On September 16, I attended the Coastal Cleanup event located at the Ventura Harbor Beach with a friend of mine. I thought bringing him along would be interesting because he happens to be majoring in Environmental Science. He is passionate when it comes to the study of alternative environments, especially the beach. I do not consider myself of a “beach person”, especially on warm days. However, my experience was one that truly changed my outlook of the ecosystem and the struggles it experiences.
Our day is one that started a bit rough. We were running 10 minutes late which eventually ended up being half an hour. I was panicking a bit because I didn’t know what to expect. I originally thought we were suppose to be at the location at exactly 9am. Fortunately for us, that was not the case. We arrived to an end of a road where we were greeted by 3 different tents. The location was showered with various individuals that were representing a certain cause or organization.
After admiring the different communities, I began to fill out forms that were handed to us in each tent. Although it was a rather tedious process, what came next was the fun part. We were escorted to the entrance of the beach where we received a spiel on safety regulations and what to do when certain scenarios occurred. After the informer finished her short lecture, she let us go to do our service.
As soon as we entered the beach, there were dozens of individuals walking around the sand. I thought to myself that there was no way we were going to find any trash on the sand since it was claimed by many parties. I decided to scout my surroundings and noticed that there was a rocky shore that seemed secluded. I proposed to my friend that we should look for trash in there, to which he agreed. We continued to walk even further until we got to an area that was potentially uncharted territory.
We eventually claimed an area and began our inspection. At first it took us approximately 10 minutes to find a shard of glass. Shortly after, we found various items stuck in between rocks where we were also acknowledged by many crabs. The most odd item we discovered was a tennis ball. How on earth did that get there? The runner-up was, what seemed to be, an old can of soft drink (as shown in the pic). Within an hour and thirty minutes, we collected approximately 1.5 pounds of recyclable items and 1.5 pounds of trash. Overall, we collected 3 pounds of items.
The most sad realization after completing our deed was that this issue could easily be prevented if people simply threw away their trash in appropriate designated areas. Many of the creatures have to live with pieces of items, such as sharp glass, that can potentially harm them and their home. All it takes to improve these ecosystems is attending events such as beach cleanups.
Hello fellow classmate. I too attended the beach clean up on September 16. It was my first beach cleanup, and I loved it. I am always mindful on picking up after myself when I visit beaches or hiking spots, but I never would have had a clue on how much trash is being picked up after three hours of walking around the beach. I was surprised to see everyone looking for buried trash in the sand. I looked inside the crevices of the jetty and noticed a big large pile of debris. I was shocked to find most of the trash I picked up entwined with the debris.