CLAMMING UP: Beaches get frequent clean-up drives....

CLAMMING UP: Beaches get frequent clean-up drives. But who tidies up the ocean floor? The Costa Mesa-based DIVERS group--scuba diving environmentalists--hosts a clam dive Saturday morning at the pier in Newport Beach. . . . Open to anybody with gear, the idea is to dive for clams, and clean up any trash while you’re at it. . . . The clams are just a fun way to lure divers, says spokeswoman Kimberly Woods: “If we can get them in the water, we can get them to pick up trash.”

SALLY & CORKY? One more approach to environmental improvement: San Clemente, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Niguel are asking residents to vote at city halls or chambers of commerce on names for new city mascots to promote recycling awareness. A sampling: Either Sally Swallow or Peter Pony in San Juan Capistrano, or Corky Coyote or Horace Hawk in Laguna Niguel. . . . The mascots would hit the schools for the cause. San Juan Capistrano’s recycling manager, Daniel Batty, says: “By involving the kids, it will in turn help educate their parents.”

BIG SPLASH: The Disney people don’t do too many things low key. Take today’s opening of the new public ice rink at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. The first skater will be renowned Michelle Kwan, 15, the near-Olympian (remember her waiting in the wings at Lillehammer in 1994?) who has won her last two national competitions. . . . She’ll dance on the ice with Disneyland characters. It’s a holiday-only rink, open to the public from Nov. 23 to Jan. 7. After that, it melts away.

CHECK MATES: Chalk up two more national titles for Chess for Juniors in Huntington Beach, which has produced more national youth champions than any other club in the country. Last weekend, the club won the team title at the All-America Cup national tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz. And team member Harry Akopyan, 14, won the individual competition. He’s getting used to it--it was an unprecedented seventh consecutive national title for him.