The 2009 Boat Lift and Clean Up Crew poses for a apres cleanup photo. We have much more to do this year and hope you'll join us for another run to Pleasure Beach!

Join Connecticut Community Boating for the second annual Pleasure Beach Boat Lift and Cleanup. We will embark from Remington Beach at Seaside Park at 9AM and sail to Pleasure Beach in the CCB Fleet. Once there we will clean up the massive amount of debris and pollution that lines the shores of the long abandoned property. We will boat lift the collected items back to the mainland for proper disposal. This is a chance to visit the peninsula once heralded as “The Jewel of the Eastern Seaboard”, off limits since the burning of the bridge on Father’s Day 1996. To register for the clean up that is part of International Coast Cleanup Day, please call 203-382-3661 or email ctcommunityboating@gmail.com . This event is made possible in partnership with Save the Sound.

Thanks to the generous folks at Safe Boating America and Captain Joe Lynch, we are able to offer Connecticut's most inexpensive and convenient one day course at Connecticut Community Boating. 

The Course will run from 8:30-5:30 at The CCB Maritime Exploration Center at 955 Connecticut Ave in Bridgeport and will certify you to handle any motorized vessel, any sailing vessel 19' or over and any personal watercraft in Connecticut waters. 

To register and directions please call 203-382-3661 or email ctcommunityboating@gmail.com. Payment is due at time of registration and may be made by cash, check or credit card (phone only). 

Dont miss this chance to get your safe boating certificate! Everyone must possess a certificate to operate a boat in Connecticut waters regardless of age or experience so please take advantage of Connecticut's most convenient and inexpensive way to become compliant- ALL PROCEEDS BENEFITS THE CCB MARITIME EXPLORERS PROGRAM

If you haven't heard from us yet, please expect a call soon, but better yet, beat us to it and contribute what you can today either by check or credit card. Remember we're privately run and privately supported and can only continue to provide this much needed resource to our community with support from individuals like you. So please support us in your way today!

The Great Salt March Cleanup Crew- What a great turnout, but there is so much more to do!

Why is it that with so much promise and so much hope for a brighter future in the winds these days, more people do not see that the future of Our State, Our City and Our Children flows freely in the waters that sit just feet from our homes. Long Island Sound, a treasure that built fortunes for our forefathers and a resource that holds so much promise for our future, is still assaulted by trash, by tainted run off and by neglect. 

Our mission at CCB is to help show our community what LIS means to all of us. For the young, it is a classroom, a playground and a tutor that offers a host of benefits from lessons in self-worth to a life-time of education in exercise and healthy living. For adults, it is a chance to unwind and appreciate our community that is fully apart from the I-95 rat race. For those with special needs, it offers life skills, presents rewarding challenges resulting in developmental growth and a platform for fresh air and sunshine. And for our economy, LIS offers tourism dollars, business opportunities and lessons in green technology from by-gone eras. 

The trash we pick up today may not alter the course of human events or even save a small portion of the wildlife we hope to protect. But it does help us mobilize and motivate those who have been shut out from the water and turned away from our greatest natural resource. By lending a hand in cleanup efforts we have shown our community some of the damage that is wrought from the senseless act of mis-disposal of trash. Our week-long effort has raised eyes from newspapers, TV and radio. And our efforts have helped show our political leadership that our residents care about LIS and that we expect great things from them for the future of our waters. 

Today is the last day of Beach Week, but only the beginning of what is to come. We will mobilize our community by getting them sailing and caring about our waters. We will show a generation of kids who have been declined access to the water that LIS is their birthright and theirs to appreciate and learn from. When the last bag is stacked today, we will just be starting to tackle the issues that face our youth, our families and our community. We will teach every man, woman and child to sail and aid them in their enjoyment of Long Island Sound. We will host even more efforts to access the most remote regions of our waterfront with our fleet of 50 vessels and while there attempt to gather as much of the flotsam and jetsam that chokes our waterways. 

This is just the start of what is to come and for those who have helped us this week, we pledge that your efforts will not be in vain. Your efforts are the seeds that will grow into a future of water awareness and will smooth the waves for a journey for every resident of our community who partakes of a warm summer day with sun and salt air that is as pristine as it was when the first Americans dropped anchor and called these waters home. 

Thank you for all you have done and thank you for supporting Connecticut Community Boating. It is your hard work that has made this week a success and it is for you that we will continue to strive to make a difference in our community. Thank you. 

