SMC conducting trash surveys in watersheds to support Bight ’18

The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) has launched trash sampling surveys in wadeable streams across coastal Southern California to support the Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program’s efforts to track the spread of trash in aquatic systems.

The survey work, launched in May, will help the Bight ’18 Trash study element paint a fuller picture of how trash in coastal waterways could be contributing to the volumes and types of trash found on the Southern California Bight seafloor.

Bight ’18 also is documenting how far trash has spread across the Southern California Bight continental shelf – an effort that has been completed in every cycle of the Bight program since 1994.