Collection Report July 24, 2011

Sunday, July 24, 7:15AM, the tail end of a sweltering week. And even now the parking lot was already full. Sunday mornings seem to bring lots of dawn-watchers and dog-walkers. And who could blame them?

There's nothing like the beach under a swift sunrise

It was a busy, messy week. And the evidence lay all around. Another day, another firecracker...

There's nowhere to hide

And maybe another Flotsam Diaries mascot?

Anyone know what this little
magnetized pivot-head guy is?

Here's what the day brought. Zone N:

228 finds:

• Building materials: 3 (asphalt, brick, slat)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 13
• Fishing misc.: 6 (5 rope twine, claw band)
• Food-related plastics: 31 (2 bottles, 5 caps, 3 lids, 3 chewing gum, 12 food/straw wrappers, knife, 5 straws)
• Food-related metal/glass: 19 (2 cans, 4 bottles, 4 caps, 8 foil wrappers, sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 42 (10 bags/scraps, 2 balloons, bandaid, 7 toys/scraps, 5 firecrackers, 2 twist-ties, 4 nylon ribbon/cord, 3 scraps >1", 8 scraps <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 72 (70 cigarettes, 2 packaging)
• Paper/wood: 34 (12 firecracker sticks, 3 popsicle sticks, 19 paper frags)
• Misc./unique: 8 (2 flipflops, 2 scraps fabric, battery, dessicant, zipper, cord)

What happens at the end of a day to could compel anyone to walk off and forget a 3-foot-long inflatable happy-face float??

I'm glad they did. It wsa the highlight in a dull day. Summer collections are, in general, dull. Beachgoer stuff left behind by beachgoers. It's the storms of winter that really show just what's out there in the ocean -- that tell of long travels, huge swells, crashing waves. On the other hand, summer beach "stuff" becomes the faded, brittle, bryozoan-encrusted flotsam of winter. So getting 228 pieces of it off the beach this day still feels good.

Now, on to the conundrum that is Zone S:

23 finds:

• Building materials: 1 (asphalt)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 2
• Fishing misc.: 5 (rope pieces)
• Food-related plastics: 4 (3 wrappers, 1 straw)
• Food-related metal/glass: 0
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 4 (tampon-unused, glowstick, twist tie, 1 scrap <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 6
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 1 (thread of fabric)

If I was suspicious before, I'm now all but certain that this isn't a natural spread. 10 times the amount of trash from Zone N to Zone S? Unheard-of last summer. But without any evidence of what's happening yet, all I can do is keep walking week after week and record it. I do think I've had about enough feminine hygiene products for now, though, thanks.

This week the finds may have been dull. But still, the day wasn't. It started with that gorgeous low sun bursting through the clouds. And it ended with some neat sights down at Zone S. I've talked about the dunes reclaiming the beach there. Here finally is a picture. (Solid yellow line shows last year's fence/dune line; the arrows show all the new growth.)

A dozen+ feet of new dune. Cool.

The trend the world over is dunes receding, eroding, dying. Not here at Bay View. Here they're muscling their way back toward the foreshore. I wonder why?

And to end the week, an impromptu art installation/totem pole. I don't know what it means...

Don't see this every day

...But I like it. You just never know what the next week will bring.