College students, citizen scientists survey area beaches for debris

A group canvassed parts of a beach near Cap Sante Marina last week.

While some walked slowly back and forth with their heads down, looking for out-of-place items, others sat in groups with buckets and strainers, sifting sand as if panning for gold.

“We’re picking up anything on the surface that doesn’t belong,” Salish Sea Steward Kim McCary said. “We’re getting mostly plastic and glass.”