Early Earth Day: Blue Ocean Society Cleans Beach with Students

Earth Day started last weekend for Portsmouth’s Saint Patrick School K-Club and Builders Club students and Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, who together cleaned up 55 pounds of trash from an Odiorne Point State Park access beach. 

Many Seacoast beaches are rocky and inaccessible to cleaning equipment. Litter prevention and routinely scheduled cleanups are vital to beach safety. Marine experts say any trash washed out to sea could pose harm to local marine life.

Fortunately, like St. Pat's students, hundreds of other children ranging in age from toddlers through teenagers are joining in on schedule cleanup efforts each year. Jen Kennedy, Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation's Executive Director, said, “It’s a great opportunity because no matter how old you are, or how much time you have you can make an immediate, visible impact on the health of the marine environment!”

Here a few ways area schools can join in the effort to keep local beaches clean and safe. 

• Sign up online for public cleanup event at: www.blueoceansociety.org/Research/schedule.html

• Contact program coordinator, Abby at 603-431-0260 or abby@blueoceansociety.org to set up a private tutorial cleanup for groups of 10 or more. Supplies are provided along with an educator who discusses why the cleanup is important, guides volunteers through the cleanup process and weighs the collected trash.

• Schools or organizations can adopt a beach and commit to clean a site once per month for a year and send Blue Ocean Society any results. Supplies and training are provided. For more information go online to: www.blueoceansociety.org/Research/Adopt_beach.html

Want to better the environment this Earth Day? On Saturday, April 19, several Seacoast Earth Day beach cleanups are open to the public.

• 9:00 a.m., at North Hampton State Beach (Across from the Beach Plum)

• 10:00 a.m., at Hampton Beach (Meet at the Blue Ocean Discovery Center, 170 Ocean Blvd, Hampton Beach)

• 10:00 a.m., at Cape Neddick Beach in York, ME. Hosted by Susan DeQuattro, of Coldwell Banker Yorke Realty and Tina Bach, of York Curves.

• 11:00 a.m., at Peirce Island, Portsmouth (Meet at grassy area past city pool)

An informational session for summer volunteers is set for April 17 at 6 p.m., at the Governor Langdon House, in Portsmouth. This is for anyone interested in volunteering at Blue Ocean Discovery Center, on whale watches, or at the touch tank located in Portsmouth.