Clean Ocean Action Announces: Beach Sweep Clean Up Coming April 13th
Heads up, fans of sand, sun, and ocean! As heard on The Morning Rat Race, Clean Ocean Action has announced their Spring 2024 Beach Sweep Clean Up day. This year’s volunteer day is Saturday, April 13th. Here’s what you need to know about the beach clean up day from what time to show up to what to bring with you.
Who Is Clean Ocean Action?
Clean Ocean Action’s stated goal is to “improve the degraded water quality of the marine waters off the New Jersey / New York coast.” They’ve been advocating for the waters of the Jersey Shore for over 30 years. Before they came about, dumping garbage in the waters off the Jersey shore was commonplace. The organization claims that they’ve helped close multiple water dumping grounds.
I’ll never forget talking to a local fisherman while doing a promotional appearance at Leggetts in Manasquan in 1997. We were talking about the condition of the water lately and he quite literally had tears in his eyes as he described how better the water quality was recently, compared to years ago when garbage washing up on the Jersey shore was commonplace. Medical waste and more would wash up daily. The waves awash in brown sludge. Today such conditions are rare, but back then it was commonplace. Part of the reason that our ocean waters are cleaner are because of the hard work and advocacy of Clean Ocean Action.
The main poster for the Spring 2024 Spring Sweep Beach Clean Up
What’s A Beach Sweep Clean Up?
Twice a year, Clean Ocean Action puts out the call to the local community to take part in a Beach Sweep and the community responds in big numbers. They want your help this year as well. The Spring beach clean up is April 13th from 9am ’til noon.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out: The volunteers pick up garbage off the beach. During the Spring beach sweep clean up most of the garbage found is stuff that washed up during the many winter storms over the season. We’re not talking gigantic stuff here, we’re talking stuff that can be picked up by hand. Not everything is a, “washed up on the shore”, thing, however. There’s some surprisingly fun finds.
A toy car found during the Spring sweep beach clean up.
Clean Ocean Action wants you to bring your own bucket and wear protective gloves (as you can see in the picture above). And, as you can see below, a lot of the clean up is small stuff like bottle caps, straws, and lids from fast food stores.
Bottle caps collected during the Fall 2023 Spring Beach Sweep Clean Up.
Where Is The Beach Sweep Clean Up?
That’s the easy part of this whole thing: There’s EIGHTY different beaches to choose from. I can almost guarantee that the beach that you and your family like the most is on the list. Check out the full list below and get set for a fun day. With all the concerns about the ocean wildlife we’ve seen lately, the turnout for the 2024 Spring Beach Sweep Clean Up should be as big as it gets!
Click here for registration information.
Have a look at the incredible amount of trash picked up in 2022 alone, it’s amazing:
The stats from 2022’s clean ups are impressive!
