Nobody likes a dirty beach

A (small) snapshot of marine debris collected from Chinese Harbor

All words by Bren masters student Laura Ingulsurd, adapted from an Office of National Marine Sanctuary Weekly Situation Report. 

CINMS beach cleanup at Chinese Harbor on Santa Cruz Island collects 1,240 pounds of trash during “Get Into Your Sanctuary” weekend
To kick off “Get Into Your Sanctuary” weekend, on Friday August 2, a mix of Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) staff, interns, Sanctuary Advisory Council members, and local Santa Barbara lobster fishermen crossed the Santa Barbara Channel in the R/V Shearwater to clean trash off a Santa Cruz Island beach. Here's the breakdown from the day's activities: 

• # of participants: 21
• Trash removed: 1,240 pounds
• Miscellaneous Plastics (# of items removed): 650
• Plastic Packaging (# of items removed): 677
• Personal Effects (# of items removed): 174
• Lost Fishing Gear (# of items removed): 97
• Non-plastic items (# of items removed): 59
• Other/unclassifiable items: 10​

All activities took place along a 1-mile stretch of beach known as Chinese Harbor. Most of the trash recovered consisted of plastic items, many of which had begun to disintegrate into microplastics under the constant sun. This effort was funded by a NOAA Marine Debris Program grant in conjunction with CINMS.
 
Significance: The waters of Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary are some of the state of California’s most productive fishing grounds. Sanctuary staff and local commercial fishermen are proud to collaborate and work together to clean up marine debris.

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Clockwise from top left: A lobster boat using its hydraulic pulley system to transport bagged trash off the beach (photo: Laura Ingulsrud); Summer interns repping “Get Into Your Sanctuary” shirts while removing trash from sanctuary shores (photo: Pike Spector); Part of the cleanup crew posing with their finds (photo: Sean Hastings).