Local shellfish companies join in annual beach cleanup

The Pacific Coast Shellfish Grower’s Association held its annual spring beach cleanup on March 27.

With daylight low tides just beginning and not yet in full swing, the water height allowed the shoreline to be visible, with access remaining for boats to load and remove the collected debris.

Ten companies with more than 60 crew, including those from Seattle Shellfish and Taylor Shellfish, both of which have farms on Key Peninsula, divvied up shorelines from Burley Lagoon down to South Key Peninsula, through Totten Inlet and up Hood Canal, worked to clean up over 49 cubic yards of garbage.

Organizers said the garbage, from large styrofoam chunks and filled tires off old docks or bulkheads, to boat pieces, residential garbage, derelict fishing gear and aquaculture debris, was all removed from the shoreline and disposed of at the local landfill or pulled out for recycling.