Cleanup Teams Scour Shorelines from the Channel Islands to the Mainland Coast

Date: September 22, 2010
Contact: Yvonne Menard, 805-658-5725

Several organizations are banding together to clean up our coastlines along the Channel Islands and at three area beaches in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.

Teams of volunteers from Channel Islands National Park, Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, Channel Islands Park Foundation, Island Packers Inc., Channel Islands Kayak Center, Santa Barbara Adventure Company, Aquasports, Paddlesports, and the Santa Barbara County Lifeguards have joined together to clean up our coasts and to celebrate the 26th Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day.

On Saturday, September 25, 2010, Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and Channel Islands National Park will jointly sponsor cleanup efforts from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura County and at Santa Claus Lane and Gaviota State Beaches in Santa Barbara County. Volunteers are asked to check-in for the event between 9:00 and 9:30 a.m. Meet at the Emma Wood State Beach entrance kiosk, the west entrance of Santa Claus Lane, or the Gaviota State Beach lifeguard tower.

The Channel Islands Park Foundation is sponsoring a cleanup event for Ventura Harbor beaches from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on September 25, 2010. Volunteers for this event can sign up Saturday morning at the Channel Islands National Park Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitor Center, 1901 Spinnaker Drive in Ventura Harbor. Volunteers at this site will also be working on behalf of National Public Lands Day. National Public Lands Day is the nation's largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands Americans enjoy. Participating Ventura Harbor volunteers will be issued a fee-free coupon for one day's entrance to a national park or other federal lands. Family programs will be available at the park visitor center following this cleanup event.

To kick off the cleanup efforts, Island Packers Inc. sponsored an event on the north side of Anacapa Island on Thursday, September 16, 2010. Using kayaks and skiffs, twenty hard working volunteers covered three miles of coastline collecting two dumpster loads, one each of trash and recyclables. The volunteers represented Channel Islands Kayak Center, Santa Barbara Adventure Company, Aquasports, Paddlesports, and the Santa Barbara County Lifeguards. Recycled products included plastic bottles which were the most numerous item collected. Other debris ranged from tennis balls to helium balloons. Some of the most unusual items collected were a small refrigerator, a shopping cart, and Japanese fishing floats.

Much of the debris collected is trash from mainland beaches, rivers, and storm drains that has made its way across the Santa Barbara Channel to the remote and isolated islands. Some of the items may have been carried by ocean currents over long distances from other parts of the world.

To learn about how to reduce you impact on our marine environment and be an ocean steward please visit the California Coastal Commission website and take the stewardship pledge: http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/ccd.htm.
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/steward/pledge_form.html
 
For information on the Channel Islands Park Foundation go: www.cipf.org