Collection Report July 13, 2010

Another hazy start to the day, Tuesday, July 13, 7:30AM. Following on from another hot, muggy, beach-weather week.

So, what did the morning on Zone N bring? Well, the big:

... the small:

... and the weird (a good candidate for distant wash-up if there ever was one):

The previous night's high-tide had been a doozy, wave marks far up the beach from normal. So, what would the waves do to the debris on the shore? Three possibilities: (1) Wash half the beach's debris out to sea, (2) compress it on the thinner "high ground," or (3) bury it under several inches of sand. So, which was it?

Well, the find count falls in what's become "normal" for Zone N after a week. So, for now I'm going with #2.

246 finds:

• Building materials: 5
• Foam/Styrofoam: 19
• Fishing misc.: 2 (bit of fishing line, bit of plastic coating from lobster trap cage)
• Food-related plastics: 27 (inc. Capri Sun bag, Ritz cracker wrapper, another peanut-butter cracker wrapper, a Nature's Valley granola bar wrapper end, chip bag, 7 straw wrappers, 1 straw, ketchup pack)
• Food-related metal/glass: 10
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 29 (inc. measuring cup-as-sand-castle-maker, angel Silly Band, backpack buckle, mauled bottlecap ring, 5 shards of broken, aged hard plastic, pail handle)
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 125 (all cig filters - wet bag makes source unknown)
• Paper/wood: 20 (inc. Bazooka Joe cartoon, "Great Taste" ice-cream cone wrapper, someone's name & phone # written on a scrap, half-burned cardboard kindling from a bonfire, remains of egg carton like that found on July 6)
• Misc./unique: 9 (7 firework pieces, 1 rubber strip, 1 nylon strap)

Here's the likely-washed-in-doohickey from above. Maybe a beach umbrella cap? It's definitely weathered & sun-faded.

And here's an only slightly disturbing find:

The cap to some kind of medication. Gives you the warm fuzzies, no?

On to Zone S, where the evidence of the previous night's huge tides was hard to miss:

Blue marks the usual high-tide line; red marks Tuesday's, the biggest of the month according to the local tide charts. Waves washed some 35 ft further up the beach than typical, in places nearly reaching the dunes.

Even with such a compressed beach, this was mostly a usual haul:

45 finds:

• Building materials: 3
• Foam/Styrofoam: 2
• Fishing misc.: 1 (large fishing lure - complete with 6 insanely sharp, garbage bag-eating prongs until I clipped them off)
• Food-related plastics: 1 (a straw)
• Food-related metal/glass: 1 (a wrapper)
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 11 (inc. a stick-on K and M, purple seahorse mold, heart-shaped child's barrette, shotgun shell)
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 23 (all filters, bag wet, couldn't tell source)
• Paper/wood: 2
• Misc./unique: 1 (bit of sea glass)

One thing I'm starting to find is how much these little bits & bobs travel. Case in point: plastic bits from Zone N...

...match up to bits found in S, a football field away:

Wind-borne? Wave-borne? Don't know. But the fact remains, shards of what was once one item were strewn at least 300 feet along the beach. Don't mess with Mother Nature.

My big nugget for this week: Summer waves giveth, not taketh away.