A great turnout on a perfect fall day marked the October 19 beach sweep organized by Clean Ocean Action.

Mother nature provided a cloudless, sunny day of low wind and mild temperatures, ideal weather for the Stone Harbor Property Association’s semi-annual event.  This fall 43 participants across all age groups collected 50 cubic feet of trash and 100 gallons of recyclable material. As in the past a majority of the trash was collected from the beach access paths and in the dunes. Plastic dominates the type of trash recovered, particularly food wrappers/bags, beverage bottles and caps, and cigarette filters.  Metal recovered is predominately from beverage cans.  Higher amounts of trash continue to be found near beachfront constructions sites, not just construction material, but food-related trash presumably from contractors. In the vicinity of 90th street, 6 shotgun shells were recovered out of 13 overall. Dog waste bags were down considerably from past years with the exception of the 84-89th street vicinity.

A special thanks to Stone Harbor Public Works, The Wetlands Institute, and Stockton State University for helping SHPOA with this event.