30th Annual Spring Beach Sweeps

Nearly 4,000 Volunteers Swept the Beach

Waves of thanks to everyone who participated in our 30th Annual Spring Beach Sweeps! Nearly 4,000 volunteers hit the beaches at over 70 sites from Essex County to Cape May County. Another huge thank you to Clean Ocean Action’s Beach Captains, the volunteers who lead the entire group of participants at each Beach Sweeps location - you are essential to the program’s success. Clean Ocean Action may organize the cleanup and compile the data, but it is truly the Beach Captains and the volunteers that are the heart and soul of this program.

For three decades volunteers have been making their way to the coast, bays, and waterways, twice a year, to clean up debris. Many of the volunteers have personal ties to the Shore and have been participating for multiple generations. The volunteers this year powered through the morning chill and got right into sweeping the beaches.

•       Participants in Atlantic City rallied beforehand with speeches from Charlie Wimberg, Region VP of Atlantic City Electric and elected officials.
•        213 volunteers showed up at the Raritan Bay Waterfront and found some unusual  items including animal bones, broom, binoculars and pliers.
•       A yoga mat was found on an Asbury Park Beach.
•        At Snug Harbor in the Highlands, a volunteer found possible fulgurite, blob of glass fused sand caused by lightening strike!
•    Students from Hightstown Environmental Club found a door and giant plastic container in Sandy Hook.
•         An amazing find was a seahorse at Ortley Beach! Although the wondrous critter had passed away, it is a healthy sign that they are back.

Selected totals from Sandy Hook included: 6265 food/candy wrappers, 8289 plastic pieces, 3126 straws/stirrers, 2301 foam pieces, 1339 store/shopping bags, and 1680 beverage/soda bottles.

In addition to logging standard debris counts for various plastics, glass and lumber items, Sweeps participants also logged the strange objects that make their way to the beach from various nonpoint sources. Some of the ridiculous items catalogued today included a yoga mat, underwear, dog dentures, teddy bear, a Valentine’s Day stuffed heart, tire, seahorse, and sand hit by lighting glass.

This spring data will be combined with data collected in the fall. Make sure you mark your calendars for the 30th Annual Fall Sweeps on Saturday October 24th from 9 AM to 12:30 PM at the various locations!

Why I am a Beach Captain

By Leah A. Savia

Clean Ocean Action’s Beach Captain for Island Beach State Park

Clean Ocean Action’s Beach Sweeps is an important event that I have had the distinct pleasure of volunteering for as Beach Captain at the Island Beach State Park location the last five years. I will a Beach Captain there this upcoming Spring Beach Sweep on Saturday April 25^th. As a transplant from NYC, and new member of the Barnegat Bay Watershed, I was introduced to Beach Sweeps as part of a student event at Ocean County College and consider it not only a duty, but one of my core passions—volunteering, to ensure the safety and cleanliness of our surrounding water bodies.

What better way to truly be a part of this amazing county and community? Beach Sweeps is a family, couple, grandparent, kids, and student friendly event, and it provides an education component that transcends being inside of a classroom. Very often the nature of what refuse is found is discussed, pondered, and further researched by many of the groups I work with every spring and fall season. How did a crematorium tag from Bergen County get all the way down here on the bayside? It certainly spurs the imagination of our participants.

Sharing my experience and satisfaction with being a part of this event is perhaps why I am choosing to write you. Surely there are some good people reading your publication who have the desire to do something for their community, they just don’t know what. If any of you reading this swim, sail, walk, run, entertain guests, meditate, do yoga, waverun, or bask in the glorious summer sky off or on the shores of the Atlantic or surrounding waterways, to them and to you, I say -  come join us Saturday April 25^th from 9 AM to 12:30 PM at over 70 locations around New Jersey! 

2014 Beach Sweep Dirty Dozen – Top 12 items found

For thirty years, Clean Ocean Action (COA) has been scouring the beaches of New Jersey for marine debris, which then gets compiled into annual reports showing the type and amount of debris collected. Last year nearly 7,000 volunteers took to the beaches and bays collecting and recording what they found. The findings are compiled in the 2014 Beach Sweeps Annual Report, highlighting the Dirty Dozen, Roster of the Ridiculous, and the totals for over 90 items of marine debris collected by volunteers last year. Clean Ocean Action Beach Sweeps started at Sandy Hook in 1985 with 75 volunteers and has become New Jersey’s largest environmental event, with thousands of citizens search and clean nearly the entire coastline and bay beaches.

In 2014, close to 7,000 volunteers collected, tallied, and removed over 315,000 pieces of debris from New Jersey’s shoreline during Clean Ocean Action’s 29th Annual Beach Sweeps. The majority of the debris removed was disposable plastics. Plastic, including foam, represents 76.9% of the total waste found. The evidence is clear: disposable plastic items continue to litter beaches, threaten marine life, and impact water quality.  

Dirty Dozen – Top 12 Items Found:

1. Plastic Pieces – 40,880 
   
2. Cigarette Filters – 30,241
3. Plastic Caps/Lids – 29,804
4. Food Candy Wrappers/Bag – 27,381
5. Straws/Stirrers – 18,372
6. Foam Pieces – 13,050
7. Glass Pieces – 12,703
8. Plastic Beverages/Soda Bottles – 11,775
9. Lumber Pieces – 9,235
10. Plastic Store/Shopping Bags – 8,037
11. Cigar Tips – 6,366
12. Paper Pieces – 5,560

Pollution continues to flow in from many land point and non-point sources in the New York City and New Jersey metropolitan area. Over the past four years, small plastic pieces have consistently placed in the top two types of items found during Clean Ocean Action’s Beach Sweeps. In 2014, plastic pieces ranked number one.

Always remember REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE! Reusable bottles, straws, and shopping bags would greatly reduce the amount of plastic we use. Always refuse or reuse when you can, but if that is not an option always recycle!

Don’t forget to join us for the 30th Annual Spring Beach Sweeps Saturday April 25^th from 9 AM to 12:30 PM at over 70 locations around New Jersey. Visit www.cleanoceanaction.org for more information and how to register!