• Tsunami debris adds new element to 'Coastal Cleanup' day

    The trash accumulating in the Pacific Ocean – scientists estimate there are 1.5 million tons of tsunami debris alone -- is arriving on the West Coast. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Thousands of volunteers were taking to West Coast beaches on Saturday for the 27th annual "Coastal Cleanup", and this year they have new instructions: keep an eye out for any Japanese tsunami debris.

    Ocean Conservancy

    This flyer is being handed out Saturday along West Coast beaches.

    "DO NOT touch or attempt to remove any potentially hazardous materials or large debris items," states a field guide prepared by Ocean Conservancy, which organizes the annual, and international, beach event. 

    Instead, volunteers are urged to call 911 if it's an immediate danger, or the federal tsunami removal program by e-mailing information to disasterdebris@noaa.gov. 

    The group also hopes to total up any tsunami debris found, marking those "in the 'Items of Local Concern' section — so we can compare data collected this year to historical numbers," Katie Cline, a spokeswoman for Ocean Conservancy, told NBC News. "Will we see a difference in the type of debris found? This is a question we hope to determine using the data."

    Already this year, several large items from Japan's 2011 tsunami have landed on West Coast beaches — among them a boat found on Canada's Spring Island, northwest of Vancouver Island, in August; a 66-foot-long floating dock that washed onto an Oregon beach in June; and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle found on Canada's Graham Island in April. 

    Japan estimates 5 million tons of debris was swept out to sea by the tsunami, and about 1.5 million tons of that is likely still in the Pacific Ocean.

    Even without tsunami debris, cleanup volunteers are likely to be busy on Saturday.

    Last year, nearly 600,000 people picked up more than 9 million pounds of trash during the cleanup held on 20,000 miles of beaches around the world, Ocean Conservancy said.

    "We need more volunteers than ever," David Pittenger, who runs the group's trash program, said in a statement announcing this year's effort. "Last year, volunteers found enough food packaging to get takeout for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for the next 858 years."

    Other items disposed of last year included 267,000 articles of clothing and more than 24,000 light bulbs, the conservation group noted.

    One community that already knows what it will be cleaning up Saturday is Encinitas, Calif., where decades-old vehicle parts and other junk were recently found in the water of a protected lagoon, NBCSanDiego.com reported.

    View more videos at: http://nbcsandiego.com.

    To see where cleanups are being held Saturday around the world, check out the interactive map created by Ocean Conservancy at signuptocleanup.org. 

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  • 2 swimmers drown in rip currents off NJ shore

    Friends sob on the shore as hopes fade in finding an 18-year-old swept out to sea by unusually strong current. WNBC's Gus Rosendale reports.

    By Jim Gold, NBC News

    Updated at 3:45 p.m. ET: Two swimmers who vanished in rip currents off the New Jersey shore were found drowned Thursday.


    Both incidents occurred at beaches where no lifeguards were on duty.

    Garrett Giberson, public information officer for the Asbury Park fire department, told NJ.com, website of the Star-Ledger newspaper. “Basically the bottom line is this: When lifeguards are off duty, stay out of the water. Rip tides are dangerous and obviously deadly. It's not worth your life."

    The Asbury Park Press reportedthat authorities believe the body recovered in about 15 feet of water 200 yards offshore in Asbury Park’s 2nd Avenue beach is Chazmin Miles, 23, of Irvington.

    Miles disappeared while trying to help his younger sister, who was rescued Wednesday evening.

    See the Star-Ledger photo gallery

    Hot in Northeast? 'You ain't seen nothing yet'

    The body of Bestavros Faris, 18, of Bayonne, was pulled early Thursday afternoon from waters about 150 yards offshore from the O Street beach in Seaside Park, where he disappeared a day earlier, NBCNewYork.com reported.

    Andrew Mills / The Star-Ledger

    Asbury Park firefighter Brett Nielson pauses as he prepares to enter the surf, Thursday, to search for the body of a 23-year-old man who disappeared while swimming after lifeguards had gone off duty Wednesday in Asbury Park, N.J. The body was recovered after a short search by divers.

    "The wave grabbed him far away from me," friend Andrew Messiha told NBCNewYork.com. "I was standing near the shore. He called for help, but no one came because there was no lifeguard."

    Faris and his friends were sucked into the currents late Wednesday afternoon; rescuers managed to retrieve three swimmers.

    Faris' friends and family had kept vigil on the beach into the night, crying and praying as they waited for news but declined to speak with NBCNewYork.com after the body was found.

