Beach Clean Up Event at Gooseberry Island

[JakeF]

Stripercoast Surfcasters Club
announces its first beach clean-up project of 2010
Gooseberry Island, Westport, MA
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
(rain date - Saturday, April 24th)
8:00am - 4:00pm

Stripercoast Surfcasters Club, a coast-wide striped bass surfcasting club, will be hosting a shoreline clean-up project at Gooseberry Island in Westport, MA on Saturday, April 10th, from 8:00am - 4:00pm. (Rain date is Saturday April 24th)

Club members & other volunteers will spend the day picking up trash and debris on the island which has collected there over the winter months, and YOU are invited!

The club will be providing a lunch of grilled burgers, hot dogs, etc. free of charge for all who volunteer their time to participate in the clean-up effort. Please let us know if you intend to come so that we can make sure to have enough for everyone.

If you are someone who enjoys the outdoors and the many resources Massachusetts parks have to offer, this is a great family oriented opportunity for you to make a difference in the community.

To volunteer, or for information on sponsoring this event,
please contact:

Jacob Freeman
National Chapter Vice President
Stripercoast Surfcasters Club
jake@stripercoastsurfcasters.us

PRESS RELEASE

[JakeF]

Bump...

C'mon guys. Lets pull together to clean this place up!

Be sure to let me know if you plan to attend so that we can make sure there's enough FREE food for you at lunch time.

[JakeF]

Wow,, posted a month in advance. Only 10 views and zero replies.

I was really hoping that this kind of event would spark some interest here and we'd see some participation from the NE S&A crowd.

It looks like we'll have perfect weather for the event this Saturday, and there's still time to get in on this if you're so inclined. Just reply to this thread or shoot me PM if you're planning to come.

Even if you can't come for the whole day, any help would be very appreciated. We'll be there from 8:00am - 4:00 pm and serving lunch around noon.

Hope to see some of you there!
~ Jake

[cardoc765]

thats a good thing you are trying to do up there Jake. Hope you get some folks to show up. I'm hoping we can get something down here in NJ done like that soon too. BTW the reel works awesome.

[JakeF]

Thanks cardoc. We're currently expecting around 50 volunteers, but there's enough work there for 100 easily.

Glad you're enjoying the reel!

[jigfreak]

Bummer you couldn't get more interest in that Jake. If I lived closer I might help you people, but MA is pretty far to drive to do a cleanup. If you were giving away 50lb bass you might get a better response. Good luck, hope it turns out well.

[JakeF]

You're probably right about the free 50's. It's a shame that is what it would take to get people to stir.

Gooseberry and the surrounding area has given up it's fair share of 50's and 60's in recent years. It's events like this that will help to ensure access to fishermen remains open. WAY too many folks take access for granted, b!tch and moan when access gets shut down somewhere, yet don't lift a finger when opportunities like this present themselves.

[DarkSkies]

Jake I'm sorry I won't be able to come up and give you guys a hand. I have no usable vehicle now and have been relying on the kindness of others until I line one up. The car I'm driving now has a safety range of about 100 miles, I can't push it too much more.

If you were giving away 50lb bass you might get a better response. Good luck, hope it turns out well.

You're probably right about the free 50's. It's a shame that is what it would take to get people to stir.

Gooseberry and the surrounding area has given up it's fair share of 50's and 60's in recent years. It's events like this that will help to ensure access to fishermen remains open. WAY too many folks take access for granted, b!tch and moan when access gets shut down somewhere, yet don't lift a finger when opportunities like this present themselves.

Jake, it really is a shame that this is what it comes down to, but I've seen this is human nature with many fishermen.

* I saw it in Mass when I drove up to report on the Striped Bass Gamefish bill. Many more Comms than Recs managed to find a way to attend that meeting.

* I saw it in Washington when we drove down for the Fishermens March and Rally. Again, more Comms than Recs showed. There were lots of guys who had to work, I understand that.

* However, there were countless guys who called in sick for the hot N England cod bite. Boats were filled on the weekends, but they were railed on the weekdays as well. Sure some of those guys are retired, but some aren't.

* There are tons of guys now taking off from work to get in on the hot bass bite in S Jersey, and the Susquehanna, Delaware, and Hudson Rivers. Some of these guys would be angry if you suggested that they give up one day of fishing for a good cause.

* There are still more who will never attend a fisheries management meeting because they have no interest or no inclination to learn how these issues could eventually affect them.

* There is a great group in NJ called SSFFF that has done a lot of things to help not only fluke fishermen, but all fishermen by raising awareness that some stats are wrong. Yet some people only think about helping SSFFF when they're going fluke fishing and ignore them at other times.

Even with that, there is a small subset of guys who always give of themselves, the 10% of the guys who do 90% of the work and activism.

We have similar problems with cleanups in NJ, Jake. There are hundreds of guys who fish the backwaters of Raritan Bay daily or nightly. Only a few dozen could be coaxed into attending a cleanup we had last year at NJ's Cliffwood Beach when the fishermen trash pushed the towns to start restricting parking.

So I understand your frustration, and I agree with your sentiments. Also, forcing or guilting people into doing something that they "should" be self-motivated to get involved with is tough.

That's why I think it's best to concentrate on the volunteers you do have, and ask them to help spread the word.

One thing I've learned in the past few years is you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. Raising awareness is what we must do, Jake. Eventually, people do come around, one at a time, on their own terms.

As for the ones who complain when they lose access and they have done nothing to try to preserve access, oh well.

I've stopped focusing on reaching people like that, and continue to focus on some of the people who can be reached and are willing to at least listen.

Good luck with the clean up.
Take lots of pics, feel free to post some up here. You can post them in this thread or an additional thread to give our Stripercoast club some more internet links.... I'm thinking a kind of "before" and "after" would be a nice touch.

[Doublerunner]

True but I bet this will help. Just heard some of the Hooters girls will make an appearance

[JakeF]

Thanks so much to all who came out and helped out! The DCR staff also asked me to pass on their thanks, and said they'd be very greatful if we could come back in the fall. We had about 25 participants throughout the day and collected 5 or 6 large truck loads of trash.

Here are a few of the pics I took...

[JakeF]

more

[JakeF]

more

[DarkSkies]

more





Great report and pics Jake, the ones above are priceless. Your daughter?

Sounds like you made an impression on the people in charge up there. Great turnout for a first effort! WTG on the organizing and press release. Good mojo to you guys for the 2010 season.

[JakeF]

Thanks Rich!

Yes, that's my 5 year old, Sophia. Her little brother, Ben, also picked up his share. They were troopers

[plugaholic]

Hey nice job on the cleanup guys.

[storminsteve]

Good job.

[Pebbles]

Sorry Dark and I didn't get a chance to get up there. It looks as if all of you cleaned up really well. I'm impressed with the pick up truck full of bags. It goes to show how we should all be doing our share every time we go out. Nice Work!

[Doublerunner]

By the way, that pickup truck full of trash bags, made 5 or 6 trips like that. They supplied us with the trash bags and picked them up at throughout the afternoon

[CharlieTuna]

Nice job fellas.