Beaches up and down the West Coast are a repository for trash from around the world.

With each incoming tide, debris washes up onto shores, from old tires and appliances that make their way through rivers and waterways to water bottles and umbrella handles that trek thousands of miles across oceans from China and Japan before planting themselves on rocky shorelines.

Aside from being unsightly, ocean litter can be harmful to all forms of marine life. According to the California Coastal Commission, some animals mistake small pieces of debris for food.

Birds and other sea creatures can become entangled in common items such as fishing lines, rope and packaging material. For humans, broken glass and jagged metal pose risks to barefooted beachgoers.

An 11-foot leopard shark sculpted from thousands of small pieces of plastic, aluminum and miscellaneous beach debris was on display May 9 outside Fish restaurant in Sausalito during a World Ocean Day event hosted by local organizations the Shark Stewards and Turtle Island Restoration Network.

The shark is one of 18 large-scale nautical sculptures created by the nonprofit Washed Ashore project. The organization, based in Bandon, Ore., promotes ocean awareness and environmental responsibility through art. The traveling exhibit has been shown at the Marine Mammal Center and the Earth Day Marin festival.

Everything you see on here came from beaches, said Executive Director Angela Pozzi Washed Ashores lead artist.

A former exhibiting sculptor and art instructor, Pozzi believes in the power of the arts to reach the masses and promote social change. We can reach people in a way talking heads, statistics and charts cannot, she said. Anyone can see that all this stuff is from the beaches, and we can all agree that its wrong.

Sculpted from broken buoys, aluminum cans, stranded beach sandals and numerous plastic fragments, the shark took seven months to create, and more than 100 volunteers lent a hand in some way.

Since January 2010, more than 1,000 Washed Ashore volunteers have cleaned more than 20 miles of beach, collecting more than 3 tons of debris.

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Environmental art heading to Sausalito