News
COA Marks 25 Years Of Beach Sweeps
By Ryan Fennell
LINCROFT - Since 1985, over 75,000 volunteers have removed over 4 million pieces of debris from New Jersey's beaches and waterways as part of Clean Ocean Action's biannual Beach Sweeps.
Beach Sweeps, in its 25th year, is one of the longest running cleanup programs in the nation.
In celebration of 25 years of volunteer generated waterway cleanups COA is hosting Beach Sweep 25: A Symposium Against Beach Litter on Saturday, March 13 at Brookdale Community College between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
Breakfast, lunch, and light snacks will be provided followed by a beer and wine reception between 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.
"The Symposium will highlight a generation of COA Beach Sweeps, Beach Captains, and Sweepers," Said Tavia Danch COA's Pollution Prevention Coordinator.
"Though Beach Sweeps have become a family tradition, our goal is to have beaches litter free naturally, no longer needing these events," said COA Executive Director Cindy Zipf.
The day kicks off with a keynote address by U.S. Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ-6) who will address how clean beaches and waterways are essential to our economy, our health, and our environment.
According to Danch, much of the morning session of the symposium will center on basic information related to the data collected over the course of the past quarter century.
COA will also be providing a report entitled A Journal of Citizen Action Against Beach Litter and will highlight data and trends in ocean pollution and educate the public on ways to reduce ocean pollution. The report will be distributed at the symposium and also be made available online on March 15.
"Then we'll go more into specifics discussions about problems and solutions," said Danch. "Among those discussion will be naturally clean beaches. That's the goal of the Beach Sweeps. It's to stop the problem and prevent the pollution at its source. That's really the underlying objective of the program. We're trying to stop pollution at its source so we don't have to do these Beach Sweeps and we have a naturally clean beach."
After lunch participants will have the opportunity to attend one of several breakout sessions which includes discussions on funding sources, education and integration of data, and discussions on how to advocate for a plastic bag ban or a smoking ban.
Senator Barbara Buono (D-18) will be on hand to discuss the bill she has sponsored that would place a ban on smoking in public parks and beaches.
Other speakers scheduled to speak at the symposium include Senator Sean Kean (R-11), New Jersey Clean Communities Executive Director Sandy Huber, Surfrider Foundation's Regional Manager John Weber, Gary Conover of Atlantic County Utilities Authority, Steve Mullen of Surfrider Foundation, COA volunteer Kathleen Gascienica, Barbara Boyd of the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science, and Ralph Coscia of Citizens' Right to Access Beaches.
Registration is required for the event. Pre-registration is available online at www.clean oceanaction.org. The fee for attending is $10 for adults and $5 for students. Registration is permissible at the door at a cost of $25.
