Collection Report Oct 7, 2010

As promised, the collection report from October 7. From my first steps on the beach, I knew the majority of my finds were going to be fence slats. I just didn't know how many:

Zone N

Zone S

But even with roaring waves & brutal winds, there were plenty of other goodies as well. Here's Zone N:

252 finds:

• Building material: 104 (fence slats)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 50 (!!)
• Fishing misc.: 9 (6 bits of rope, two trap tags, 1 lobster trap, heavily bashed)
• Food-related plastics: 6
• Food-related metal/glass: 5
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 28 (inc. balloon, piece of another balloon, "Tattoo" tag, white bow, happy face, umbrella base, and a bandaid)
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 41 (25 local & 16 floaters)
• Paper/wood: 4
• Misc./unique: 5 (quarter -- who says this doesn't pay??, firework bit, 2 blobs of candle wax, half of plastic recycling tub washed in from New Brunswick, Canada)

Couldn't quite believe how many scraps of styrofoam I kept finding. Everywhere I looked, more little balls of polystyrene hiding amid the kelp, or down in some tiny hollow where the wind couldn't reach them.

Foam mix-and-match

Plus, of course, all the usual suspects...

Banner day for misc. plastics

On to Zone S:

186 finds:

• Building material: 133
• Foam/Styrofoam: 25
• Fishing misc.: 5 (3 buoys/buoy scraps, 2 bits of rope)
• Food-related plastics: 3
• Food-related metal/glass: 1 (rotted scrap of aluminum can)
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 10 (inc. two toggles, balloon scrap, magazine packaging?)
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 8 (2 local + 3 "floaters" + 3 cigar ends)
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 1 (half of a Zodiac XDC deepwater inflatable boat -- not brought home!)

The foam frenzy of Zone N carried (unshockingly given the wind) through Zone S. It brought polystyrene bits both small, and not so small.

More foam fiesta -- trending blue in Zone S

Some storm ripped rope straight thru yellow buoy

All told, on October 7 I collected 438 pieces of debris. Even taking out the 237 bits of fencing, the rest of the numbers are still topsy-turvy from the height of summer: almost no food plastics, compared to 75 bits of foam & styrofoam. On the other hand, there were constants too: the ever-present cigarette, the colorful scraps of plastic that were all once intended to make life a little brighter, easier, more interesting.

When I started this so many months ago, I never really expected to find half a boat. But I find that little surprises me anymore. If man has made it, a specimen of it is probably in the sea, right now. Just waiting to surface again when the time is right.

All more proof that a beach without sunbathers is still daily visited by the waste of the modern world.