Curtis Cove Report - May 15, 2013

After more than two weeks away from the beach due to commitments & bad weather, by May 15 I was jones'ing to get back.

So, what did it look like? Let's see

Wednesday, May 15, 2013. 830AM. No clouds. Bright blue, temps in the 50s and warming quickly. No breeze. Still morning, a few shorebirds chirping in the distance.

The Rachel Carson Natl Wildlife Refuge had also prepared for the impending summer season with a great new plaque at the head of the trail.

Down on the beach, the cove was healing itself nicely from winter. The beach profile was returning to its gentle, steady slope -- high and proud on the backshore down evenly to the low foreshore. The foreshore cobbles & pebbles were all on display again. Winter's storms, which had dumped and dragged mud & sand on top, were now really a memory.

Lined along the backshore were the last remains of winter's rotted & dried-out wrack, some buried by recently blown-in or washed-in sand. As it dried, its plastic load peeked through.

It was going to be a busy day. Here's what I found:

(Tech mini-disaster means no rope photo - sorry!)

320 pcs of fishing rope, about 180 ft

96 pcs of nonrope debris

416 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 320
• Fishing misc.: 35 (6 claw bands, 2 fishing lines, hard buoy top, 5 bait bags, 9 trap parts, 5 bumpers, tag scrap, 6 vinyl trap coating bits)
• Food-related plastics: 11 (2 bottles - 1 very eaten/damaged, 5 cup scraps, water flavorer wrapper, sauce pack, microwave meal box scrap, cutlery scrap)
• Food-related glass/metal: 1 (aluminum can scrap)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 29 (bag, Clorox bottlecap, broken comb, bandaid, 4 packaging scraps, crate chunk, clothespin, 4 upholstery scraps, 11 cable ties!, cord, crate seal, chopstick scrap, drawer organizer scrap)
• Scrap plastics: 13 ( 6 > 1" , 7 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 7 (fabric scraps)

This badly-abused & fish-bitten bottle could tell quite a story.

A plastic chopstick scrap??

A mangled comb -- its lost teeth likely still fouling the ocean, somewhere.

A very abraded Clorox bottle scrap.

Clorox is used heavily on fishing boats for sanitation. Sadly, too many times the empty bottles are then just pitched overboard.

"Away"

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 3680
• Pcs fishing rope -- 1375
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 1621

Curtis Cove Report - Apr 23, 2013

Tuesday, April 23 & back again! 1 PM. Raw. Gray, hovering masses of dead clouds. Barely 40 degrees, spitting drizzle on & off.

The cobbles on the low foreshore spoke of a slowly healing beach. All the sand that had slumped & dumped onto them from winter's storms was now re-sorting itself, returning to normal.

Higher up, vanishing drizzle marks revealed the last high-tide at the slumped sand by the backshore.

One interesting find tis day: Amid the soaking & squishy & smelly wrack, a very biofouled dog-frisbee.

Hard to collect on a leaden, soaking & chill afternoon. The story, as usual, was the fishing rope. Here's the overall haul:

155 pcs of fishing rope, about 180 ft

27 pcs of nonrope debris

182 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 1 (small fiberglass/plastic resin chunk)
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 155 (180 ft)
• Fishing misc.: 17 (9 vinyl trap coating scraps, 2 claw bands, 2 bait bags, 2 bumpers, trap part, ball of fishing line)
• Food-related plastics: 1 (scrap of drink cup)
• Food-related glass/metal: 0
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 5 (dog frisbee, 3 cable ties, crate seal)
• Scrap plastics: 3 ( 2 > 1" , 1 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 0

In the gray light, with churned up squidgy rotting seaweed, everything on the beach looked the same. I'm sure I missed small bits despite my efforts. That said, minus the old rope this is a very small haul. So, did winter's storms actually purge the local sea of its debris? Or is the just the calm before the next deluge?

Keep tuning back in to find out.

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 3264
• Pcs fishing rope -- 1055
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 1615

Curtis Cove Report - Apr 17, 2013

Wednesday, April 17. 11:10AM. Bright sunshine, 55 degrees, light seabreeze, just after low tide. Spring returns.

A fantastic day to be at a deserted beach! I say "deserted," although all around were mockingbirds, chickadees, gulls, big juicy sea-ducks... and snails.

Snail superhighway!

Winter faded, as the rare chunk of marsh-grass looking out onto the open cove greened back up:

Surprise!

