Trash Talk

Tomorrow is the third Saturday in September, which means it’s International Coastal Cleanup Day. Now in its 22nd year, ICC is the day when more than a quarter million people put on old shoes and ‘beachcomb’ the shorelines, lakes and rivers of the world, picking up the junk discarded by less caring segments of the population. Last year alone, six million pounds of debris was picked up — along with 237 animals who were entangled in old nets, plastic bags, fishing line or six-pack holders. In addition to the pollution and eyesore it causes, every year trash kills more than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and turtles, either by getting tangled in it or ingesting it.

We are happy to note that the International Coastal Cleanup Day — started and still run by the Ocean Conservancy — has gotten bigger every year. And we don’t doubt that the record 378,000 people who recovered those six million pounds of trash last year will likely be outdone by an even bigger group this year. We hope you will consider being among them — if not by ‘official’ participation, then by just picking up some trash around your marina, or even some bits of floating garbage you see while out sailing. For more on International Coastal Cleanup Day, visit www.coastalcleanup.org. To see where you can be of the most use here in the Bay Area, visit www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/ccd.html or http://savesfbaygallery.org/hotspots08/index.html.