The Defenders of the Monterey County Beaches!
October 16, 2024
Rue Ramacho
The Seaside Ocean Defenders seek to do their part in keeping the Monterey County Beaches clean by hosting their Beach Clean-Ups (BCUs). Kimberly Peake, the club adviser, plans to continue these BCUs on an every-other-weekend rotation, “Our next BCU is this Saturday at 10 am (October 19), and we will continue, skipping every other week, for the foreseeable future.” To join these clean-ups, go to Ms. Peake's classroom (H-10) and ask for a form to join the BCUs. You only need to fill out the form once and then you are free to join the clean-ups whenever. These hours you spend cleaning the beach would also count toward your community service hours. If you would like to keep up with this club and its activities, follow @shs.oceandefenders on Instagram.
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The dangers these pieces of trash pose to marine life are immense. Even though California spends over $520,000,000 yearly to clean its beaches, it’s not enough. The SHS Ocean Defenders use these clean-ups as a way to educate others on the dangers of pollution. When asked what piece of trash they find most often, Peake responded “We pick up more cigarette butts than anything else.”
Another quote from Peake, “The toxins in a cigarette butt can kill fish, and having them around in the sand can make a beach visit not quite as lovely as it would be otherwise. But even more relevant, the use of tobacco products in our human communities is extremely damaging not only to those who smoke but to those who have to put up with secondhand smoke.” So not only does this trash affect the environment, it also affects OUR community.
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Jae Emigdio Nava, the club vice president and a senior who has participated in these BCUs had this to say on the pieces of trash they collect. “One time, I counted 330 cigarettes at a cleanup, and that's not even counting the amount other teams found. A close second is probably pieces of plastic from food wrappers, toys, etc.” If a small high school club collected this many cigarettes from one beach, just imagine how many more are out there in the ocean. How many sea animal lives have been taken because of littering? Not only do we need to worry about our animals being poisoned by tobacco products, but we also need to worry about them consuming microplastics floating in the water. ​​
This club seeks to reduce the amount of trash in our oceans and educate students and others on marine life. “Ocean Defenders is teaching by example,” says Peake, “... Staying faithful to BCUs and keeping an eye out for ways in which we can practice ocean stewardship are our greatest goals. Additionally, the club is working on hosting some school clean-up sessions and would like to do some education around teaching others about composting. These are not directly related to ocean defense, but any time we take care of the environment, we move in the right direction.” Educating others on how they can practice ocean stewardship in everyday life, such as teaching them how to compost, instills good habits in people. Young or old, it’s never too late to start caring about the ocean.
Students have shown interest in Ocean Defenders. Here's a quote from Rolando Rodriguez, a senior at Seaside High, "There are a lot of things of use in the ocean. People use fish for food. What would we do without stuff to eat?” If trash continues to clog our waters and kill our wildlife, it will impact our food supply and start to put fishermen out of jobs, and then that will start to affect our ecosystem.
He continues, “...also without the ocean, the ecosystem would probably collapse.” Rodriguez brings up excellent points. Though not everybody eats fish, everything on this planet relies on the ocean. Without the ocean, everything we know wouldn't exist. Though Rodriguez is not a part of the club, he says that on a scale of 1-10, he would be about a four when it comes to knowledge of ocean pollution.
Carina Casissa, a teacher at Seaside High, had this to say about the pollution littering the beaches, “It affects people in the long term. For example, waste that's on beaches that then goes into the ocean can affect the quality of food people eat (I've been hearing a lot about microplastics in fish which means I will definitely not be eating fish anymore). It also affects tourism in communities where beaches are a thing. If beaches are littered with trash, people won't want to go to them which will cause a beach town's economy to decrease.” Yet again another example of how there will be a domino effect on our way of life if we continue to neglect our oceans.
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The world without a clean ocean is a bleak one for us, so many beings sentient or not depend on our ocean. So if you can make even the smallest change or help the tiniest bit, it’s still an effort. With the combined efforts of people from all around the world, we just might be able to start mending the wounds inflicted on our seas.
*Picture of cigarettes collected from a small portion of the pier.
*Picture of the Ocean Defenders at their most recent BCU.