It was truly a beautiful day of rippled sand:

Nature's recycling:

A little mystery:

And admiring the stories left behind in the stones:

And, of course, there was plenty of this:

It had been a low energy week-and-a-half since April 8. As winter's wrack rotted back into nothingness, it revealed much left behind.

177 pcs of rope, about 150 ft

xxx pcs of nonrope debris

324 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 2 (weatherstrip, car/boat console piece)
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 177 (150 ft)
• Fishing misc.: 90 (55 vinyl trap coating scraps, 6 trap parts, 2 bait bags, 2 trap tags, 11 bumpers, crab vent, cleat, 11 claw bands, ball of fishing line)
• Food-related plastics: 18 (2 bottle top-halves, ALMADEN bottlecap, 4 bottlecap seals, 4 cup scraps, MRE pack, meat stake, wrapper scrap, fish-bitten ketchup pack, abraded whole spoon, 2 cutlery scraps)
• Food-related glass/metal: 2 (aluminum can scraps)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 23 (2 bag scraps, 4 balloons/scraps, 2 hair bands, toy soldier leg, large floormat scrap, plant pot hook, strap, "silk" flower, Xmas tree light, 4 cable ties, plant stake, fabric strip "Berkshire Blanket," black tape scrap, crate seal, sock hanger)
• Scrap plastics: 10 ( 8 > 1" , 2 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 2 (fabric scrap, leather strap)

A wild day.

Sealife nibbled the heck out of this

Silk flowers aren't silk anymore

Remember that statue ruin on "LOST"??

Plant pot hooks, Christmas tree lights, plant stakes, and a car console... If it's made of plastic, an example of it is now in an ocean near you.

Running Year 2 YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 3082
• Pcs fishing rope -- 900
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 1606

Curtis Cove Report - Apr 8, 2013

Wow. Way too far behind now. Time to make a few brief posts to catch back up if I can! Monday, April 8. 1:15PM. Three hrs past high-tide. Strong seabreeze, low 50s. Bright sun, a beautiful day to be here.

The beach was still healing itself nicely after winter's violence, getting its old shape back. On this day I found great natural sorting -- a tight layer of wrack & pushed-up plastics at the back of the foreshore; beautiful rippling and sand on the low foreshore.

All the wrack was very old & pulverized. Not a lot of new energy this week. Though at least one wave brought something interesting:

Took a wrong turn at Albuquerque

Normally, this would be the kind of day with very limited finds. But, this is Curtis Cove. And the beach's healing process included releasing more of the pent-up plastic from winter's storms. As the seaweed rots & disintegrates, ever more plastic gets left high and dry.

211 pcs of rope, about 250 ft

289 pcs of nonrope debris

500 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 211
• Fishing misc.: 230 (188 vinyl scraps, 4 bait bags, 3 vents, 2 trap tags, 2 bumpers, 5 various trap parts, 1 glove, 25 claw bands)
• Food-related plastics: 16 (2 bottles, 1 bottle half, scrap bottlecap, 1 whole cup, 11 cup scraps)
• Food-related glass/metal: 5 (4 aluminum can scraps, bottle cap)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 18 (4 upholstery pcs, duct tape, 2 washers/spacers, bead, warning tag, caulk strip, 2 plant tags, cigarette lighter, bag scrap, mylar balloon scrap, latex balloon, bandaid scrap, toy taxi)
• Scrap plastics: 14 ( 8 > 1" , 6 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 6 (3 fabric scraps (1 large), 3 gloves)

Wow, 500 on the dot! I promise I didn't plan that.

A varied week. "Only" 188 vinyl lobster trap scraps, a step in the right direction. But a really eclectic week. Of course lobster fishing heavily dominated. But a big slice of modern life was represented. A couple stand-outs:

Warning tags aren't paper anymore; they're plastic fiber. Surprise, surprise.

And of course I found still more of these plant ID stakes:

As I'm now clearing out our condo's community garden, it's easy to see why so many of these stakes get into the ocean. I'm finding many years' worth in the overgrowth. A good rainstorm can easily tumble them into the drainage gulley, and from there, straight out to the Deep Blue. :/

Running Year 2 YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 2758
• Pcs fishing rope -- 723
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 1551

Curtis Cove Report - Mar 31, 2013

Sunday, March 31. 9:35AM. An hour after low tide. Bright, sunny, upper 30s on a day quickly headed toward the 50s. The air was rich with the cries of gulls, jays, ducks, geese. Scuds & snails & tubeworms were back in the tidepools. Spring was on its way, if not yet here!

