Photo by Morgan Grana

Last year on Earth Day, 300 volunteers working with Save Our Shores (SOS) picked up 2,400 pounds of trash from two beaches in Santa Cruz County. This year, they plan to top that.

Save Our Shores is a Santa Cruz nonprofit organization that sponsors beach and river cleanups and promotes awareness of issues related to the marine environment. This year, they will help organize the annual Earth Day Festival on April 21 at San Lorenzo Park, along with Ecology Action and the city of Santa Cruz.

Since the organization’s founding in 1978, it has helped to establish the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and have held thousands of cleanups in cities, rivers and beaches. In 2011, SOS sponsored over 220 beach cleanups and over 50 urban cleanups, program coordinator Andrew Hoeksema said.

“I tell people that SOS focuses on the human aspect of the ocean,” Hoeksema said. “Because we don’t go out and save marine mammals or birds or anything like that, we actually talk to humans and say, ‘Hey, you can do these small things in your life that will help protect the ocean.’”

This Earth Day, SOS plans to have the largest cleanup effort ever held in the Monterey Bay Area. Cleanup sites include San Lorenzo Park, where the Earth Day festival will be held, as well as Cowell, Manresa and Del Monte beaches. They expect close to 100 volunteers at each location, and these will be joined by three private groups working with SOS on a more extensive cleanup of the San Lorenzo, bringing the expected turnout to nearly 500 volunteers.

“As far as coastal cleanups, this is definitely the biggest we’ve done so far,” said Sarah Maxwell, a fourth-year ecology and evolutionary biology major who just completed SOS’s eight week training course for volunteer coordinators.

Since SOS is composed of only five full-time staff members, the organization relies on volunteer coordinators like
Maxwell to organize large cleanups. Along with other graduates of the training course, Maxwell will be responsible for directing the hundreds of volunteers that turn up on Earth Day and making sure that their time is put to the best use possible.

“Basically, we’ll give them a short educational presentation about plastics and the local beach environment and how they can help. After that, we just make sure they’re collecting what they should be collecting,” said Michael Ray, a fourth-year environmental science and economics major who recently completed SOS’s training program.

According to SOS’s data, the most frequently picked up item during these cleanups is cigarette butts. After that comes plastic pieces and wrappers, Styrofoam, paper pieces and fireworks — in that order. Maxwell is quick to point out that cleanups aren’t the only thing SOS is doing to protect the ocean.

“They’re doing cleanups monthly, but what’s awesome about them is that they’re also really involved in a lot of advocacy,” Maxwell said. “The executive director, Laura Kasa, was a really big player in getting the plastic bag ban going in Santa Cruz.”

The plastic bag ban in Santa Cruz County went into effect on March 20 of this year, and currently only applies to the unincorporated areas of Santa Cruz County, such as the Live Oak area and much of South County, but not in any of the cities. SOS is currently working toward extending the bag ban to those areas.

Until next weekend is over, SOS will be spending most of its time focusing on Earth Day — something Hoeksema says is just as important, but for different reasons.

“The festival itself is really a celebration,” Hoeksema said. “I think in the environmental movement people spend a lot of time talking about the bad news, and there is a lot of bad news. So I think we tend to focus on negative messages. But I really hope, even when we’re picking up trash that shouldn’t be in the ocean, that we can just celebrate the beauty of where we live.”

At UCSC, CALPIRG erected a six-foot-high wall of plastic bags to drive home the point that plastic bags negatively impact the environment. The event focused on gathering signatures on petitions, as well as educating students about the harmful effect plastic bags have on the environment — specifically, the ocean.

“We use 12 billion plastic bags every year in California,” said Kelsey Grimsley, oceans campaign coordinator and UCSC CALPIRG chapter chair. “Because only 5 percent are recycled, plastic bags are a significant part of plastic pollution in our ocean.”

Oceanographer and chemist Charles Moore’s 2008 study on the effect that plastic has on the ocean, found of all litter in the ocean, approximately 60–80 percent is plastic, with an even higher percentage in certain areas. In his study, Moore said plastic bags are not the only source of plastic waste in the ocean, and banning plastic bags will not be sufficient — all plastics people litter should be regulated.

