Memorial Day pollution prevention continues on Central Coast beaches

UPDATE: 05/29/17 5:20 p.m.: A piece of a rubber tire is one of the many things in Soledad Scroggins’s Memorial Day trash collection from Del Monte Beach in Monterey.

“Forty food wrappers and seven straws. One, like, fishing lines and nets,” Scroggins said.

Scroggins was among dozens of volunteers who picked up litter during Memorial Day weekend, and she made the best of it.

“It’s just fun to help the earth,” Scroggins said.

To help those who are helping the earth, the nonprofit organization Save Our Shores organized beach cleanups along the coast and hosted public outreach sessions.

“We are providing them with, not only with a free trash bag, but we are also telling them, ‘Hey, have a great time, celebrate, enjoy the beach and, also, if you have any trash, pack it out with you,” said Matt Miller, with Save Our Shores.

On Monday, Save Our Shores gave out a total of 450 bags to beachgoers at Del Monte Beach and Cowell Beach in Santa Cruz. This is a part of its holiday relief program to stop trash from polluting the ocean and to protect the animals at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Mark Cross lives by the bay and has been doing daily cleanups on his own for the past three years. This Memorial Day was no exception.

“When you walk on the beach and you see all the trash that’s there, it’s the only logical thing to do. Because unfortunately, one of the big things we see is clear plastic, and the animals mistake it for jellyfish and eat it, and it ends up killing them,” Cross said.

Another common item in the sand was cigarette butts. Researchers at San Diego State University found one smoked cigarette butt in a liter of water is enough to kill both marine and freshwater fish.

“It’s bad for the fish, the animals and ocean and the earth,” Scroggins said.

On Del Monte Beach alone, volunteers found almost 100 cigarette butts in less than four hours.

Save Our Shores has been tracking everything that’s collected from the beaches, and it uses this information to inform local policymaking.

PREVIOUS STORY: As visitors flock to Monterey Peninsula beaches for Memorial Day, the nonprofit organization Save Our Shores is organizing cleanups and pollution prevention outreach to reduce holiday litter.

By picking up trash at beaches in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, the nonprofit hopes to prevent waste from entering the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Last year, Save Our Shores collected 790 pounds of trash during Memorial Day weekend.

KION’s Linda Zhang will have more on the story coming up this evening.