The sand this day was striking. The rivulets draining back down the beach left dark stains in their tiny valleys.

Other larger outwash streams wound their usual beautiful plaits & threads behind as well.

Of course, the ugly was on display too. And the poignant.

"Pitch In" indeed

But the story of the day was, again, the lobster trap vinyl:

At least half a dozen pieces just in this tiny section

Another week of fine, pulverized wrack at the back of the foreshore meant one thing. A big day. But "big" doesn't begin to describe it.

122 pcs of rope, about 125 ft total

1113 pcs of nonrope debris

1287 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 2 (painted moldings)
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 122
• Fishing misc.: 1051 (958 lobster trap vinyl scraps (!!), 16 trap bumpers, 7 bait bags, 4 vents, opening ring, 63 claw bands, 2 bait tins)
• Food-related plastics: 17 (bottle, 14 cup scraps, bread tag, fork/spoon handle)
• Food-related glass/metal: 7 (3 aluminum can tops, can scrap, 2 sea glass, bottle cap)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 24 (latex balloon, balloon string, cigarette, glove, shovel handle, large strapping, 9 cable ties, plunger stake (?), 3 upholstery scraps, plant ID stake, goggle strap, 2 crate seals, rope-and-eyelet)
• Scrap plastics: 52 ( 18 > 1" , 34 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 12 (2 socks, 2 fabric pieces, 6 gloves, pottery shard, leather strap)

No words. Not like words would matter. Here's a picture of what 958 little flecks of lobster trap look like.

All of these trap vinyl bits put back together wouldn't even create one lobster trap. At least 38,000 are lost by Maine lobstermen alone, each year. Another side-effect of the lobster industry are the huge numbers of claw bands that go overboard:

Many have bite marks on them. They don't go away, not for years & years at least. And of course there's the larger lobstering debris -- the trap vent doors that release if the trap is lost. Storms bring them into Curtis Cove regularly:

Wouldn't want to hit one of those with a propeller.

What is the biggest source of persistent plastic debris that I find on the beach at Curtis Cove? No points for answering.

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 2258
• Pcs fishing rope -- 512
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 1363

Curtis Cove Report - Mar 22, 2013

Friday, March 22. 12:50PM. 1/2 hr before low tide. Sunny, 37 degrees, light breeze off the ocean, calm water.

It had been a couple weeks since 3/9's visit. The low foreshore was still, well, very low and flat. Few cobbles & pebbles visible down by the water. Which suggests that there was still sand & stuff dragged/pulled from the backshore burying the underlying stones by the water's edge.

It had been a quiet week, light snows but no storms. A slow remolding was going on at the backshore. Waves pushed & stacked the wrack up into high cliff faces.

Look at all the bits of fishing rope dangling out from the side of the seaweed mountain! And there was a lot of pulverized wrack and coralline algae at the front of the "cliff" too.

I've learned that delicate, pulverized bits like this mean loads of lobster trap vinyl. And sure enough:

Overall an exceptionally busy & grueling day.

220 pcs of rope, about 200 ft total

531 pcs of nonrope debris

751 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 220
• Fishing misc.: 455 (405 vinyl trap scraps, 13 bait bags, 3 trap vents, 10 bumpers, trap tag, 18 claw bands, 2 bait tins, glove, 2 trap parts)
• Food-related plastics: 17 (12 cup scraps, bottlecap seal, wine cork seal, 2 food wrappers, straw)
• Food-related glass/metal: 6 (5 ripped aluminum can scraps, sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 11 (bag scrap, latex balloon scrap, plastic balloon string, CLOROX bottlecap, glove, plant ID stake, disposable plant-pot base, fabric, 2 cable ties, string)
• Scrap plastics: 37 ( 15 > 1" , 22 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 5 (fabric gloves/glove scraps)

The vinyl lobster trap bits are the standout, of course. But it was also a day heavy in scraps of red SOLO cups & the like:

And as an amusing side note, a lesson in how hard it is to quantify trash. Both of the pieces below count as -1- piece of lobster trap vinyl debris:

Yet the big chunk on the left (all just vinyl, the steel long-since rusted away from the inside!) would eventually break into hundreds of little flecks like that on the right.

So much trash.

Running YTD-2 counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 971
• Pcs fishing rope -- 390
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 405