It was not exactly a beachy day Sept. 15 at Fort Worden beach. The wind whistled, the waves were wild and every once in a while there was a slight sprinkle of rain. 

Despite the gloomy weather, 52 volunteers from all over the Peninsula, and even from as far as Tacoma, came to Port Townsend beaches Saturday to help pick up garbage for International Coastal Cleanup Day. 

“Getting a lot of boots on the ground picking up trash is a really important step to keep as much out of the ocean as possible,” said Diane Quinn, program director at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, who organized the beach cleanup day with International Coastal Cleanup. “All around the world, people are collecting trash, and more importantly, tracking the evidence of what they’re finding.”

According to Quinn, the group of beach cleaners picked up 194 pounds of trash and recycling in total, bringing in everything from styrofoam to rusted metal pipes, cigarette butts and even the bottom half of a lawn mower. 

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center holds two beach cleanup days each year, one on Earth Day and the other in the fall, which is in collaboration with International Coastal Cleanup. As news of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — the collection of trash roughly twice the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean — becomes widespread, more and more people are aware of trash on the beach.  

“I figure, collectively, we put enough crap out into the ocean, we ought to help clean it up when it washes back up. It’s part of our civic responsibility,” said Michelle Gretsch, who came from Tacoma to help with the beach cleanup along with her husband, Joe, and daughter, Baylee. 

According to Quinn, people are also becoming more aware of microplastics in the ocean, and the dangers they pose to our food. 

“People bring back everything from truck tires to pieces of electric beds,” she said. “Some people will spend two hours collecting tiny pieces of plastic.” 

According to GESAMP’s 2016 study of microplastics in the marine environment, scientists have found microplastics in over 114 aquatic species. Not only do these plastics never break down, but the chemical composition of the plastics absorb toxins. 

“They are easily confused with things animals eat,” Quinn said. “Then these toxins accumulate in the food web.” 

Stephanie Herch, who recently moved to Sequim from Israel, joined the cleanup crew at Fort Worden on Saturday. Although she was surprised at how clean the beach was to the naked eye, she was still concerned with microplastics.

“The rest of the plastic is turning into small granules,” Herch said, telling a story of a time she went swimming in Israel and when she washed sand out of her hair, made a startling discovery. 

“I realized there were small pieces of plastic in my hair,” she said. 

For the crew at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, the beach cleanup is just one of many things that citizens can do to help the environment. With their citizen scientist programs, volunteers from all over the area can help conduct scientific research in partnership with larger research agencies. 

“This is really being a citizen scientist,” said Frank Handler, a longtime volunteer with the Marine Science Center, about the coastal cleanup day. “The agencies just don’t have the staff to do all of this.” 

Even though the weather was not ideal for a day at the beach, the coastal cleanup was an excuse for many to get out there and enjoy the beauty of Port Townsend.

“It’s gratifying to see people, not just from our community, but people come from all over, from far away to clean the beaches,” Quinn said. “Port Townsend is so beautiful, it’s a good excuse to do something helpful for the environment, and also get out into the beauty of this area.”