Needle problem continues on Santa Cruz beach

Central Coast beaches are popular destinations especially Memorial Day weekend. Monday the crowds went home but unfortunately trash was left behind. News Channel 5 spoke to one man who came across something more dangerous than garbage.

Erick Herrmann and his family were at Seabright Beach Sunday. Herrmann’s son and friends were digging in the sand when they came across a needle.

“It’s a plague in our community, you know people find needles here on a fairly regular occasion. According to one group there’s been over 7,000 needles found in about two and a half years,” said Herrmann.

Herrmann is right, needles have been a problem on local beaches. Something groups like Save Our Shores and Take Back Santa Cruz have been battling with beach clean ups. Save our shores says they tend to find needles near caves or beach corners. At Cowells beach they said they’ve found 30 needles just last year. Rachel Kippen is the program manager for Save Our Shores and she said trash is a bigger issue for them. In 2014 alone they picked up 50,000 pounds of trash compared to the average 30,000. On Memorial Day Kippen said she and volunteers were out at a couple different beaches handing out free trash bags so beach goers remember to pick up after themselves.

“We do cleanups after every big holiday and we noticed if we start being proactive and going out and talking to people who are visiting the beach and just reminding them to pack their trash that our cleanup numbers greatly decrease and we have to do a lot less the next day,”said Kippen.

After Herrmann and his sons close encounter. He said he really appreciates what organizations like Save Our Shores and Take Back Santa Cruz are doing.

“I want the community to be more aware and people who come to santa cruz to know that this is a real danger in our community,” said Herrmann.

If you’d like to help Save Our Shores, they will be doing a post holiday beach cleanup Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Panther beach, Cowells, Main beach, Capitola beach, Sea Cliff State Beach, and Del Monte beach.