CALPIRG hopes to gain momentum and expand their efforts to ban plastic bags statewide. Many cities like San Francisco, San Jose and the unincorporated Los Angeles County have already banned plastic bags. According to the Mercury News, San Jose’s ban on plastic bags is similar to the Santa Cruz county ban, in which no one, except restaurants and nonprofits, can use single-use plastic bags. They currently charge 10 cents for paper bags. Although a bill to ban plastic bags was defeated in the California State Senate in 2010, there are new measures that are being planned for the future. Currently, there is a recycling bill, AB 298, being pushed through the California State Assembly.

Photo courtesy of CALPIRG

“The plastic bag ban is not very popular at the state level,” said Lauren Dockendorf, advocacy coordinator for Save Our Shores. “AB 298 is more of a plastic bag recycling measure — it doesn’t go straight to the ban. Although we would like to see a ban in the future, we always advocate for conservation efforts like that.”

The Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, a group that has a large financial backing according to SOS, has continually battled against plastic bag bans across the state.

“We were working with Santa Cruz County for two and half years to pass the ban on plastic bags,” Dockendorf said. “It took a long time to get through because the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition and the California Restaurant Association threatened to sue the county unless they took out the part of the ban that said restaurants had to refrain from using plastic bags.”

Santa Cruz County restaurants are not beholden to the ban, even though the ban excludes restaurants. However, many other of Santa Cruz’s restaurants have made the effort to become more eco-friendly. Most notably, Woodstock’s Pizza has pledged their support of banning plastic bags, along with Betty’s Burgers, Upper Crust and Café Cruz.

“We’re trying to be as green as possible and help out our community,” said Brendan Duggan, assistant general manager and marketing representative from Woodstock’s. “We’ve already stopped ordering plastic bags.”

Safeway has also stepped up to the challenge of cutting down plastic usage. Starting on March 20, the day that the Santa Cruz County ban on plastic bags starts, they will give away 100 reusable bags a day for a week.

“We hope to cause a domino effect and really get these cities rolling,” Dockendorf said. “We are ready to fight.”

Photo by Morgan Grana.

A volunteer deposits a needle into the biohazard box. The needle shown was among several needles found that day. Photo by Morgan Grana.

A child drops a hypodermic needle into a biohazard box with a poster draped over it that reads “Save Our Shores.” The box is already host to several needles found at the beach that day. The child is volunteering at a cleanup on Main Beach, in front of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Save Our Shores organizes cleanups throughout the year to preserve the local environment of the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary.

A Brief History

Save Our Shores is a local nonprofit organization based in Santa Cruz that organizes cleanups and raises awareness of threats to the marine ecosystem. Whether for monthly cleanups, where any community member can participate, or group cleanups, where specific organizations participate, Save Our Shores motivates the community to volunteer to preserve the marine environment in which they live. The organization’s pamphlet reads, “We show them how their actions affect the marine environment, and offer the choice to make a positive impact.”

Save Our Shores has served to facilitate a “thriving and healthy marine ecosystem as a result of an informed and compassionate public” in the Santa Cruz area since they fought offshore drilling on the central coast 20 years ago. In order to prevent offshore drilling, Save Our Shores has traveled across the state since 1985 to gather support for offshore drilling prohibition. The momentum the organization generated during their campaign across California provided support for the establishment of a National Marine Sanctuary. In 1992, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was established, and since the sanctuary’s conception, the organization has influenced cleanup in the protected area they helped establish.

At their watershed cleanups, Save Our Shores provides volunteers with supplies for cleanup; such as receptacles for collecting trash along the waterways, gloves, the biohazard box, and cards to keep tally the types and quantity of trash found. Before letting the volunteers loose on the litter, a Save Our Shores representative gives a short presentation about the amount and types of trash found in marine ecosystems.

“It’s important to help the environment we live in, and especially because Santa Cruz is such a beach town, it is important to keep the ocean ecosystem thriving and healthy,” said Tori Lord, an intern with Save Our Shores and fourth-year environmental studies major.

Save Our Shores’ office sits on the harbor, its front windows looking out onto the sea of docked sailboats. Here, the nonprofit organizes monthly waterway cleanups throughout the Santa Cruz area, with both specific groups and the general community.

Last year, Save Our Shores collected over 26,000 pounds of trash and 9,000 pounds of recycling, a total that was reached by adding up the quantity of trash collected from all of the cleanups they run throughout the year.

Trash collected at local waterways contributes to this amount. Save Our Shore’s mantra, “Awareness, Advocacy, Action,” is now being directed at the rivers as well.

“We are starting to run more river cleanups, because they are in much worse condition,” said Emily Glanville, Program Manager at Save Our Shores. “We’re really focusing our education on pathways of pollution. I think we have gotten people to not litter on the beach, but we want to foster that kind of awareness for all watersheds.”

