I attended the coastal clean-up day at Ventura Harbor on Saturday, September 15th. It only seemed reasonable to carpool there since we planned to dedicate our morning to cleaning up the environment. It was one of the few times I had been to the Ventura Harbor Beach and I noticed it is very similar to a cove shaped beach. While walking the beach picking up trash I noticed the cove formation of the beach was due to the groin implemented just south stopping any longshore transport of sand. As I looked further out I could see not only the groin, but also breakwaters placed only a couple hundred yards off shore. These man-made walls/structures are intentionally placed to protect the harbor from surf and waves to create a calm environment for the harbor. Well on Saturday afternoon, the wind started picking up in the afternoon and you could see the water gaining force. I was shocked by the level of energy in the water being created by the swishing back and forth off the jetties. It reminded me of a minuscule version of the wedge in Newport Beach LA. Adrenaline seeking people were out riding these waves with short boards, boogie boards, and even body surfing with hand fins. Not only was I cleaning up the beach, but I also got the entertainment of watching people riding and then getting slammed by the waves always popping up ready for the next.
The majority of objects I found when cleaning up the beach was small fragments of Styrofoam. I could have spent hours in one spot picking up Styrofoam pieces, the size of your pinky-nail, scattered and captured in the ice-plant coverage on the dunes. I noticed that majority of the trash was found in the ice-plant coverage because the of the wind blowing it offshore. Another common piece of trash was glass. I found shards of glass mostly near the garbage cans; somehow people keep managing to miss by just inches and are too lazy to pick up what they embarrassingly missed.
I believe that if you respect the community you live in, you must participate in keeping it clean. The trash on the streets accumulates, flushing into our rivers, and draining to our beaches; so, don’t be lazy and walk past it. Pick it up!
I liked that you mentioned how the ice plant was picking up most of the trash as this is an invasive species, so that is a good point!
I like that you mentioned the small pieces of styrofoam, because I noticed that as well. Most of them collected up in piles with other materials, but were so small they were practically impossible to pick up. Thankfully, the beach was relatively clean by the time we got there, so many people were putting an effort. I second Jessica’s comment regarding the ice plant. We picked up trash together and we also noticed that a lot of trash accumulated in the bushes in the divider area between the road. We specifically found a lot of pieces of plastic and cigarette butts. Another location we found a good amount of trash was behind the trash cans, wedged between the can and the wall.