Coastal Clean-up Day 2012 and the Island Fox

You don't have to travel to the Channel Islands to help the endangered Channel Island fox. Kelp forests surrounding the islands provide important habitat for fish and other sea life. Birds and marine mammals depend on these resources, and indirectly so does the island fox.

From our local beach to the islands, trash harms animals and people. You can make a difference.

Friends of the Island Fox and 

the Channel Islands Park Foundation 

invite you to join us on the beach 

for Coastal Clean-up Day

Saturday, Sept. 15 from 9 AM to Noon 

 Meet at Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center

Keeping the local marine habitat debris free is vital to creatures of all shapes and sizes. Island fox and the fishing hook.

We live beside a thriving marine community. You can help keep it that way for island foxes and bald eagles, dolphins and whales, yourself and your family.

Special thanks to photographer Jessica Martinoff for her photos taken on the Friends of the Island Fox Trip to Santa Cruz Island.

Be a Friend of the Island Fox

How can you help the endangered island fox?

Everyday humans create mounds of trash. Too often that trash washes off sidewalks into gutters, down storm drains and into the ocean. Bits of plastic are dropped on the ground. Plastic bags swirl in the wind and end up in streams and seas.


A cast off fishing lure left on a rock can mean a horrible injury for a hungry island fox. Fox and the Fishing Hook


A plastic bag or balloon can be mistaken for a jellyfish by a hungry sea turtle.


Bits of plastic on the beach can get swept into the ocean by the incoming tide. Once plastic enters the ocean, fish and birds mistake the colorful bits for food. When they eat the toxic plastics it can mean their death or it can mean they are no longer healthy food for other animals in the foodweb like island foxes and humans.


Friends of the Island Fox is joining forces with the Channel Islands Park Foundation to clean-up the beach near the Channel Island National Park Visitor Center.

Join Us For:

Coastal Clean-Up Day

Sat. September 25, 2010

9 AM - Noon 

For More Information

An Island Fox Meets A Bald Eagle

The Institute for Wildlife Studies' EagleCams watch the bald eagle nests on Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands off the coast of California. Not only do they document eagles nesting and rearing their young, sometimes they also get a candid shot of how animals on the islands interact.

This short video from Santa Cruz shows a bald eagle chick almost ready to fly (large and dark brown in the center). Notice its wing numbers placed by biologists tracking its growth and life. But the video also shows an unexpected visitor to the nest. Watch closely in the lower right hand corner and you will see an island fox climb up into the eagle nest.



Island foxes and bald eagles have interconnected lives. Bald Eagle and the Island Fox.

Because bald eagles on the Channel Islands find most of their food in the ocean or along the shore, pollution in the marine ecosystem can have a negative effect on their survival.

Your actions can have an important direct effect on the survival of the endangered island fox. When you visit any of the six Channel Islands where island foxes live there are specific steps you can take to Keep Island Foxes Safe.

Even if you can't make the journey to the Channel Islands, you can help in beach clean up to keep the marine ecosystem safe for bald eagles and to pick up debris that can be life threatening to island foxes (Island Fox and the Fishing Hook).

Join Friends of the Island Fox as we pitch in with the Channel Island Park Foundation to clean-up local beaches as part of the 26th Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day on September 25. Volunteers will meet at the Channel Island National Park Visitor Center at 9 AM. For More Information.