Saturday saw the 35th annual Coastal Cleanup Day, an international endeavor to protect oceans, watersheds and wildlife and once again, Santa Monica-based environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay served as the Los Angeles County Coordinator. More than 60 cleanup sites were targeted throughout Los Angeles county, including eight local sites for residents in Santa Monica, Venice and Pacific Palisades.
For anyone making their way south through Palisades Park to the Pier or even to catch a few early waves, the sight resembled thousands of ants constantly crisscrossing the sand collecting every piece of discarded refuse they could find.
While the numbers from every site are still being collated, at the Santa Monica State Beach, North Beach & Pier, Tower 1550 site alone, over a thousand volunteers collected over 400 lbs of trash in just three hours. At the time of going to press, the data that had been shared from many, but all of the sites, suggested that over 10,000 lbs of trash had been removed.
However, this particular section of the Coastal Cleanup was particularly interesting because PADI-certified scuba divers from the Eco Dive Center in Culver City were clearing all manner of accidentally-dropped and deliberately-discarded debris from the base of the Pier at its western tip.
Beth Beltramo, co-owner at the Eco Dive Center, said, "It’s free, we get to dive and it’s all for a good cause," adding, "Safety is a prime concern though, as it is on every dive, but around the base of the Pier we have to be especially careful, so we have Harbor Patrol out there as a backup."
According to Beltramo, in previous years they’ve found GoPros, sunglasses, wedding rings, wedding dresses, electric scooters and electric bikes. They even find the occasional urn, which they leave behind.
"Earlier on this morning it was like there was a mob," says Art Salter, Site Captain. "There were so many people here and we were just setting up … It’s so great though and many keep on going out, they give us their full bucket, grab another and head back out."
Last year’s Coastal Cleanup Day had over 7,100 volunteers remove 16,000 pounds of trash and recycling from Los Angeles neighborhoods, parks, trails and beaches. While cigarette butts were the most common item, small plastic pieces and styrofoam have been increasing items. Volunteers have also found unusual items such as a white wedding dress, a pumpkin full of hard boiled eggs, a $100 bill torn in half and a World War II-era gas mask.
The trash discarded by beachgoers is harmful not only to wildlife, but also to human beings. Birds can swallow cigarette butts – FYI, smoking on the beach is prohibited — and almost any aquatic lifeform can get itself entangled in fishing nets or even plastic yokes that six packs come in. Moreover, once plastic has made its way into the water it can degrade over time to form microplastics.
These are nano millimeter-sized nodules of plastic material that have now affected the whole planet. They have been found just about everywhere, from Arctic snow to deep in the oceans. The particles can harbor toxic chemicals and harmful microbes and are known to harm some marine creatures. It is also known now that humans consume them via food and water and even inhalation.
It's estimated that between 1.15 to 2.41 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans each year. Five years ago, a group of amateur Australian divers found a plastic KFC bag from the 1970s during an ocean clean-up off the waters off Bulcock Beach in Queensland and during a dive to the bottom of the Marianas Trench — the deepest region anywhere in the Earth’s oceans — a plastic bag was found.
scott.snowden@smdp.com
