Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
This year is gonna be a doozy when it comes to rain (which washes inland trash onto our beaches), and we’re getting our first big band of rain in this week, with forecasts predicting about one inch of precipitation per day over the next few days. Thankfully, the community is already prepared and has already begun the work of preserving our beaches, like our local Newport surf groups.
Just before Christmas weekend, Newporter Ryan Croteau was at the river jetties after a recent rain and saw the trash and pollution that is regularly dragged out to our beaches from our upland neighbors. It hit a chord with him so much that he decided he wasn’t just going to sit there and stare at the trash– he was going to do something about it. He turned to social media and text messaging to organize a group of dozens of people to come out and clean the beaches, cleaning everything from plastic bags to used syringes, keeping our beaches safe for both marine life and humans. The efforts led to several of the very large beach trash cans being filled to the brim, and a lot of good times were hand in between.
Huevos Surf Wax came out to support the event, with complimentary wax for everyone who came to pitch in– a group of mostly surfers, participant Jake Pollgreen told me. He also told me that they would likely begin this as a ritual, cleaning up after the major rains. This goes to show you our community pride which really does burn so deeply throughout Newport.
“BUT WAIT– there’s more!” You can help, too– and our beach needs it. In fact, in a completely unrelated effort (who may also see the local surf groups join in!), We Are Ocean, ECO-Warrior, and Newport’s own Dory Deli are all partnering to do a beach cleanup after this major band of rain finishes this week. It will start in front of Dory Deli, which will be providing the bags, gloves, and hot chocolate or coffee of your choice. It’s going to be “fun to the nines”, starting Saturday, Jan 9th, at 9am.
Here’s a glimpse of the rains to come:
As you can see, Saturday is going to be the first real day of reprieve, and we will be left with quite the beach mess.
So click to join the beach cleanup event at https://www.facebook.com/events/897923973618075/ so that the sponsors can get the right amount of supplies for everyone.
Here are some photos of the most recent beach cleanup, organized by Ryan Croteau and photographed by Jake Pollgreen:
A big thank you to everyone who participated in the last cleanup, and hopefully I’ll be seeing you at my first cleanup of the year on this Saturday, January 9th!
