Shores: Save Our Shores is the Central Coast leader in caring for the marine environment through ocean awareness, advocacy and citizen action. Over the last 30 years, Save Our Shores helped to establish the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, prevent offshore oil drilling and cruise ship pollution, and today focuses on educating youth about our local watersheds, tackling pollution on our beaches and rivers, implementing our renowned DockWalker program, and providing our community with educated and inspired Sanctuary Stewards. For more information visit: www.saveourshores.org.