You want to make a difference…   You LOVE your local beach and are tired of the garbage everywhere, and since many hands makes work light,  you want to get a whole lot of people involved as opposed to just you and a few friends/dive buddies….  (trust me, I know what you are thinking,  I’ve been in this exact position)

My first recommendation would be to give a call to one of your local groups such as Puget Soundkeeper Alliance that run things like this on a regular basis.  They might even have a larger clean up that your smaller group could be a part of for which they have already organized kayaks, boat support, and will be providing bags, tools and have already arranged for trash pickup after the fact.

If you are set on running it yourself, please contact the Parks Department or city/county that manages the area you are looking at cleaning.  They will likely want you to fill out some paperwork for a permit and require a volunteer sign up sheet.  This is perfectly understandable from a liability standpoint 🙂  In some locations there might be a fee for this permit but often times if you reach out to local businesses one of them might help cover that with you.

What are you going to put the trash in? Bags? Buckets?

Finally, what are you planning on doing with all the trash you collect??  Especially if its stinky underwater or waterlogged trash you don’t want to just leave it sitting around or overflowing the local trash bins.   Please get in touch with your local municipal trash operation and arrange for a pick up.   We don’t need to increase the noticeable garbage or have animal picking through the bags and spreading it, making a nuisance of it.