Photo by Morgan Grana.

A Shifting Focus

Save Our Shores has begun to focus on rivers and all waterways in the area because they eventually lead to the ocean and are contributing to the amount and type of debris found on the beaches and in the marine habitat.

“Our beaches are getting cleaner because we run a ton of beach cleanups. We hope that it is because of the awareness [we’ve raised],” Glanville said. “Our rivers are a different story. It is much easier to leave a mess at a river. I think that people have a hard time connecting the trash on the rivers and the harm that it causes.”

Despite Save Our Shores’ increased involvement in river cleanup, it has not decreased its involvement with ocean conservation. They still conduct the same number of ocean cleanups.

Glanville said that the high levels of traffic and people that frequent the rivers furthers the importance of their involvement with that endeavor. The debris found at the rivers includes heavier objects, such as tires, washers, dryers and other various household items. The trash typically found on the beaches usually consists of significantly lighter items, like cigarette butts and bits of paper.

Much of the garbage picked up at their beach cleanups — like the one at Main Beach — is in fact attributed to runoff from rivers. For example, the San Lorenzo River pours into the ocean at Main Beach and deposits trash from the river onto the shore.

Needles, like the one found at the Main Beach cleanup, are among the various types of copious amounts of trash found at watersheds and oceans throughout the Santa Cruz area. They indicate how the beaches and the rivers are connected.

“It’s weird, cigarette butts used to be the main thing, now we are finding more condoms and syringes,” said Jessica Glanz, an intern with Save Our Shores, as she stands behind the table, instructing volunteers on the proper methods of trash disposal at Main Beach. Glanz is a Clean Boating and Sustainable Seafood Intern with Save Our Shores and a third-year marine biology major at UC Santa Cruz.

Inhabitants along the rivers may be contributing to the increased presence of needles and other drug paraphernalia being found on the beaches.

“There might be a few people who use on the beach but it is from the homeless encampments on the river and then the river washes them into the ocean,” said Dennis Gagne, Save Our Shores volunteer.

Save Our Shores does not intervene with homeless encampments, but they do acknowledge the damaging effects of such infrastructure on the environment.

“We don’t ever break up homeless encampments. It’s a hard situation that I feel has not been addressed correctly,” Glanville said. “From an environmental perspective, it is bad to have people living along the river without bathrooms, but without the proper infrastructure coming from the city and county, there isn’t anywhere for these people to go.”

Many volunteers at the beach cleanup brought their children with them, and one volunteer braved bringing their stroller onto the sand. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Volunteers for Save Our Shores looked throughout the beach for tiny pieces of trash mixed in all with the wood. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Getting Their Hands Dirty

To facilitate community involvement, Save Our Shores works with community organizations ranging from grade school children to adult sport leagues, coordinating things like beach adoption. In the adoption process, an organization will adopt a local beach and then participate in a minimum number of beach cleanups at their locale.

One blustery February afternoon, at the cleanup aforementioned, nearly 30 Santa Cruz Roller Derby Girls and members of their families showed up to their newly adopted beach, Main Beach, to do one of the three mandatory beach clean-ups required as part of the adoption process. Main Beach is a place that many of the Derby Girls have frequented.

“A lot of our girls grew up here and have an affinity for the beach and keeping the beach cleaned up,” said Derby Girl Salt Ann Battery. “Having grown up here, a lot of us want to help out and because Santa Cruz supports us, we want to show that we are thankful and set an example of community support.”

The cleanup illustrated the intertwined relationships of the community, the beaches and the rivers.

Talking Trash

Save Our Shores works with groups of children frequently, and in light of the debris being found, volunteers are fearful for the youth present at the cleanups.

At the office, Kate Purcell, volunteer coordinator with Save Our Shores, described how the dangerous debris is especially a cause for concern at cleanups with school groups.

“Needles and syringes have increased and it is really worrisome for us, because we have so many school groups who go out,” Purcell said. “It is just scary.”

The possibility of needles and syringes lurking beneath the surface has prompted the staff at cleanups to make a request to children at play.

“Sometimes we recommend that kids don’t dig, because there might be hidden danger. To me, that’s just so sad,” Purcell said. “One of those quintessential childhood experiences is threatened because of the mess.”

Save Our Shores has each volunteer carefully mark what items they collect at cleanups to ensure a thorough bookkeeping of the type and amount of trash collected at each cleanup. The removal of syringes and needles factor in to keeping the beaches safe.

