With the slogan, “Hold the Line,” as their directive, an estimated 1,500 volunteers will take to Rhode Island’s beaches next month to find and dispose of human refuse, like old fishing lines and cigarette butts.

It’s part of the Audubon Society of Rhode Island’s 25th annual statewide beach cleanups, which will occur on Saturday, Sept. 19. The project promotes environmental awareness, ocean conservancy and marine stewardship.

The goal of the events is cleaning beaches, but each year they carry a difference focus and slogan. This year’s “Hold the line” campaign targets trashed fishing lines, said Eugenia Marks, senior policy director for the Audubon Society of Rhode Island.

They don’t make up a large percentage of trash found on the state’s beaches. However, plastic monofilament fishing lines, and even trashed kite strings, are “very lethal,” Marks said.

She said the Audubon Society is asking anglers to take their snarled fishing lines and bring them to recycling boxes provided at fishing sites by the Department of Environmental Management, or to bring them home for proper disposal.

These lines and strings threaten wildlife and even humans because they are thin and difficult to see. They are also strong and don’t break very easily, making it difficult to escape once tangled in them. Plastic fishing lines can remain intact for decades before they finally break down.

Marks explained that the Audubon Society often receives reports of birds, like ospreys and gulls, strangled and drowned by these fishing lines. Freshwater turtles and other marine life are also often entangled in these lines.

Some animals are rescued, like a great horned owl caught in kite strings that Marks said she personally freed.

Unfortunately, not every story of wildlife caught in manmade debris ends with a heartwarming rescue.

So, with this in mind, community volunteers will take part in cleanups at 84 different sites at beaches on the coast and along other waterways throughout Rhode Island. Cleanups that day will take place at sites throughout Warwick – Apponaug Cove, Conimicut Point, Goddard Park, Oakland Beach, Warwick City Park and a handful of other locations.

The volunteers to put on garden gloves and grab homemade litter sticks will include Boy Scouts, retired schoolteachers, college students and other environmentally minded citizens.

“It’s really great to see the turnout,” said Marcia Peña, the captain of a group that will clean Conimicut Point.

Last year, about 15 to 20 people turned out for Conimicut’s beach cleanup, Peña said. Among the debris found along Conimicut Point, it’s “mostly party stuff – beer bottles and food containers.”

While many of the teenage participants fulfill community service requirements through their participation, “most of the adults don’t do it to get credit,” Peña said.

Volunteers not only sweep the beaches for trash, they also keep track of what they find. The Ocean Conservancy, based in Washington, D.C., coordinates the International Coastal Cleanup movement. The organization also devised a standardized form for tallying this debris.

Teams find just about everything under the sun that can be left behind by humans – from fishing line to plastic bags, aluminum cans, cigarette butts, toys and clothing.

Last year, cigarette filters and smoking related materials, like lighters and matches, were the most prevalent of debris found on Rhode Island’s beaches. This is a trend that’s been ongoing for at least the last 10 years, said Marks.

Observing such trends enables the group to recommend public policy changes, for instance, recommending that smoking be banned on beaches. Some beaches, though not all, have adopted this ban.

In 2008, the beach cleanup project produced 139,329 pieces of trash statewide. Among those pieces: 47,905 cigarette butts, 14,490 food wrappers and containers, 7,206 plastic beverage containers 2 liters or less in volume.

Rhode Island’s beach cleanups campaign began in 1985 with only five sites. The slogan that year was “Get the drift and bag it.”

The kinds of trash found on beaches throughout the years has changed, Marks said. At one point aluminum cans and the plastic rings that bound them in six-packs were among the most commonly found debris.

A telling photo, of how severe the problem once was, had been captured years ago by a passenger on the Block Island ferry. It was of a gull that flew by the vessel. The bird had a six-pack holder around its neck.

“It seems to me that we are seeing fewer six-pack holders,” Marks said. “A lot of kids are being instructed to cut the rings.”

The corporate sponsors for this year’s coastal cleanups include Washington Trust, Fidelity Investments and Bank of America.

The Audubon Society’s clean up is part of the Washington, D.C. based Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, which it holds on the third Saturday each September. The cleanup is part of the Ocean Conservancy’s larger initiative to promote and educate about issues concerning the ocean, which covers more than two-thirds of the earth’s surface.

It’s home to 97 percent of all living creatures, according to the conservancy.

“It creates the weather. It is the ultimate source of the water we drink and much of the air we breathe…But our ocean is sick, and our action have made it so,” the Conservancy’s website states. “We must recognize that the ocean is inextricably connected to us. When we allow trash and other pollution to get into the ocean, we directly affect its health and our own.”

Those interested in participating in clean ups nearby can contact the Audubon Society of Rhode Island for more information by calling 401-949-5454 or visiting the organization’s web site at http://www.asri.org.