Nearly 3,300 volunteers collected 94,000 pounds of trash from Alabama waterways in Baldwin and Mobile counties on Saturday. 

The 2007 Coastal Cleanup was part of a national and international effort sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy, an organization that promotes healthy ocean ecosystems.

Amy King, an organizer with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resource’s State Lands Division, which sponsored the Alabama Coastal Cleanup, said that there were 26 cleanup sites, including locations at Perdido, Weeks and Wolf bays, and Dauphin Island. 

“The largest site (was) Dauphin Island with nearly 1000 people” participating who “filled two 30-yard dumpsters” on Saturday, King said. 

Of the most unusual items, King said that volunteers collected “a practice torpedo from circa 1940s, a gumball machine, (and) 2500 to 3000 feet of steel electricity supply wire from Rabbit Island.”

Liz Langston, an organizer at the Wolf Bay site, near Wolf Bay Lodge in Miflin, said that 65 volunteers were “rounded up by the Wolf Bay Watershed Watch,” a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of the watershed. 

“We couldn’t have asked for better weather,” Langston said.  “Everyone was in high spirits and looked forward to doing their part to cleanup litter around (the state’s) newest Outstanding Alabama Water.”

Langston noted that volunteers collected 4,279 pounds of litter and debris from the shorelines of Wolf Bay, south to the Intercoastal Waterway. 

“Most of the poundage consisted of heavy items such as wood from docks and what was left of a catamaran,” Langston said.

Stan Mahoney, executive director of the watershed watch, said the catamaran – a boat consisting of two hulls joined by a frame – was submerged near the shoreline of Mulberry Point at the south end of Wolf Bay. 

The Alabama Marine Police towed it back to Wolf Bay Lodge, Mahoney said. 

“Coastal Cleanup for Wolf Bay was very successful this year,” Mahoney said.  “Anytime we get over two tons of garbage out of the watershed is a success.”

Eric Brunden, stewardship coordinator with the state lands division at Weeks Bay and an organizer for Saturday’s cleanup, said that a concentration of garbage was found at Pelican Point, near the mouth of Weeks Bay. 

Pelican Point has a public access launch, he noted. 

Brunden said 33 volunteers collected 965 pounds of trash and covered nearly 17 miles of shoreline. 

Alabama Coastal Cleanup joined the international effort in 1987 with two sites, one at Dauphin Island and one at Gulf State Park, King said. 

“Last year was the first full-fledged cleanup with participation from every designated site since Hurricane Katrina,” she noted.  “We collected about 83,000 pounds of debris, most of which was hurricane debris such as lumber, housing materials and appliances.”