Every little white spec you see here is a piece of trash, but the back side of this shore is even worse- click on this photo for a Google Map of the location

But before it does, we have one more assault to wage on the trash and debris that blankets our coastline. While we were cleaning one side of the refuge, we discovered an island and an inlet in the Great Salt Marsh that is no doubt one of the most neglected sites in all of Fairfield County. 

We saw foam billets by the hundreds, plastic bags and bottles by the thousands and enough Dunkin Donuts Cups, Duchess Wrappers, and McDonald's straws to wallpaper the Grand Canyon. 

This discovery, much like the Storm last week that washed so much trash up on to shore, was a unique happenstance because of the first ever occurrence of Beach Week 2010 when we already had a host of cleanup efforts in the works. And with the final day of the week-long "Olympics of Trash Clean Up" still unscheduled, we knew exactly where to send the more than 150 volunteers scheduled to come lend a hand. 

So tomorrow at 10AM, CCB and a host of other groups, individuals and organizations will arrive at the end of Long Beach Boulevard in Stratford. (600 Long Beach Blvd for you GPSers) There we will enter the Great Salt March and like a line of army ants, move the huge collection of debris to our staging area for municipal pick up. 

Gloves, boots, hats and jackets will all be advisable as the Marsh is wet and muddy and the temps are expected to hover around 40 with a stiff easterly breeze. Also Garbage bags are in short supply as is water, snacks and anything else you will need- so please plan ahead. 

Please call 203-382-3661 for more info and we will see you in the morning!!

Our current bag count is 312 and holding but we hope you'll join us to raise that count and make a dent in the pollution that lines our shoreline. Call 203-382-3661 for more info or just come on down- we need you!

A lobster pot, tractor tire and 30 feet of chain were just some of the items we lugged out- Check out the Front Page article from todays Connecticut Post

However, foul weather and a bad case of the Monday's left our ranks a little light today. Amid thank yous and cheers from the parked cars and passing walkers, the CCB Crew showed commitment and endurance when they pulled another dozen bags from the beaches, concentrating on those items that would most likely be washed back to the sea on a flood tide.

And while we beat a steady retreat from the Beach head, our hearts we're buoyed by the knowledge that reinforcements were on their way on April 3 when The Black Rock Resident promise to hold the Annual Beach Clean Up at St. Mary's By-The-Sea.

And so tomorrow we'll move on and grow our 312 bag count to even more when we hit the Little Beach at Norden Club at 9AM and move on to the Boat Ramp at Fayerweather at 1PM. It is our hope that despite the predictions of cold rain tomorrow, the neighbors on Brewster Street will lend a hand and help us fulfill our mission. 

See you at the Beach tomorrow morning!

We measured this male blue crab at more than 7.5 inches, huge for a blue crab, even by Maryland standards- Could be a good sign of things to come, but it's a darn shame we didn't get to serve this guy with butter and Old Bay

Bottles and cans more than 30 years old, lobster traps twisted into knots and enough plastic to cling wrap Fenway Park were among the huge variety of items found in the more than 25 bags of trash we collected.

Of particular note, and perhaps concern, was the great many of HUGE-sized crabs, starfish and one little lobster that we're found dead in the wrack line, apparently stranded and tangled in the choke of flotsam and jetsam and deposited for the last week at Long Beach. The huge starfish may be indicators of improving water quality or may indicate an imbalance between oysters and their number one predator. However, the giant crabs are great evidence of a healthy population that has both ecological and commercial importance to our waters and are tasty to boot! If there's a few on the beach, then there must be more in the seas and to see them so early in the season bodes well for a great summer of seafood and perhaps a changing ecological landscape!

Now just two days into our week-long beach cleanup effort, we have a bag count of more than 300 bags. Follow our progress and become a fan of CCB on Facebook where we will continue our Bag Count and keep you updated on our week's progress. 

Tomorrow, we'll be at Ash Creek Nature Preserve at 9AM in Fairfield and will cross the stream over to Saint Mary's-By-The-Sea at 1PM. Bags, volunteers and well wishes are all welcome- if you see our crew out there please give them a pat on the back or a honk of the horn to show your support- and they'll be happy to accept a donation if you feel so inclined. 

Again thank you to all those who are making this week a success and we look forward to seeing you on the waterfront!