3,148 Coastal Cleanup Volunteers on Coastal Cleanup Day
MONTEREY BAY NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY — Save Our Shores’ Annual Coastal Cleanup comes to a close with big results. In just 3 hours, 3,148 volunteers (with over 380 student participants) at 75 cleanup sites between Waddell Creek Beach in Northern Santa Cruz County and Big Sur in Monterey County prevented 10.5 tons or 20,955 pounds of trash from entering the Pacific Ocean.
In Santa Cruz County, 2,092 volunteers removed 8,403 pounds of waste. In Monterey County, 1,056 volunteers removed 12,552 pounds of waste.
“It’s a great day for coastal cleanup, thousands came out,” said Save Our Shores Executive Director Katherine O’Dea, “We thank everyone for all they do to keep our ocean paradise clean and beautiful. It was great engaging with the community! It was also wonderful to see so many kids join with their parents, learning how to care for the beach. Everyone was smiling and having fun. I had a great time!”
The number one item removed from the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary? Cigarette butts. Volunteers collected more than 3,300 cigarette butts alone at Cowell and Main Beach in Santa Cruz County. Preliminary results from Save Our Shores Annual Coastal Cleanup reports more than 12,500 cigarette butts.
Another surprising item? Mylar balloons. At the Salinas River National Wildlife Refuge, Site Captain and Sanctuary Steward Karen Gunby told Save Our Shores that “I’ve never seen this many Mylar balloons at any cleanup.” Hearts and love included, many were leftover from Valentine’s Day.
Standout cleanup sites include the Pajaro River, Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Reserve, and Sand City Beach. Together, these three sites exceeded 10,000 pounds of trash due in part to illegal dumping.
Gross and unusual collections included: A toilet tank, mattresses, a luggage scale, crab pots, shopping carts, construction cement and materials, a few hundred nurdles (teeny bits of plastic), truck wheels and tires, smoking pipes, vibrators, 15ft of carpet, irrigation drains, refrigerators, antique glass bottles, bullet shells, the hood of a car, car doors, and a car engine, pitch forks, lawn mowers, and a 5 gallon bottle of Korean made hydrogen peroxide.
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Save Our Shores continues to be humbled by the immense community outpouring in helping steward the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.