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Each year over 18,000 beaches across the United States are closed or posted as unhealthy. If we all pitch in, we can make a difference in working to keep our coastal waters and beaches clean and healthy.
Here are some recommendations provided by the Surfrider Foundation that you, your friends and family can do to help our beaches:
- Pick up pet poo. Pet poo that reaches the ocean can make both people and animals sick!
- Rake and bag your yard clippings. Grass and yard clippings that get blown into the street often end up in the ocean, making it a place for harmful bacteria to grow.
- It's best not to smoke. But if someone you know does smoke, make sure they put the cigarette out and toss it in the correct container. Cigarette butts make up much of the trash on the beach! Yuck!
- Don't hose down your driveways. Not only does it waste water, but it causes oils and other icky stuff to end up in our oceans. Use a broom instead.
- Plant gardens with plants that do not need much water. Those kinds of plants help keep our beaches clean.
- Always dispose of used motor oil properly. Never dump it in a storm drain or field. Take it to a gas station or the dump for recycling.
 When you go to the beach, make sure you not only pick up your trash, but try and pick up at least one piece of somebody else's. If everyone did this, our beaches and coastlines would get better real quick! Yahoo!
- Ask your parents to cut back on fertilizers. Excess fertilizer gets into our oceans and streams and can cause harmful plankton blooms, or red tides, which harm fish, dolphins and other sea life.
- Another great thing you and your family can do is join the Surfrider Foundation. They are a non-profit grassroots environmental organization that works to protect oceans, waves and beaches. They have over 60 chapters across the country that are made up of people just like you and me, who all get together and do beach clean-ups, water testing and other activities.
Modification of a Surfrider original.
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