Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Collection Report July 20, 2010

Yet another stretch of sweltering heat and sunny days. On Monday night, 7/19, a doozy of a storm came through, but it unleashed far more lightning & rain than wind. Would it leave its mark on the finds at Bay View this week?
Well, this week it was a little bit of everything. Finds ranged from the sweet...
(Hoping in vain the owner would return)

...to the wacky...
(Reward for discovering what this is)

...to the poignant...
(No caption needed)

...to "how did you forget this when packing up?":
On to the specifics. Zone N, easily the most colorful and diverse haul since I started:
196 finds:
  • Building materials: 3
  • Foam/Styrofoam: 10 (inc. weird yellow felty foamy scrap)
  • Fishing misc.: 2 (commercial rope, first bit washed in for a few weeks)
  • Food-related plastics: 33 (inc. nectarine label, banana label (see pic above!), "Produce from Mexico" band, 4 ketchup packs [two unopened], 2 spoons, Welch's Fruit Snacks, Quaker Chewy Granola Bar, Yogos Crashers, Capri Sun, various wrappers)
  • Food-related metal/glass: 8 (3 beer bottle caps, one pulltab, 2 gum wrappers, one half-used soggy roll of mints, one applesauce lid)
  • Non-food/unknown plastics: 31 (inc. small bucket, half-burned BIC lighter, bizarre plastic thingy (pic below), Lego piece - more on this, 2 bandaids, pen cap, bright orange syringe cap?)
  • Cigarette filters/plastics: 87 (78 local, 9 maybe washed in)
  • Paper/wood: 15
  • Misc./unique: 6 (full Circle K coffee cup, 2 flipflops - one broken, 2 paddle pieces, 1 weird rubbery "fish tail" or something?)
Actually a lot of bizarre finds. The rubbery, wiggly fishtail thingy has really taken a beating. Maybe a fishing lure at one point? Seriously no clue. It's on the right in this picture:
Here's another weird one. Solid circular base. Then perforated side, and then 4 "arms" sticking out of it. Doesn't look like a toy, and doesn't look like it was just lost at the beach yesterday either:
But here's the one I really want you to see:
"Dude, it's a Lego." Yes, yes it is. But, seriously, who brings Legos to the beach? They're tiny, they get lost, they don't work when they get sand in them. Maybe this wasn't a beachgoer's Lego? It turns out, there's an excellent story, involving .... well, I'll write a separate post about that. Soon. It's a good one. Stay tuned!

Anyway, quick recap of Zone S:
28 finds:
bottlecap, 4 plastic scraps, 2 pieces of foam, 4 pieces of food plastics (possibly all from the same meal - sandwich wrappers, oil packet, fork), 14 cigarettes (10 local, 4 maybe washed in), paper UPC tag, popsicle stick, and...
...my new mascot! I found him right at high-tide line. It's hard to picture anybody dropping & losing something so bright & shiny. But he's also very clean & fresh, and it's hard to picture that he's from the ocean. Still, in my mind, he's traveled a very, very long way, and has quite a story in him. And again, if anyone knows who or what this thing is, please tell me!

A light week (by recent standards), but an intriguing one. Don't know if the big storm blew debris into the ocean, or punched it deep into the sand, or if there was just less trash. At any rate, it was a nice change.

1 comment:

  1. Solid circular base. Then perforated side, and then 4 "arms" sticking out of it: it's a plastic stopper from a shotgun shell

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