Nearly seven million pounds of debris was collected from waterways and shorelines around the world during a single day last year, illustrating that careless people are discarding trash just about everywhere, with much of it eventually finding an aquatic home, according to a report released recently.
Nearly 400,000 volunteers scoured about 17,000 miles of coastline, river bottoms and ocean floors during the Ocean Conservancy's 23rd International Coastal Cleanup in September.
Those volunteers, including many who removed more than 971 pounds of trash Cape Ann's beaches, included the 3,077 who participated in Massachusetts' Coastsweep, sponsored by the state office of Coastal Zone Management and coordinated by the Urban Harbors Institute of the University of Massachusetts Boston. They removed 63,251 pounds of debris from the state's coast and riverways.
At the end of the cleanups, the data was sent to the Ocean Conservancy in Washington, D.C., where it was entered into a massive database as part of the international effort. The data was then used to analyze the trends in marine debris and identify its sources to reduce the problem in the future.
On Cape Ann, 18 people collected 86 pounds of trash from Long Beach in Rockport and along Gloucester Harbor; Carol McCauley and another person stuffed three bags with 75 pounds of trash at Niles Beach in Gloucester; and six people, including their leader, Gloucester Clean City Initiative volunteer Patti Amaral, removed 12 pounds of trash from Plum Cove Beach in Gloucester.
Julia Alekman has organized a sweep of Wingaersheek every year since 1998. A teacher and 20 students from Greater Lowell Technical School usually join Alekman, but couldn't this past year. She said the core cleaning group, including four kids, was smaller this year, but her group of 13 reported filling 30 bags with 800 pounds of trash collectrd from Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester.
Also taking part in Coastsweep, but whose data was not included in the state report, were about 20 employees of Gloucester's Sudbay Family Automobile Center led by Sudbay employee Jaqui Sullivan. They worked at Gloucester's Good Harbor Beach.
The Ocean Conservancy's report said more than 3.2 million cigarette butts were picked up during last year's efforts, making the items the most common found. That's followed by about 1.4 million plastic bags, 942,000 food wrappers and containers, and 937,000 caps and lids. Volunteers also collected 26,585 tires, enough for 6,646 cars — and a spare.
Coastsweep reported that in Massachusetts, 9,391 plastic bags, 5,588 plastic beverage bottles, 13,292 food wrappers and containers, 4,720 drinking straws and 11,194 cup caps and lids were among the items collected.
Of the 104 participating countries, the United States supplied about half the volunteers.
Volunteers collected about 11.4 million items overall, which weighed a total of 6.8 million pounds. They snagged more than 1.3 million cigarette butts in the United States alone, about 19,500 fishing nets in the United Kingdom and more than 11,000 diapers in the Philippines.
"Our ocean is sick, and our actions have made it so," said Vikki Spruill, the Ocean Conservancy's president and CEO. "The evidence turns up every day in dead and injured marine life, littered beaches that discourage tourists, and choked ocean ecosystems."
The group said thousands of marine mammals, sea turtles and birds are injured or killed by ocean trash every year. During the event, participants found 268 marine animals that survived being entangled in debris. But 175 weren't so lucky and died — a seal wrapped in fishing line near Santa Cruz, Calif.; a juvenile hammerhead shark entangled in fishing line near St. Augustine, Fla.; a sea turtle tangled in rope in the west African nation of Ghana; and a penguin entangled in wire in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The majority of trash, the report said, comes from land-based activities, such as discarding of fast food wrappers during beach picnics.
"Your trash may make it to the beach before you do this year," the report said, adding that a wrapper or cigarette butt discarded on an inland city street can quickly wash down storm drains into rivers and eventually flow out to the ocean.
The 22nd annual Coastsweep cleanup is set for Sept. 19. Each year, cleanups are scheduled throughout September and October. To get involved with the 2009 event, or review the 2008 cleanups, go to the Coastsweep Web site at: www.coastsweep.umb.edu.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report by staff writer Andrea Holbrook. She may be contacted at aholbrook@gloucestertimes.com.
On The Net:
Ocean Conservancy: Visit www.oceanconservancy.org to download its report.
Coastsweep: Visit http://www.coastsweep.umb.edu/documents/2008_complete_results.pdf to download as a pdf (73kb). Coastsweep says a complete count of items collected in Massachusetts last year will be posted soon.
Coming up: The 22nd annual Coastsweep cleanup is set for Sept. 19. Cleanups are scheduled throughout September and October. To get involved with the 2009 event, go to the Coastsweep Web site at: www.coastsweep.umb.edu.
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