The Monterey Peninsula Sunrise Rotary Club including family and friends picked up about 40 pounds of trash yesterday on Del Monte Beach. Our focus was from the wharf, down the recreation trail about .25 miles and back up the beach. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the low 70's. Afterwards, we celebrated our day at the London Bridge Pub with some well deserved fellowship! MPSRC has signed up with Save Our Shores to sponsor our beach clean ups. This is our club's 3rd beach clean up in the past year which also included Carmel Beach and Del Monte Beach. Save Our Shores provides the collection tools and forms to document what we found and removed into recycling or trash containers. The results were surprising. When you walk onto Del Monte Beach or along the recreation trail, most peoples first impressions is "wow, this beach looks really clean!" On this date we collected 1,559 pieces of debris in 1.5 hours. It breaks down as follows- 340 plastic pieces, 20 styrofoam pieces, 842 smoking related items, 141 glass pieces, 119 paper pieces, 74 metal pieces, 6 beach related items, and 16 "other" items. Several things stood out as we analyzed our debris. First of all we collected 835 cigarette butts! Although I don't like smoking personally, I can't understand why some people who smoke just toss their cigarette butts! We collected the equivalent of 42 packs of cigarettes just with our small group of 10 volunteers in a small area of the beach. We also found AAA batteries, lighters, lipstick, matches, nail clippers, and an unopened 1 gallon can of Rustoleum Paint for striping blue wheel chair accessible areas. The label clearly marked it. The can had been tossed into a bush. This isn't paint the average homeowner goes out to buy to take to the beach. This particular paint is used to stripe wheel chair accessible areas in parking lots. It seems like the folks responsible can do better! But that is true of all the debris collected. We can all do better to make our beaches on the shore of the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary clean and enjoyable. As residents and users of the beaches this is our responsibility to each other and the environment. It is our responsibility to sea creatures who live in our oceans so they can thrive, rather than be endangered from the debris they mistake as food. Join the Monterey Peninsula Sunrise Rotary Club on September 19, 2015 for our next Del Monte Beach clean up. We will meet at 10am near the wharf and behind the recreation trail. We are a merry band of "Rotarians at Work". Come join us! For more information go to www.montereysunriserotary.org.
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