2011 Student Cleanup

Students from Nute Middle School at Foss Beach in Rye, NH

Last Friday, as part of the NH Coastal Cleanup, six different local schools participated in our annual student cleanup day! Approximately 500 students, teachers, and chaperones cleaned up Hampton Beach, North Beach, Foss Beach, and Wallis Sands. Over 400 pounds of trash were removed from these sites, including 135 beverage cans, 137 cups/utensils, 137 cigar tips, 172 plastic bottles, 194 lobster traps, 228 straws, 359 plastic bags, 472 food wrappers, 474 pieces of rope, 991 bottle caps/lids, and 17,738 cigarette butts!

Thank you to Nottingham School, Sant Bani School, Hampstead Middle School, Nute Middle School, Dondero School, and Little Harbour school for once again participating in our student cleanup day and making a difference on our local beaches!

Thank you, volunteers!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2011 NH Coastal Cleanup! It was a beautiful day to be on the beach and it sounds like we had many successful cleanups all over the state!

On Saturday, seventeen troops from the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains cleaned up Route 1A in Rye and removed over 1,000 pounds of trash! Here are some great photos of Loudon Cadette Troop #12356.

Another big thanks to the students from Winnacunnet High School who also participated in the NH Coastal Cleanup! Last Thursday they removed about 4,000 pounds of trash from Fox Point in Newington!

New Hampshire Coastal Cleanup - Where Can You Help?

Litter pulled from under the Portsmouth Fish Pier in the 2010 NH Coastal Cleanup by divers from United Divers of NH

The New Hampshire Coastal Cleanup is coming up on Saturday, September 17. Would you like to volunteer? Here are some sites where we could use volunteers. Sign up and find more information at www.signuptocleanup.org!

Site	Start Time
Durham Landing, Durham	9:00 AM
Foss Beach, Rte. 1A, Rye	8:00 AM
Ft. Stark, Wild Rose Lane, New Castle	9:30 AM
Hampton Beach, Rte. 1 A, Hampton	9:00 AM
Hilton Park, Dover Point	10:00 AM
Great Island Common, New Castle	10:00 AM
North Hampton State Beach, North Hampton	9:00 AM
Scammell Bridge, Rte. 4, Durham	10:00 AM
Jenness Beach, Rte. 1A, Rye	10:00 AM
Wallis Sands/Pirate's Cove, Rye	9:00 AM
Odiorne Point State Park, Rte. 1A, Rye	10:00 AM

Poster-Hangers Wanted!

Congratulations to NH Coastal Cleanup poster contest winners Henry Smith (Nottingham School, Grade 8) and Scott Watson (Dover, NH, Age 7)!  If you can spare an hour or so to help us hang up posters around the Seacoast, NH region, please e-mail us at info (at) blueoceansociety.org and we'll make arrangements to get some to you.  Thank you for your help!

Picture by Henry Smith (Nottingham School, Grade 8)

Picture by Scott Watson (Dover, NH, Age 7)

Sign Up Now for the International Coastal Cleanup!

Girl Scouts in Rye, NH at the
2010 New Hampshire Coastal Cleanup

One of the easiest, most fulfilling ways you can help the marine environment is by participating in a beach cleanup.  One hour of your time can make a huge difference to the appearance of a beach, and the impacts of litter on marine life.

This is a perfect time to join a cleanup, as the Mother of All Beach Cleanups - the International Coastal Cleanup - is coming up on Saturday, September 17, 2011. Last year, over 600,000 volunteers participated worldwide - and picked up 8 million pounds of trash!

Here in New Hampshire, over 1,300 volunteers picked up over 6,000 pounds of trash along 19 miles of coastline. Can you guess what the #1 item was, and how many we found? Leave your guess in the comments!

Whether you're in New Hampshire or Nigeria, on the ocean or inland, there's likely a cleanup somewhere near you.  Click here to check out the Ocean Conservancy's  site, which allows you to search for and sign up for a cleanup.

If you're in New Hampshire, I look forward to seeing you on the 17th!

Join Us at Our Trash Bash on Thursday, August 4!

Trash Bash - A Celebration for a Clean Ocean

Thursday, August 4
5:00-7:00 PM
Kittery Point Yacht Yard
48 Bowen Road
Kittery, ME
More info

 

For over 10 years, we've studied marine debris on shore - and learned a lot about trends in marine debris and potential impacts on the marine environment. We are just beginning to study marine debris underwater, and are excited that we'll be taking giant steps to learn more about the amounts of marine debris off our shores with work that will be done along the New Hampshire coastline this week!

 

We're excited to be working with The Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean (www.rozaliaproject.org) August 2-5 to look for accumulations of marine debris along the New Hampshire coastline using sidescan sonar. This initial mapping of marine debris off our coast will allow us to develop a plan for removal.  This effort is part of our NOAA-funded Marine Debris to Energy Project, a project to detect, monitor and remove marine debris along the coastline from southern Maine to northern Massachusetts.

The work will be done aboard the American Promise, a 60-foot sailing vessel made famous by Dodge Morgan's solo round-the-world voyage, and used for the last twenty years as a offshore sail training vessel for the United States Naval Academy.

Come check out the Rozalia project's trash-finding ROV in action, tour American Promise and chat with Rozalia Project and Blue Ocean Society crew at our Trash Bash this Thursday! Enjoy food and drink, and win Rozalia Project t-shirts and goodies thanks to the Boat US Foundation. This is great for all ages and is free and open to the public.

This event is brought to you by Rozalia Project with the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, Boat US Foundation, Kittery Point Yacht Yard andOptima Bank. For more information and to RSVP, visit the event Facebook page or call Blue Ocean Society at 603-431-0260, or respond to this email. You can find directions to the Kittery Point Yacht Yard (Kittery location) here.

 

Marine Debris to Energy Project partners: Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, NH Sea Grant, UNH Cooperative Extension and University of Georgia. Derelict fishing gear detection and removal work done in partnership with NH Commercial Fishermen's Association, NH Fish and Game, NH Port Authority, Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen's Association, Waste Management and Wheelabrator Technologies

Foss Beach cleanup

Thanks to the guys from the USS Memphis who picked up 250 lbs of trash from Foss Beach on Tuesday July 19th! We found 122 pieces of rope > 1 m, including one large tangle of ropes and nets that weighted over 70 lbs!

For our full list of upcoming cleanups, visit http://blueoceansociety.org/Research/schedule.html?evt=139