Your Week in Ocean: UnTrashing The Beach

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Jennifer Savage / Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014 @ 8:59 a.m. / Activism, Ocean

Your Week in Ocean: UnTrashing The Beach

Come Sunday, expect cleaner beaches.

This Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, your friends, neighbors, coworkers, kids, students, maybe even you will take part in California Coastal Cleanup Day. Coordinated by the Northcoast Environmental Center, the event is part of International Coastal Cleanup Day, the largest volunteer event on the planet!

If you’re not already part of a team, the following locations are accepting drop-in volunteers:

Moonstone Beach, meet at main beach parking area
Mad River, meet at Stardough’s Cafe in Blue Lake
Arcata Marsh, meet at Interpretive Center
Samoa Beach, meet in paved parking lot
Del Norte Street Pier, meet at pier parking area
Hikshari Trail/Elk River Wildlife Sanctuary, meet at trail/sanctuary parking area
Sequoia Park, meet at main park gazebo
North Jetty, meet in parking lot

If you have your own SUP, canoe or kayak and would like to join an on-the-water team at the Eureka Public Marina, contact Maggie Herbelin at (707) 445-2401 or mcherbelin@sbcglobal.net.

Win stuff!

As if making a tangible difference over the course of a few hours wasn’t enough, the California Coastal Commission makes participating even more fun – and potentially more rewarding – with a couple contests:

1. Snap photos of yourself along with some trash you’ve found or picked up. Using Instagram, post your photo using the hashtags:

#coastalcleanupday
#litterati
#trashselfie
#OceanLove

You’ll be entered for a chance to win an eight-day/seven-night stay in a two-bedroom Grand Suite at a Grand Mayan Luxury Resort in either Riviera Maya (Cancun), Nuevo Vallarta, Los Cabos or Acapulco from California Cleanup Day sponsor Rubio’s.

2. Each year, the Coastal Commission gives out prizes for the Most Unusual Items collected during the cleanup. To enter, take a picture of your item and post it to Facebook using the hashtags:

#coastalcleanupday
#mostunusual

or you can email the photo to coast4u@coastal.ca.gov. Two winners will be selected, one from the coastal areas of California and another from the inland areas of California. Each will receive a $100 visa gift card.

Faces of Coastal Cleanup: To highlight all the truly amazing individuals who make California Coastal Cleanup Day a success, the Commission has spotlighted a different person every day leading up to the cleanup, and after.

Before and After photos: These are great ways to illustrate the impact made in just three hours – take a photo of your site just before and another right afterwards. Then post the photos to Facebook using the hashtags: