ShareThisNinety percent of the trash swirling in the world's oceans is plastic, and in some parts of the Pacific Ocean, plastic pellets used by manufacturers outnumber plankton. The trash we leave behind inevitably finds its way to our beaches and oceans. Perhaps that's why Saturday's Coastal Cleanup Day is the biggest annual volunteer event in California. Last year 61,000 people in the state collected 785,000 pounds of trash.Sixty to 80 percent of ocean litter comes from land sources. Most of it runs off city streets. Cups, six-pack holders and dirty diapers are left on beaches. Some waste is dumped at sea. Sport and commercial fishermen lose lines, hooks and nets, which bring suffering and death to entangled and wounded animals.For more information: www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/ccd.htmlE-mail Jane Kay at jkay(at)sfchronicle.com.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
California plans for volunteers to clean Pacific coastline
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Who's got your number?
In one of the fastest-growing forms of identity theft, crooks are stealing tax refunds by swiping personal information and using it to trick the Internal Revenue Service.
