By Naomi Yaeger
UMC Earthkeeper
Every year in September thousands of volunteers come out to keep beaches all over the world healthy, safe and beautiful. The Alliance for the Great Lakes, a non-profit is sponsoring an Adopt-A-Beach Campaign to clean beaches.“You can pick up trash by yourself and that’s great,” Sharon Moen said. Sharon is leading a group near the Lake Superior Estuarium in Superior. But the difference in the group clean-up efforts is that they will keep data on what type of trash is collected and send it back to the Alliance for the Great Lakes. We have a human print on how we are affecting our rivers, waterways and oceans. And of course, there is the socially distanced human interaction with the event.
Several non-profits have joined together to share in the beach cleanups in September: The Ocean Conservancy, The Alliance for the Great Lakes and the Friends of the Lake Superior Reserve.
Sharon has led groups in beach cleanups for more than 10 years and says the item most commonly found is cigarette butts. “The plastic filters do not degrade,” she said, “they will sit there on the beach for a long, long time.” Also the chemicals leached from cigarette butts are not good for aquatic life.
The most interesting trash Sharon has found is one-half a bowling ball. And the most fun thing she found is surf balls or “whale burps,” -- tightly wound organic matter in the shape of an egg.Sharon will provide trash bags, latex gloves and facemasks. The first few to sign up will get the “really nice,” face masks.
Saturday, Sept. 26. 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.