“The state beaches would be pretty dismal without the beach cleanups,” Purcell said. “Save Our Shores is really providing a service to the community. We’re keeping them safe. People don’t realize that cleaning the beaches keeps it safe for children.”

As of mid-March this year, Save Our Shores had collected a total of 2,764 pounds of trash, and 797.5 pounds of recycling at their 18 beach cleanups and 11 river cleanups.

Their close tally of the types of litter picked up at the cleanups allows them to generate accurate and helpful breakdowns of the data.

The top five items picked up at the cleanups, are as follows: 8,230 Styrofoam pieces, 6,545 plastic pieces, 4,025 cigarette butts, 2,503 plastic food wrappers, and 2,430 glass pieces.

The amount of trash that Save Our Shores removes from all watersheds reflects the organization’s role in continuing to preserve the sanctuary they fought so hard to establish 20 years ago. The nonprofit continues to preserve the community and ocean ecosystem that hundreds of marine animals and nearly 700,000 people that live along the Monterey Bay coast call home.

Photo by Kathryn Power.

Nonprofit organization Save Our Shores uses one of its many beach clean-up events to show that despite the presence of trash cans on the beach, littering still remains a problem. Photo by Kathryn Power.

Nonprofit organization Save Our Shores held close to 400 beach clean-ups last year in Monterey Bay alone, preventing 79,000 pounds of trash and recycling from entering the ocean.

This year members expect similar results from their volunteer program, the steward/docent training program, which kicks off on Feb. 23 and continues through April.

After the prospective stewards/docents finish their training in subjects like marine conservancy and marine life, they are required to complete 50 hours of volunteer work by December.

Volunteer work generally includes hosting beach and river clean-ups, quantifying trash, and educating community members about their impact on marine life.

“We’re really looking for leaders and people that can represent Save Our Shores in a professional way,” said Kate Purcell, the program’s volunteer coordinator. “We’re looking for mature professionals.”

The class and training program meets weekly to hear lectures on subjects like Monterey Bay habitats and pollution prevention.

Steve Pleich, a graduate of the steward/docent volunteer program, supports the program’s goals for a healthier ocean and intends to work with Save Our Shores for many years to come.

“Every day that you do something for Save Our Shores is a day that the marine sanctuary is protected,” Pleich said.

Save Our Shores was founded 31 years ago and has been hosting its steward/docent volunteer program for the past 15 years. The organization has held monthly beach clean-ups since its founding, and encourages the public and the university to participate. It also offers for-credit internships to college students.

“There aren’t a lot of other opportunities that allow people to get connected very physically doing community service or volunteer work,” Purcell said. “Not only are we educating people, we are also engaging them in a solution.”

Besides their monthly scheduled clean-ups, volunteers also educate in classrooms and at special events, including the city’s Independence Day celebration. Volunteers who graduate from the program can look forward to helping out on the biggest clean-up of the year.

“It’s a really emotionally charged day because the beaches are just piled high with trash,” Purcell said.

The stewards and docents spend all day on July 4 walking around the beach handing out bags and encouraging people to pack their trash. They spend July 5 collecting the trash that was left behind. For marine life and ocean livelihood, this is very important.

“They not only collect, they quantify what kind of trash is being collected,” said Steve Lonhart, senior scientist and researcher for the marine sanctuary in Santa Cruz. “So if you’re getting lots and lots of one kind of debris, then you inform the public about that and ultimately it brings around a change in practice.”

Lonhart said the main animals affected by the mass quantities of trash being dumped into the ocean are birds that mistake shiny plastics for krill, and turtles that mistake trash bags for jellyfish.

But it’s not just plastic that’s being collected. In fact, cigarette butts are the most prevalent type of marine debris found at beach clean-ups by Save Our Shores stewards.

“Any effort to reduce the input of foreign material into the ocean is a good thing,” Lonhart said. “If they didn’t do it, all that material they collect … doesn’t degrade very readily. That can have very dire consequences for the birds and turtles.”

And most stewards like Martel Anderson, who is a graduate of the 2009 class, are very dedicated to ocean conservancy. Last year for her birthday, Anderson wrote to all her friends and family, asking them to donate to Save Our Shores instead of buying her gifts. That charitable act alone raised almost $600 for the program.

“Most of us have the ocean on our list of things to be thankful for,” Purcell said, “but Save Our Shores offers people the next step to give back.”