SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Saturday’s 23rd Annual Coastal Cleanup brought out volunteer teams in kayaks and boats to push, pull or drag in life vests, plastic bottles, gas cans, a barrel, a lawn chair and even a refrigerator that littered the Gulf’s waterways.

These items were brought into the 5 Rivers Delta Center—one of 25 zones where volunteers launched and returned with their findings.

Shondra Borden, 5 Rivers Delta Center assistant manager, said one man found a plastic barrel and carried it in with his kayak; when the barrel fell from the boat, he maneuvered it with his paddles, all the way back to the pier.

“People are really dedicated to Coastal Cleanup,” she said. “We have some volunteers that come back every year.”

This year’s event brought 3,000 volunteers out to offer aid to the environment.

Kelly Brinkman, south Alabama’s Coastal Cleanup coordinator and natural resource planner with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, State Lands Division, Coastal Section, agreed that volunteers make all the difference in their efforts.

“We definitely had a good turnout,” she said. “I really appreciate the volunteers—they have a really high level of commitment to getting the trash out of the marine environment.

“We couldn’t do it without them.”

Brinkman said that collecting litter before it gets into the water saves the lives of marine animals.

“(Trash) could be ingested by animals—sea turtles eat plastic bags; it stops up their systems and they starve to death,” she said. “Also, monofilament is a big problem—fishing line tangles the animals.”

While helping the environment is the main goal, Coastal Cleanup also has a way of bringing families together.

Father and son, Chuck and Matt Cocker, took their kayaks out to clean up the waterways.

Matt said, “we’re just here to clean up; we’ve got to get the area looking a lot better.”

Michael Hollis and his two sons, Ben, 11, and Jameson, 8, went out on their boat armed with trash bags, gloves and water from the Delta Center and came back with plastic bottles and other pieces of trash—and a fun day spent with family out in the sea air.

“We paddled up to the woods several times hoping we’d get that big piece of trash,” Michael said with a laugh.

Volunteers were given T-shirts, stickers, patches and free red beans and rice at a restaurant on the causeway.