Local diving club spends day cleaning favorite scuba diving beach

Dozens of organizations throughout Santa Barbara County joined forces to clean up our open space.

Steve Trainoff and his friends of the Paradise Divers Club love to go diving at Tajiguas Beach.

But not today.

“You know, it needs some help,” Trainoff said.

In just two hours, the club members collected close to 200 pounds of trash.

“There’s a lot of plastic that floats in off the ocean and bottle caps,” Trainoff said.

Even though this may seem like a lot of trash, Trainoff said it’s not as much as in previous years.

“Ten years ago, we were bringing out 700 or 800 pounds. Each year it seems to be getting better,” Trainoff said.

Andrew Klug, who coordinated the beach cleanup, is on a mission that goes beyond just collecting trash.

“I’m trying to collect data so that we can petition our lawmakers to enact legislation that protects our coasts and the environment,” Klug said.

Out of the 200 pounds of trash collected, Klug said about 59 pounds are recyclables.

“We saw a lot of Styrofoam, and they’re all in little tiny pieces because it all breaks down,” Klug said.

Klug explained why it’s so important to protect the beach.

“Everything is going to end up here. Anything you leave on the ground is going to end up harming sea life. I would like to go to the beach one day and not have to pick up trash,” Klug said.

While members of the Paradise Divers Club are pleased to see less trash this year they hope that visitors will leave the beach cleaner, than when they arrived.