    "It's very unusual to deal with these rip currents this time of year," Seaside Park Police Chief Francis Larkin told NBCNewYork.com. "Usually, it's hurricane season in September."

    Newark, N.J., on Wednesday saw a record high of 98 degrees and relentless heat was expected to continue Thursday.

    Strong rip currents kept rescuers busy elsewhere along the Jersey Shore. In Perth Amboy, two children were rescued from the water by a 36-year-old bystander and his 17-year-old son. The rescuers administered CPR to one child.

    Andrew Mills / The Star-Ledger

    Asbury Park firefighters, N.J. State Police Troopers and U.S. Coast Guard personnel work Thursday to recover a body about 200 yards offshore at the 2nd Avenue beach in Asbury Park, where a 23-year-old man disappeared while swimming after lifeguards had gone off duty yesterday.

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  • Pensacola beaches back open, but oil isn't gone

    Lee Celano/Reuters

    A woman wearing a T-shirt with an anti- BP message looks over oil-soaked sand on Pensacola Beach, Fla.

    While most national news outlets are reporting that Florida's Pensacola Beach is closed, that isn't the case — the Gulf has reopened for swimming along Pensacola Beach after the Escambia County Health Department lifted its health advisory today, the Pensacola News-Journal reports.

    The double red flags, which signal no swimming in the Gulf, came down at 10 a.m. ET and were replaced with yellow flags, which are cautioning folks to swim with caution of rough waves, not because of anything to do with oil.

    To be sure, the oil is still there. It's just not visible on the beach. "Despite intensive efforts by more than 1,100 workers and heavy equipment to clean thick tar from Pensacola Beach," the News-Journal says, researchers from the University of South Florida discovered that oil is buried about 1 inch to 8 inches deep in the sand.

    "It was so horrible yesterday, very thick," Larry Mitchell, who grew up in Pensacola, told NBC station WALB of nearby Albany, Ga. "It makes you want to cry."

  • Health advisory issued for some Florida beaches

    Local authorities have issued a health advisory for beaches in Pensacola and Destin, Fla., meaning that while it is still OK to be on the beach, it is no longer safe to swim in the water because of the oil spill, NBC News reports.

    The Pensacola News-Journal reports that a similar advisory has also been issued for Escambia beaches, with double red flags posted.

  • 'When it hits here, we have nothing'

    By Ron Mott, NBC News Correspondent

    PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. – For now the coast is clear, which is good news for tourists enjoying some fun in the sun this week on Florida's white-sand beaches.

    But for residents whose livelihoods depend on a steady flow of summer vacationers, news that oil is within striking distance here left many with looks of pained resignation in their faces.

    Sandy Gray grew up in the area. She donned a bikini and headed to the beach Wednesday – her digital camera in tow – to capture what she fears are the dwindling final days of pristine shoreline for quite a while.

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    Like many, she hoped that winds and currents would keep the oil suspended in the open sea, giving crews time to clean up the spill before it washed ashore in some community. Hearing that an oil slick was spotted within 10 miles of Pensacola was jarring, she said.

    “We thought we were going to get lucky. But this is really bad,” Gray said. “We have the most beautiful beaches in the world. This is going to take years to clean up. When it hits here, we have nothing.”


    That, of course, is the fear for many in the tourist industry ahead of the peak summer. And while Chamber of Commerce officials were reporting a few hundred hotel/vacation property reservation cancellations, the expectation is that the number may explode, leaving more than a few businesses in the red by summer's end.

    Beachside, there was no evidence of the frantic efforts Wednesday to lay down secondary containment booms in Pensacola Bay and offshore. Kids frolicked in the sand and in the warm water. Parents kept watchful eyes on both their young ones and the books they clutched in their hands. Screams of joy rose from nearly every pocket of the beach. Yet, underneath it all, was an obvious pall.

    One tourist from Utah expressed regret that he'd only just gotten to Florida, though would try to make the most of his vacation by spending as much time in the sea as he could before the oil sludge and tar balls float in.

    A couple, believing they’d spotted plumes of oil dancing in the waters off Fort Pickens National Park nearby, were seemingly enthralled to be close to such a big international story with historical ramifications, though there has not been an official declaration of oil at that site. “It was so cool,” one of them said.

    Acknowledging the comment as the pair sauntered away, Gray simply replied, “No, it's not cool.”

    And with that, she cupped her camera in her hand and headed home, hoping she really hadn't just taken the final photos of her postcard-worthy hometown beach in all its clean and glistening glory.