The Ocean Conservancy International is sponsoring a beach clean up Saturday, Oct. 4, from 9:30-11 a.m. at the Manorhaven Beach Park boat ramp. Scout groups are welcome.
This is the 18th year that data has been collected for Manhasset Bay. Locally collected information has shown that the bulk of the debris in the bay comes from upland, either washed into the bay via storm drains, or dumped.
The beaches are getting much cleaner, going from over a ton of debris in 1997, to under 200 pounds of mostly small items a year. Water quality is also much improved, with the water testing safe for swimming the entire season, excepting a few days after heavy downpours.
The clean-up is one of the largest citizen science projects on the planet. Manhasset Bay is only one of thousands of locations world-wide that are cleaned as part of the Ocean Conservancy International beach clean-up, which is organized in New York by the American Littoral Society, and locally sponsored by the North Shore Audubon Society and the Manhasset Bay Protection Committee.
Volunteers in over 80 countries collect and record debris during a six-week window, providing data to scientists and governments.
