Hosting My First Beach Cleanup as a Coastkeeper Intern
Meet Beach Cleanup Intern Anna Cilley and read about her first time hosting a beach cleanup in Mission Beach with San Diego Coastkeeper’s marine program.
Water conservation, one kid at a time
Off to a swell start Back in 2013, I landed myself a really swell job. At San Diego Coastkeeper, Project SWELL is the name of our K-6th environmental curriculum. SWELL stands for “Stewardship: Water Education for Lifelong Leadership.” It’s a fitting title. Through Project SWELL, Coastkeeper teaches kids about water conservation, climate science, and the …
Turning Marine Debris into Art
This sculpture on display in front of The Wave Waterpark in Vista is made from trash removed from beaches around the world. Into the Current, is created by Janis Selby Jones, a teacher, artist and passionate San Diego Coastkeeper volunteer, with help from beach cleanup volunteers from around the world. The sculpture depicts the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, …
How We Use Trash to Make a Difference
San Diego Coastkeeper brings together volunteers to keep our beaches clean for everyone to enjoy. But that’s only the beginning. Up to 80 percent of trash found in the ocean originated on land. That means it wasn’t dumped into the ocean intentionally, but ended up in the water after being improperly disposed of on …
Meditations in Blue
San Diego Coastkeeper member, Water Quality Monitor, and beach cleanup host extraordinaire Amanda Sousa is a water lover in the truest sense. When she sailed from Ensenada to Oahu, Amanda experienced just how wondrously huge our ocean is and how quickly we become small in its presence. And yet, despite all this vastness, there was …
Do beach cleanups do more than just clean beaches?
Meet Monica, our beach cleanup intern-extraordinaire. She signed up with San Diego Coastkeeper to keep our waters swimmable, but discovered a new passion for volunteering itself. Surfers dart past you towards the waves in a youthful jog as you assemble Coastkeeper’s signature blue easy-up gazebo, which in fact isn’t so easy after all. A kind stranger always offers a helping hand and you always accept.
How Trash in Our Ocean Impacts Humans
The ocean is the most beautiful, diverse and abundant ecosystem on the planet and covers over 71 percent of the world’s surface. It is so large that it has been divided into five oceanic divisions, all of which are connected. San Diego is located just off the coast of the Pacific Ocean, which is the …
Eleven Things We Learned at Beach Cleanups
Data – they aren’t just numbers. The data we collect every year during our beach cleanups include numbers, of course, but we also gather valuable anecdotal insights from seasoned volunteers and common misconceptions from newcomers. It’s easy to compile the numbers into graphs and statistics, which we share on our San Diego beach cleanup data …
This 12-Year-Old Knows What it Takes to Save the Planet
This is a story about a 12-year-old girl from San Diego who loves surfing, art and making the world a better place. One day she contacted San Diego Coastkeeper to share her story, and what we heard was not only impressive, it is an inspiration. Paige realized that there was a big problem the world …