Keeping the Coast Clean
The Aquarium announces the impact of its latest beach cleanup and shares ways you can help.
A volunteer helps by picking up trash at the Aquarium’s beach cleanup event. Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
February 11, 2025
The Aquarium of the Pacific and fifty community members started off the new year by helping to make our coast cleaner for everyone. Together they removed more than 300 pounds of debris, ranging from metal pipes to microplastics, from Alamitos Beach on January 4.
Aquarium of the Pacific Conservation Volunteer Coordinator Dawn Nygren-Burkert speaks with a volunteer at the Aquarium’s booth during the beach clean-up. Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Clean ups like this are a chance to see the impact of what a collective effort can look like. When debris is on the beach, it has negative consequences for wildlife. Birds like seagulls or pelicans can mistake trash for food and ingest it, which could be fatal. Birds and other animals like sea turtles can get entangled in fishing lines, restricting their ability to catch food and move around. Regular group efforts to clean up beaches or the environment in a community can help.
Long Beach is situated between major watershed systems: the Los Angeles River and the San Gabriel River. This results in marine debris washing into the ocean, and then the tides move the debris onto the beaches. The key to helping wildlife and the community is to collectively work to keep the watershed areas, including inland sections, clear of debris.
Seaweed on the beach with plastic trash intertwined. Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
If you missed this Aquarium cleanup, there are still ways you can make a difference to help keep our ocean and waterways cleaner for the species that live there, and for people too. Below are some ways to make a difference:
- Consider picking up plastic bags anywhere you see them. They can end up in storm drains that lead directly to the ocean.
- If you can, purchase products with zero-waste packaging that will naturally degrade over time.
- If you don’t need one, skip the plastic single-use straw at restaurants. In Long Beach, an ordinance requires the straws not to be plastic.
- Bring your own reusable bag, water bottle, and to-go containers when eating out.
There are even more ways to make a difference in helping our ocean. The Aquarium has a detailed list that can be referenced.
The Aquarium also hosts beach cleanups throughout the year, including after holidays like the Fourth of July where trash can accumulate on shores. For upcoming dates, please visit this event page to sign up and learn about the details.
