Fourth of July weekends at the beach never fail to produce traffic, trash, drinking and bad behavior, all of which are exacerbated by large crowds and have become an identifiable staple of the patriotic holiday also known for fireworks and cookouts.
According to the San Diego Lifeguard Service, roughly 633,800 people packed city beaches on the Fourth alone, close to half of the 1.4 million in attendance throughout the four-day weekend. Over the entire weekend, 1,284 rescues were reported; of those, almost half ” 524 ” took place on the Fourth. The lifeguards also reported 8,648 preventative acts (warnings, announcements, education, any act where rescues aren’t needed) for the weekend, with 3,764 on July 4.
There were also 1,424 boats on the water during the Fourth. No drownings were reported.
The crush of beachgoers kept the Northern and Western police divisions busy, with 27 felony arrests and 976 misdemeanor arrests. Misdemeanor citations were down dramatically from years past at 875 compared to 1,418 in 2005. In contrast, the number of field interviews was 474, up from 298 the year before. Drunk detentions were only slightly higher this year totaling 102, a four-person increase.
Overall, the total number of police actions decreased from 3,763 in 2005 to 2,946 this year, despite the extra day tacked onto the holiday weekend.
Trash and littering, however, did not show any improvements from last year, according to Bill Hickman, coordinator for the San Diego Surfrider Foundation chapter.
“This year we actually did set records across the board for the amount of trash we picked up,” Hickman said.
A slightly larger than usual turnout of 1,400 volunteers converged on San Diego County beaches the morning of July 5 to clean up the aptly dubbed “Morning After Mess.”
“One of the purposes of the ‘Morning After Mess’ cleanup is to raise awareness and let everybody know how filthy it is,” Hickman said.
In a few hours over seven cleanup sites, volunteers for Surfrider, I Love A Clean San Diego, San Diego Baykeeper and Keep Del Mar Clean collected 8,000 pounds of trash and 45,000 cigarette butts. Hickman said the volunteer effort picks up where the city leaves off.
“The city does a good job picking up the larger items, but a lot of times those little pieces of plastic, Styrofoam, cigarette butts ” they don’t have the resources to spend all that time,” he said.
Hickman said the smallest offenders, improperly disposed cigarette butts, are often the most egregious, as their plastic filters take years to biodegrade, causing harm to marine life and water quality in the meantime.
He added that the Surfrider Foundation is encouraged by the beach smoking ban, which was approved before the holiday and is to be enforced by lifeguards starting in August.
Surfrider regularly hosts two beach cleanups each month at locations across the county, as well as educational events and programs.
For more information, visit www.surfridersd.org.