3 ways you can help Alabama’s Beaches stay beautiful

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From Gulf Shores to Orange Beach, Alabama’s Beaches are known for sugar-white sand and the sparkling turquoise green water from the Gulf. 

But with hundreds of thousands of visitors drawn to the shore each year, that can create quite a mess on the seaside. 

Read on for three impactful ways you can leave our beaches looking better than you found them. 

Help protect the beaches we love—book your stay on Alabama’s Beaches now. 

1. Leave Only Footprints

Next time you visit Alabama’s Beaches, you might notice signs near trash cans and beach boardwalks asking you to “leave only your footprints.” This catchy phrase is a simple way to put the most important part of your vacation—leaving nothing behind.

You wouldn’t leave a mess behind after visiting a friend or relative’s house. So avoid it at the beach, too. Leaving trash or beach accessories on the sand overnight can disrupt the lives of crabs and sea turtles that call our beaches home. 

With that in mind, here are a few hot tips to keep your footprints the only trace of you on the beach: 

• Clean up all beach equipment, including chairs and umbrellas. You cannot leave your beach setup overnight—in fact, anything left on the sand will be thrown away.
• Fill in any holes and destroy any sandcastles. Holes are hazardous to sea turtles and other beachgoers. Large holes become a hazard to our first responders during rescues. Any holes dug on Alabama’s Beaches must not exceed 12 inches deep.
• Pick up any trash—from you or others!

2. Return ‘Em Right

Protecting wildlife includes sea creatures you may reel in during a fishing adventure. More specifically, the ones you have to release. 

Similar to how a scuba diver can get sick from surfacing too fast, fish can get sick when you reel them in. Rapid depressurization from deeper waters causes barotrauma, which can kill fish when letting them go.

That’s where the “Return ‘Em Right” program supplies anglers with a FREE SeaQualizer device. (Must complete a 15-minute training module first.) This device will help you safely release fish at depths from 50-150 ft. below the surface. 

Fish that die upon release count against the federal quota, so this is a useful way to keep those numbers restricted to fish we can take home and eat. 

BONUS: You can score $100 worth of fishing gear by taking a free fishing course. Details.

Planning a coastal fishing trip? Check out our ultimate fishing guide for the best spots to drop your line + more. 

3. Protecting wildlife

You likely noticed a common theme on this list—protecting wildlife. Beaches are a wonderful vacation destination, but they are first and foremost a home to thousands of creatures and critters who need a healthy habitat to survive.

Summertime on Alabama’s coast is prime nesting season for sea turtles. Share the Beach—a wildlife conservation group—is tasked with patrolling the shoreline to look for signs of nests and setting up barriers to protect them. 

You can also help out by reporting locations of sea turtle nests you see that have not been barricaded. To do so, call 1-866-Sea-Turtle (1-866-732-8878)

Wanting a way to help without leaving your beach house? Turn off the lights at night. White lights can resemble the moon to baby sea turtles, which can cause them to face in the wrong direction when navigating toward the Gulf. 

Help protect the beaches we love—book your stay on Alabama’s Beaches now.

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