Legions Liberate Beaches of Trash All Along Coast

It was not a perfect beach day. Clouds hovered over Huntington Beach at midmorning Saturday, and many people combed the sands in sweatshirts, sans shades.

But that made it ideal weather for Coastal Cleanup Day, when thousands of Californians of all ages thronged the beaches to pick up the Styrofoam, bottle caps and cigarette butts that their less conscientious brethren leave behind.

Volunteers roamed the Orange County coast from Doheny State Beach to the Bolsa Chica wetlands, distinguished by their garbage bags and attention to trash.

“A lot of glass. A lot of plastic bags,” reported Craig Saffell, 20, who journeyed from West Covina to pick up litter at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve.

This was Saffell’s first glimpse of Bolsa Chica, among the largest coastal wetlands in the region, and he was startled to find marsh life persevering amid all that trash.

“I’m surprised,” he said, “that there are birds flying around, fish swimming in the water.”

His companion, Brandie Soria of La Puente, glanced around at the mosaic of grasses and glimmering pools.

“It’s beautiful--if people would just take care of it,” she said.

To help nature along, Californians rallied for what has become an end-of-summer ritual along the 1,100 miles of state coastline. The 14th annual cleanup day was organized by the California Coastal Commission, but the enthusiasm came from tens of thousands of volunteers at 600 sites from Del Norte County south to San Diego and east to Lake Tahoe, commission officials said.

With 70% of cleanup sites reporting in, nearly 40,000 volunteers throughout the state collected 424,345 pounds of trash and 39,606 pounds of recyclable goods, the commission’s staff said Saturday evening. They expect those numbers to rise considerably once the final tally is in.

In one of the largest efforts statewide, an estimated 1,000 volunteers at Upper Newport Bay collected about 60,000 pounds of trash. With less than 50% of Orange County teams reporting, tallies showed that more than 2,000 volunteers collected 63,409 pounds of trash and 720 pounds of recyclables from the county’s coast.

An unusually large number of dead marine animals were found on state beaches: six harbor seals, three sharks, a bat ray, two turtles, 10 sea birds, two sea otters and one sea lion. Organizers said the animals may be victims of the winter’s El Nino storms.

Some unorthodox items surfaced amid the waterlogged baseballs and plastic cups.

A letter from a Russian sailor, encased in a plastic container, washed up at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. The sailor on the ship Verdon wrote in search of a pen pal.

“I’m very sorry for my English,” he wrote. “Also I beg pardon that I pollution your country.”

The group of Eagle Scouts who found the sailor’s letter received a $500 award from the Brita company, the event’s chief sponsor, for one of the two most unusual items found statewide. Closer to home, a volunteer in Manhattan Beach won the other award for finding a Geneva Convention identification card.

On Catalina Island, a worker discovered a bottle containing a live clam that had grown so large it could not escape.

“It’s what we’re trying to depict. It’s marine animals being harmed by marine debris,” said Judi Shils, spokeswoman for the commission.

In Orange County, bankers in T-shirts joined college students and children in the effort.

“We got the big pieces, and the small pieces, and the in-between pieces,” said Julie Green of Villa Park, part of a Wells Fargo team that scoured the Bolsa Chica reserve. Members found plenty of plastic bags and cigarette butts, along with a bumper, a muffler and other assorted car parts scattered along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Three main types of debris mar the wetlands: trash blown in from the beach, deposited by water or left behind by hikers, bird watchers and nature photographers.

“Some people aren’t even conscious of it. There are the little cans for film, the lens cap for the binoculars,” said Jim Robins of Huntington Beach, a board member of Amigos de Bolsa Chica, an environmental group, and beach captain for this year’s cleanup.

About 100 people picked up trash at Bolsa Chica on Saturday. Robins said that’s a smaller crowd than usual, but plenty large enough for the fragile, bird-filled marshes.

“One time, we had more than 400, and it was unmanageable,” he said. “It’s better for the wetlands not to have so many people trampling through.”

Farther south at Huntington State Beach, students from Samuel E. Talbert Middle School in the city paced the sand in search of trash.

“I just like cleaning up things,” explained Stephanie Nguyen, 13, of Huntington Beach, who was assisted by her parents and two younger brothers. The lesson of her day: “How many people litter.”

Deena Kim, 11, and her friends found plastic strapping bands, Styrofoam, one small blue sandal, and, of course, the ubiquitous cigarette remains.

“We’re tired,” she declared late Saturday morning. Her advice to everyday beach-goers: “Get your own plastic bag. Start putting trash in there.”