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VENTNOR - Three wetsuited surfers bobbed over swells rolling in on the ocean Saturday morning near Pat Snyder, who leaned down to grab another plastic wrapper from the beach and drop it into his bulging trash bag.

Snyder, 24, is a hard-core surfer, and he admitted that he liked the looks of those waves. But he's also a member of the Surfrider Foundation South Jersey Chapter, which scheduled a cleanup project Saturday on Ventnor's beaches along with a group based in the town, the Pickup Posse.

So Snyder drove a few hours from the University of Delaware - he's studying there for a master's degree in coastal engineering - figuring he would join the Surfrider cleanup and combine it with a visit to Sea Isle City, where his family is celebrating his dad's birthday this weekend.

"I guess you see more of the older folks here," Snyder said, of the Saturday Surfrider turnout in Ventnor.

"The young ones are interested, but they're kind of preoccupied," he said, nodding out toward the guys on the boards. "But I guess you get to the point where you realize it's not all just about being fun. There's also some responsibility involved."

The Surfrider Foundation believes in taking environmental responsibility - the non-profit group, which claims 50,000 members in 90 chapters around the world, says it's "dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world's oceans, waves and beaches." And the local chapter, which covers Cape May to Long Beach Island, has been on a campaign to be more visible and more active.

The South Jersey chapter has led a fight to convince Ocean City to ban businesses in the town from giving out single-use plastic bags. But several members say they're also interested in getting the chapter to expand beyond its core membership in Ocean City, so now the group schedules monthly cleanups at beaches all along its stretch of the state's coastline, and usually follows those cleanups with its business meetings.

Jean Antolini is an organizer of Ventnor's Pickup Posse, which usually does its cleaning up on the streets of the city. But she said she was happy to head out to the beach when the Surfrider Foundation approached her about setting up a joint project Saturday - especially because more Surfrider people showed up than members of her group.

Jeff Hoffberger, an active Surfrider member, also is a volunteer with Clean Ocean Action - the group that arranges the mass beach sweeps all along the New Jersey coastline every spring and fall. And before a few dozen volunteers started to fan out on the Ventnor beach Saturday, he gave them all copies of the data cards that Clean Ocean Action uses to keep records of all the waste its people collect on their missions.

That was a revelation to the Pickup Posse people - "They actually research the stuff we're picking up," Antolini said, "whereas we just want to pick it up."

Hoffberger, 53, a wine wholesaler and lifelong surfer who lives in Brigantine, said state environmental officials use the pickup records to track the sources of trash the volunteers find - which could lead to another Surfrider campaign.

"Every year, cigarette butts are the No. 1 thing we pick up," said Hoffberger - which, he added, explains part of the motivation behind a growing movement to ban smoking on New Jersey's beaches.

And he's big on that Surfrider plan to ban plastic bags, in part because he sees the harm they do to animals that come into the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, where he also volunteers.

"We actually had a sea turtle come in," Hoffberger said, "with a plastic bag hanging out of its butt."

Krissy Halkes, a physical-therapist assistant who lives in Egg Harbor Township, is the South Jersey Chapter's chairwoman. Halkes said she makes it a point to clean up beaches whenever she visits one - not just during organized cleanups - and she's on the beach a lot, because she surfs all year off Ocean City.

But Halkes, 52, didn't mind skipping the surf Saturday to try to help the ocean environment a bit. "My thought is, there are always going to be more waves. If I can't have some today, I'll come back the next time," she said.

She got involved with Surfrider, she said, because "I don't like that my beach is dirty. I don't like that we're threatening our very existence. I want my grandchildren to be able to play in the same water that I play in."

Back out on the beach, however, Pat Snyder was thinking that just because he cleaned up the beach in Ventnor in the morning didn't mean he couldn't check out the waves in Sea Isle come afternoon.

"I'll probably get out there," he said, "after we finish this."

Contact Martin DeAngelis:

609-272-7237

MDeangelis@pressofac.com