Hundreds fan out across SLO County for ECOSLO clean-up event

Hundreds of volunteers fanned out across San Luis Obispo County on Saturday for the second annual Sea to Trees clean-up event.

Organized by ECOSLO, the effort brought together various environmental groups county-wide that collected trash at a number of different sites, including Harford Pier in Avila Beach, Morro Bay, Pirates Cove and others.

The Avila Beach clean-up was the eighth year the Central Coast Aquarium has held the “Beneath the Surface Dive & Beach Clean-up” underwater pier clean-up project. Maureen Abert, aquarium educator, said 34 divers went into the water and about 50 people in all signed up to pick up trash in Avila Beach.

“We collected a bunch of trash and litter that was illegally dumped,” Abert said. “And we clean up all the animals, we also find octopus, crabs, anemones, different things like that. We pick the animals up, release them back into the ocean and collect all the trash and throw it away.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2019 at 3:34 PM.