Sports
Watch: A Different Long Beach Coastal Clean Up
Armed with gloves and a grabbing tool, volunteers on the waterfront docks do their part.
Thousands of Southern California residents on Saturday participated in the Coastal Clean-Up Day at more than sixty locations, and some of them in Long Beach went to clean up their marinas, jetties, favorite lakes, streams or ponds.
Paul Working, of the fishery Catch-22, staffed a booth at Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach. Working has participated in the Clean-Up for the past seven years, and looks forward to the event every year. "We've collected over seven tons of trash on average, each year. So far...we've collected everything from cans and plastic bottle to a hypodermic needle."
The first Coastal Clean Up was organized in October 1984 by Oregonian Judie Neilson, who organized 2,800 volunteers. One year later, the concept had spread down to California, where the California Coastal Commission ran the event in 1985 with 2,500 participants.
Volunteers range in age from the very young to the more mature volunteers. Heal the Bay took over the organization of the Clean Up Days in 1990.
Larry Moore from Fish Talk Radio with Philip Friedman Outdoors said it was a good day. "It's just good to be out here helping," said Moore.
For information regarding this or other clean-up events, please contact the California Coastal Commission at 1-800-5744