Beaches can be one of the most beautiful sights in the world. People travel from all over the world to seek out the most beautiful beaches so that they can seat on the beach, stare out to the Ocean, and maybe get a tan.
A personal story about Beaches
I don’t usually get the chance to lie out on a beach to view the Ocean as I live in Ontario, Canada, but a couple of years ago, my wife and I took our kids to Miami, to South Beach. We stayed at a nice family hotel on the beach so we can introduce our kids to the Ocean for the first time. We spend most of the day on the beach and it was great.
At one point, my eldest daughter, Taya, was playing in the sand and picked up something to show me what it was. It was a cigarette butt. My daughter picked up a cigarette butt. I couldn’t believe she was exposed to this nastiness on one of her first times on the beach. When I looked around our area where we settled, I noticed numerous plastic cups, cigarette butts, glass beer bottles, plastic ziplock bags, and other garbage scattered on the beach.
It was a sad moment to realize what was happening to this beautiful public beach. Then I saw a great site! Taya threw the cigarette butt in the garbage before I could take it from her (because it was disgusting). I couldn’t believe my eyes. My 2-year old daughter new enough to throw the garbage out in the trash because it didn’t belong on the ground.
So I got up and started to pick up the garbage on the beach until there wasn’t much in the area. We continued to do this every morning while walking along the beach for about 20 minutes.
Ever since the trip, I wanted to help encourage people to clean up beaches (and the environment in general), but I didn’t know where to begin. I mean I live inland (mind you there are beaches around the Great Lakes) so it is difficult to get out and clean the beaches. To be honest, it’s not that great of an excuse. I should be out doing more and dedicating more time clean up my local beach, but I can’t get out every day or even every week.
So where do I begin???
The Power of Speak Up For Blue Ocean Leaders
Last week, I had an email conversation with one of Speak Up For Blue’s email subscribers who is a true Ocean Leader. She asked me if I could write more about how she could help the Ocean physically. Specifically, she wanted to know where there were places along the West Coast of the US where she could volunteer as part of a beach clean up. She asked me if I could send her a list of places that she could contact before she left on her trip. What a great idea!!! This is where I could help people help the Ocean.
Speak Up For Blue will now offer an new series of Action Posts called Act For The Blue and it starts with Beach Clean Ups.
Click Below to take you to our Beach Clean Up page where we list websites to organizations and groups, which organize Beach Clean Ups around the world. Keep in mind it is a Work In Progress and that I would appreciate your help in adding to the list, so if you have a list of Beach Clean Up organizations or areas, then please let me know here.
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About the Author: Andrew Lewin
Andrew Lewin is founder of Speak Up for Blue and an active Ocean Scientist. He started Speak Up for Blue because he wanted to make sure people got the best news, solutions, and conservations stories that were out there as opposed to the mainstream Ocean News out there today. Andrew wants to help you become an Ocean Leader and change the way the world treats our Oceans
