Nearly 500 Pounds of Trash Collected from Santa Cruz and Anacapa Islands

A volunteer group of 20 cleaned beaches on California’s Channel Islands, removing 470 pounds of trash and marine debris from rocky shores at Chinese Harbor on Santa Cruz Island and Driftwood Cove on Anacapa Island. The cleanup, held after volunteers crossed the Santa Barbara Channel, removed items carried by ocean currents from the mainland, including mylar balloons, styrofoam, and plastic bags, along with lost fishing gear. The beaches are accessible only by boat, so volunteers paddled kayaks to land and used a skiff to bring the collected trash back to the Island Packers vessel for disposal on the mainland. The event was part of a larger National Marine Sanctuary Foundation initiative spanning eight marine sanctuaries.