Collection Report July 27-28, 2010

Another hot, sultry week...

And another change to the vista...

By serendipity this sign was placed near the southern end of my Zone N; it seems I picked my zones well. (Not that it stopped early risers from roosting on the far side, down in Zone S. By the time I actually reached Zone S, 8:30 or so, it was hopping and I decided to save it for the next day.)

It all seems so clean, doesn't it?

Zone N this week was a varied haul, with a bunch of eye-catchers.

173 finds:

• Building materials: 8 (inc. asphalt chunks, a bit of roofing, and some lathe)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 10 (inc. piece of model airplane wing, as well as tiny flecks off of a coffeecup)
• Fishing misc.: 4 (1 rope, 1 fishing line, 1 claw band, and 1 one-inch piece of degraded vinyl coating from a lobster trap)
• Food-related plastics: 28 (inc. the little label off a Macintosh apple)
• Food-related metal/glass: 8 (inc. the first new piece of rotten aluminum can scrap in several weeks)
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 20 (inc. radio (?) battery cover, shovel handle, scrap of ribbed rubberized thing, another chunk of the hard white plastic thing I found last week in zones N and S, scuffed & faded rim of orange bowl or pail)
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 68 (64 local + 4 possible floaters)
• Paper/wood: 26 (inc. a fun scribbling, a couple receipts, half-burned Bud Light packaging, and a tag from a beach towel)
• Misc./unique: 11 (inc. burnt pair of glasses, piece of cut felt, 2 bits of sea glass)

A smaller haul by recent standards, even with a couple fresh bonfires. But probably the most interesting spread of beach archaeology yet. A few that strike me...

Really want to decipher this

Thinking there's a story here

Deconstructed coffee cup

Moving on to Zone S the following morning.

42 finds:

• Building materials: 2
• Foam/Styrofoam: 1
• Fishing misc.: 1 (2" piece of lobster trap coating)
• Food-related plastics: 10 (inc. the label from a fresh nectarine)
• Food-related metal/glass: 8
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 9 (inc. part of a badly degraded bowl)
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 10 (8 local + 2 possible floaters)
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 1 (athletic sock)

A couple weeks ago I posted a bit about rotting lobster traps. Just like a coffee cup can disintegrate into a thousand little floating Styrofoam balls, waiting to get eaten by sealife, a ruined lobster trap will eventually rust, and its vinyl coating will peel off, a little at a time. For years to come.

High-tide line at Zone S

More interesting to me is this, recipient of the Surely Traveled the Longest award:

Crumbling, degraded chunk of plastic bowl

This thing falls apart in my hands. Who knows what it once was. It's no doubt got a long and tortured tale. Wonder where the rest of it is.

So another week down. My big takeaways from this one: (1) High-season beachgoers stake their territory by 7AM. (2) Bay View denizens love their bonfires. (3) It's really nice to go a few weeks without finding a condom wrapper.