The Beach Angels is a Santa Barbara based nonprofit volunteer group that helps clean up trash and protect the local beaches.
Every weekend the volunteers meet at Stearns Wharf for one hour.
“I founded the Beach Angels Santa Barbara four and a half years ago. It is a nonprofit, we get volunteers, mostly college students because that’s the most important group to me,” Morrill said. “We get anywhere from 20 to 100 pounds a week. We go every Sunday because that’s the one day we are pretty sure we could do it at low tide, so it’s not equal. So it’s not every Sunday at 10 a.m. because that’s not how nature works.”
“It makes me feel good that everyone comes out and cleans the beach and takes time out of their days to do it. But it makes me feel sad looking at everything we clean up,” Emily Scharlach, 22, City College communication major said. “I live in Isla Vista and it’s disgusting. It’s sad to think that people drink on the beach and don’t clean up their bottles.”
The Beach Angels take an active stand on protecting the marine life.
During the clean up, one volunteer searches for a wounded animal on the beach.
The student evaluates the birds injury and rescues it with a net.
Sometimes it’s too late to save the animals life. Dead grebes are often found lying on the shore. Grebes die from off shore oil covered on their body.
It’s easy to overlook the hidden trash and hazardous waste on the beach.
This movement helps inspire the community to stop trash before it starts and live cleaner, happier lives.
“You guys saved lives for what you did in one hour. It didn’t cost money, didn’t need a degree, but you made a difference between life and death,” Morrill said. “Between our marine life and that is something that should make you sleep very well tonight.”
