May 22 is Ocean Day in California
Each year, groups of students in specially designated locations participate in a beach cleanup, and cap off the day by standing in formation on the sand to spell out a giant message, which is photographed from the air.
See some of the photos
below for yourself from 2007:
Humboldt Bay, South Spit
1,000 students
Ocean Beach, San Francisco, 1,100 students
Dockweiler State Beach, Los Angeles
2,400 students
Huntington State Beach
1,000 students
Silver Strand State Beach, Coronado
1,000 students
Loreto, Mexico
1,000 students
May 18, 2007
The cleanup is the culminating event of a larger program, the Kids' Adopt-A-Beach School Assembly Program, in which students from underserved and inland schools learn about the oceans, marine life, litter reduction, recycling, and how urban and inland neighborhoods are connected to the beaches through storm drains. The program was started in Los Angeles in 1994 by the Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education with support from the Coastal Commission.
This program is funded in California by sales of the WHALE TAILSM License Plate and coordinated at the local level by the Malibu Foundation (Los Angeles), the Headlands Institute (San Francisco Bay Area), I Love A Clean San Diego (San Diego County), Fresno Chaffee Zoo (Fresno, for Central Valley students who travel to Monterey County), Morro Bay National Estuary Program (San Luis Obispo County, to host students from Tulare County), Friends Of The Dunes (Humboldt County), and Earth Resource Foundation (Orange County).
For additional photos and information about this event go to www.oceanday.net.