Moonlight Beach Cleanup

Date of Event: October 15, 2016 Location: Moonlight Beach

Group or Entity Sponsoring Event: Surfrider Foundation and FM 94.9

What was the purpose the the cleanup/event? Who or what benefitted from this event? What did
you do? What did you see? What did you learn?
For my first honors event, I went to a cleanup at Moonlight Beach that was held by the
Surfrider Foundation. Originally, my mom found the event and I was immediately interested
because I had spent a good chunk of my summer lounging on Moonlight and D streets warm
sand. My mom also decided that this cleanup should be a family affair, so I ended up going with
both of my parents. We had to drive up right after crew practice and arrived about 10 minutes
late. We signed in, were praised for bringing our own buckets and gloves, and adorned the light
blue Keep San Diego Beaches Clean! shirts that were being given out.
We meandered around the lunch tables picking up small pieces of trash, like cigarette
butts, for a little while and worked our way down to the water with the other volunteers. It
seemed as if most of blue shirts were migrating South so we decided to go North. The farther
we walked, the less trash we found. This was possibly because we arrived late but it didnt
seem like anyone else was finding much trash either. From what I remember of the summer,
Moonlight never seemed to have that much trash anyway; its a relatively clean beach. I could
only really find very small pieces of plastic. Eventually I started picking up bird feathers because
there was nothing else to pick up. When it was clear that there was nothing left to find other than
feathers and dried seaweed, we started making our way back. I think the largest items I found
were some granola bar wrappers that, somehow, the hundred other volunteers missed, and a
plastic cup stashed between some rocks. My dad also picked up a really nasty cigar that was
left in a pile of seaweed.
After turning in all of our trash and washing our hands, we made our way back to the car.
As we were walking, my dad pointed out how much trash was on the streets and in the gutters,
which was way more than what was on the beach. It almost seemed hypocritical to spend two
hours scouring the beach for the tiniest shred of plastic, only to walk past litter piled up in the
gutter (that would get washed out to the ocean anyway) without a second glance. I understand
that its hard to be aware of how much trash youre producing when we live in the era of
disposables. Having my dad point out the trash on the street really opened my eyes. It almost
makes me want to carry around a trash bag all the time and pick up all the litter. I think events
like beach cleanups are important and a good way to help the community, but I think we need
more trash cleanup events, especially in urban or densely populated areas. Anywhere that
people can buy things, are places that trash will be found. I also think that we need to spend
more effort on prevention rather than clean up. If we produce less trash, there will be less to
pick up and itll be better in the long run.