Paul Clinton Dave Schultz has always enjoyed...

Paul Clinton

Dave Schultz has always enjoyed taking his canoe out on the

Newport Shores Salt Marsh. Floating tennis balls or plastic bottles,

however, tend to spoil a day of boating fun for him.

To help clean up the marsh, Schultz and his wife, Mary, who live

in the Newport Shores housing community, volunteered to organize a

trash pickup as part of the California Coastal Cleanup on Saturday.

“I’ve spent a lot of my time in nice, pristine places,” Schultz

said. “It just shows such a lack of respect [for the environment] to

have all this junk [floating in the marsh].”

The event is an annual statewide beach cleanup at locations from

Eureka to the Mexican border. It is organized by the California

Coastal Commission and, locally, by Orange County’s Public Facilities

and Resources Department.

Similar cleanup events are scheduled for Saturday at Balboa and

Newport piers, Corona del Mar State Beach and the Upper Newport Bay.

A cleanup at Crystal Cove State Beach was canceled, due to a lack of

interest. The cleanups usually begin at about 9 a.m. and wrap up by

noon.

Dozens of volunteers sweeping the beaches for trash will collect

paper cups, plastic and any other trash littering the beach. Much of

the trash washes down county storm channels from further inland and

is carried back to the beaches by ocean currents.

Boaters have been known to hop in small skiffs to pick up trash

from the sand bars dotting the Back Bay.

One enterprising businesswoman is also chipping in for this year’s

event. Christina Harer, who co-owns Me and My EV on West Coast

Highway, recently opened her doors, offering tours of Balboa

Peninsula to tourists with a fleet of 10 low-emissions vehicles.

On Saturday, Harer said, she will be offering volunteers free

rides down to the beach to help in the cleanup, since parking is

usually a bear at the beach on weekends.

“We just want to help clean up the mess,” Harer said. “It gets

pretty frustrating [to see trash on the beach].”