Volunteers Pick Up Trash In Sea And Sand At Dockweiler State Beach For Coastal Cleanup Day

DOCKWEILER STATE BEACH (CBSLA.com)  —  They took the concept of Coastal Cleanup to an extreme Saturday.

Volunteers, literally, dug deep.

CBS2's Joy Benedict reports that at Dockweiler State Beach, volunteers got in the water and cleaned like never before.

It's a beautiful place to find sand and surf, she reported. But on second glance, if you look closely, things found at the beach might not be so appealing.

Just a few yards off shore, an auxiliary cord.

"You expect to see a lot of plastics and things like that," said volunteer Hannah Ake, "but definitely not electronics."

She spent her morning diving near the shore at Dockweiler -- she picked up a lot of trash on the ocean floor.

"You don't think one beer bottle over the side is going to hurt anything but when we all throw bottles over the side it accumulates pretty quickly." she said.

Ake joined the group Water Keepers. They were doing their part for annual Coastal Cleanup Day.

Normally, crews just clean up the sand.

Helen Ashford was one such volunteer. She has been cleaning up the beach for three decades. She focused her energy today on the little things.

"So when you walk on the sand you have a nice experience," she said.

Students from St. Mary's Academy found their first-ever Coastal Cleanup Day rather educational.

"There's like  a lot of plastic and just trash everywhere," said Jasmine.

Volunteers last year pulled 22,000 pounds of trash from the oceans, lakes and river beds in LA County.

"We should be making the Earth a better place," said Jennifer.

That is was Coastal Cleanup Day is all about. Not only picking up trash but learning that every little small piece of plastic and cigarette butt adds up.

"I don't litter and if I see someone littering I tell them to pick it up or I pick it up [for them]," said Bethlehem Scifu, a volunteer.