San Diego Coastkeeper

Coastkeeper is essential to helping keep the beauty of our beaches, and the health of the animals (including us) who spend time there.
Beach clean ups are fun, you’ll meet some characters, have some laughs, compare the grossest finds, and sometimes there’s cool giveaways.
If you want a great challenge, sign up for a clean up at one of the river parks. Beneath the surface, you’ll find layers of the craziest trash, which ends up getting carried to the beach, so you may as well start at the source. If you have young kids with you, best to go to a beach site since the river clean ups can be pretty heavy duty! But so satisfying too.

Though Surfrider may get a lot of the glory and has a bunch of hot surfers as members, this worthy group is deserving of some attention as well.
Coastkeeper and Surfrider are in fact in partnership together to coordinate and host the beach clean-​ups in the area now done about 3 times per month. From Imperial Beach and all the way on up to Oceanside, our beaches are made a much better place to recreate in. This is thanks to these 2 groups efforts at community outreach and advocacy to promote clean water stewardship and a healthy coastal eco-​system.
Coastkeeper is always looking for interns and volunteers to help out at these events. It’s a great way for high school students to obtain the community service credits they need to graduate from high school.
To help out Coastkeeper-​you just show up at one of their events, and after signing a liability release waiver-​off to clean-​up you go.
The group hands out hand sanitizer, gloves, trash bags and other essentials needed to pick up trash and refuse at the beach. Sometimes they will offer bagels, coffee, and water bottles and will often be at a site in conjunction with a radio or TV station. Sometimes these media stations give out T-​shirts, hats, and movie-​or concert tickets to clean-​up participants.
When I did the «Morning After Mess» beach clean-​up in Ocean Beach, it was very smoothly-​run and well-​organized. After signing up and signing that liability waiver, you are given a brief talk on what to look for and what to pick up and not pick up. Also there are instructions in counting cigarette butts, as environmental groups want to see how effective the cigarette ban has been on the coastal beaches and bays.
I found very few cigarette butts, but was aghast at the large amount of marshmallows left over from the July 4^th «tradition» of pitching marshmallows around. I can tell you that the seagulls and other birds DO NOT eat these left-​overs, and what I found were hundreds of sticky, sandy cellulose globs of mess all over the Pier area sand.
I spent almost 2 hours just cleaning up a small sandy area and filled 2 trash bags with this stuff. I am not saying Don’t throw marshmallows-​just maybe try and pick some up after you have that marshmallow fight and throw them away!
As the City of San Diego and now the State of California faces increased budgetary pressures and restraints on spending, it’s important for the citizenry to pick up the slack, if possible.
Those who love and enjoy our oceans, beaches, and bays have a special obligation to come forward and help keep them clean.
Not only is it good karma to do a beach clean-​up, it’s also fun, great exercise, and sometimes you walk away with a cool T-​shirt or passes to a movie.
I hope everyone reading this will consider helping out this worthy group and it’s affiliated sister in clean-​ups: Surfrider.