More than 200 turn out for Earth Day beach cleanup in Portsmouth

Volunteers scour Pheasant Drive Beach for trash

By Jim McGaw
Posted 4/22/18

PORTSMOUTH — Dave McLaughlin of Clean Ocean Access (COA) beamed as he watched car after car pass him as drivers were directed to parking spots near the Newport Beach Club on Sunday.

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More than 200 turn out for Earth Day beach cleanup in Portsmouth

Volunteers scour Pheasant Drive Beach for trash

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — Dave McLaughlin of Clean Ocean Access (COA) beamed as he watched car after car pass him as drivers were directed to parking spots near the Newport Beach Club on Sunday.

More than 200 volunteers attended an Earth Day cleanup at Pheasant Drive Beach that was organized by COA and local Girl Scout Troop 730. 

Dave McLaughlin, the nonprofit environmental group’s executive director, said about 1,425 pounds of marine debris were collected from the area. He called the turnout “amazing.”

“Stewardship and environmental protection has passed the tipping point and I think the momentum’s on our side,” he said. “People realize that taking good care of the planet and taking good care of each other is really what it’s going to take to save the earth.”

The partnership with the Girl Scouts was fortuitous, Mr. McLaughlin said. 

“There was originally just one troop from Portsmouth, but I think there’s five to seven troops here, both on the island and off the island. It’s a mix. It’s people who have been doing cleanups with Clean Ocean Access for 12 years, and for a lot of people it’s their first time,” he said.

Daniela Abbott, a leader of Troop 730, which has 18 Brownies in second grade, reached out to Mr. McLaughlin to help organize the cleanup and then asked other troops to participate.

“There are a least four other troops that here,” said Ms. Abbott. 

Her Brownies have been working on a series of badges called Wonders of Water. The girls are learning about the importance of keeping trash out of the local watershed so it doesn’t end up in the ocean, how keeping the ocean water clean impacts the planet’s climate, and how all of world’s water is connected. 

“As part of that series of badges, they have to do what’s called a ‘Take Action’ project, which is a community service project but goes beyond that. It’s supposed to be sustainable, and they’re educating the public. They made posters and they’ve been reaching out to folks and inviting friends,” she said.

Organizers were originally shooting for 50 people to turn out. “This is fantastic and better than anything we could have anticipated,” Ms. Abbott said

What did they find?

Since August 2004, when COA first started coming to Pheasant Drive Beach, it has hosted 18 cleanups there, removed 7,344 pounds of debris and logged 1,236 volunteer hours, Mr. McLaughlin said.

“We got rid of the big stuff, and a lot of stuff was trapped in the tidal zone from Hurricane Sandy and potentially from Hurricane Bob — like large floats and derelict fishing gear,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “But really what we find right now are consumer waste from people littering, as well as things washing up onto the shore. In the fall, we found a bunch of tires that probably came a barge or a dock somewhere in Narragansett Bay. Mother Nature gives us a second chance to fix the problem because it does wash up on the shoreline.”

Still, some larger pieces of marine debris were found on the beach Sunday.

“Somebody found a big piece of flotation foam for a dock," Ms. Abbott said. "Somebody found a mattress in the shrubs, a tire, a lot of plastic bags and chunks of old plastic stuff, old fishing rods — all sorts of stuff. There wasn’t much on the beach itself, but the shrubbery behind the beach and between here and the parking lot is full of stuff.”

J. Mark Ryan had to catch his breath after he and a few other volunteers lugged a heavy piece of styrofoam about 200 feet from the marsh behind the beach. The circular piece of marine debris may have broken off from under a buoy, volunteers surmised.  

“What kind of storm could have tossed this thing back there?” said Dr. Ryan, a member of the Town Council. 

One thing volunteers didn’t see much of Sunday were discarded cigarette butts, which have littered local beaches previously. Several volunteers, in fact, said they didn't see a single butt on or around the beach. 

Mr. McLaughlin said the Earth Day event served a larger purpose than simply cleaning up a local beach.

“We’re trying to connect people with nature so they see the reoccurring issues, so it makes them think: If you keep finding straws, how about skipping the straw? Why do we need all these plastic bottles? Just get a reusable bottle. The items we find and the change in behavior go hand in hand and that’s what this is really all about.”

Clean Ocean Access, Earth Day

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