Beach Stewardship

Beach Stewards Make a Difference

For over 30 years, Salem Sound Coastwatch has been dedicated to protecting and improving the environmental quality of our coastal resources, which include beaches, rivers, salt marshes, and the coastal waters. Beaches are the first line of defense against human activities that harm marine environments—such as non-point source pollution, trash, and debris. Plastics that are washed into the water can harm birds, sea turtles, sea mammals, and fish through ingestion and entanglement.

Beaches can also shed light on other processes that affect the marine environment, such as erosion, presence of plant and water-based invasive species, climate-driven impacts from sea level rise, and storm surge.

Protecting our beaches safeguards water quality, public health, coastal habitats, and precious marine resources worldwide. Join our volunteer programs and become a Beach Steward to make a difference by “acting locally and thinking globally.”

Community Clean-Ups

We organize beach, park, river, and salt marsh clean-ups within the Salem Sound communities. Most clean-ups are scheduled from March into the Fall, unless there are storms or other events that require clean-up during the winter. Last year, SSCW volunteers collected over 3,000 pounds of trash and marine debris in only one month!

Make sure you are signed up for our newsletter and follow us on social media for notification of dates and locations.

Adopt a Beach

Adopt a Beach and become a Beachkeeper at your favorite beach on your own schedule. Beachkeepers speak for the beach. You can determine how often and how much you would like to contribute and whether you work alone or with a group.

Beachkeepers are trained to learn how to identify issues of concern for public health and environmental quality. We will meet you at your adopted beach to conduct a beach survey to establish benchmarks to enable us to evaluate erosion rate, storm damage, and sea level rise over time. You will conduct coastal cleanups, especially after storm events when marine debris is washed ashore, and visually monitor for pollution, erosion, and invasive plant and animal species.

So far Beachkeepers have:

Identified a new invasive alga when it began washing ashore
Contacted the Coast Guard about sewage from a cruise ship when evidence was found on a beach
Closed an illicit latrine hidden in the bushes
Promoted a carry-in carry-out policy to protect a Beverly beach
Prevented countless cigarette butts, plastics, and other debris from polluting the ocean
Reported on storm damage using the Massachusetts My Coast app.

International COASTSWEEP

Every fall, Salem Sound Coastwatch participates in the International COASTSWEEP program, organized by MA Coastal Zone Management and the Ocean Conservancy. Volunteers from all over the world collect and record marine debris to categorize and tally what washes up on our beaches throughout the world. Join us as a citizen scientist to collect this important data.