Collection Report Aug 27, 2011

On Saturday, August 27 the first tendrils of Hurricane Irene were lashing North Carolina's Outer Banks. The storm would later barrel up the eastern seaboard, destroying more by water than by wind. Communities from Virginia to Vermont will be recovering from her for years.

Coastal Maine was to be spared, blessedly, when the storm rolled through Sunday evening. But at 6:45 Saturday morning, with heavy fog and heavier air, I couldn't know that. I went out to scour the beach, before Irene did it for me.

Something wicked this way comes

For all the storm-of-a-lifetime expectancy, this collection was a typical summer haul. The usual trappings of beachgoer fun (plus the unpleasant remnants of a late-night liaison). And, of course, one of these thrown in:

Every week, a distant world peeks in

In the interest of brevity & actually getting this collection report posted, on to the finds. Zone N:

208 finds:

• Building materials: 0
• Foam/Styrofoam: 9
• Fishing misc.: 10 (2 rope, 3 claw bands, trap tag, tiny buoy scrap, 3 rope twine)
• Food-related plastics: 30 (bottle, 8 bottlecaps, 5 food wrappers, 7 straw wrappers, 2 forks, silverware scrap, 2 straws, 3 gum, bread tag)
• Food-related metal/glass: 13 (glass bottle, 2 bottlecaps, 7 foil wrappers, pull tab, 2 sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 29 (5 plastic bags, firecracker, 2 pieces tape, rubberband, hairclip, 3 toys, 2 bandaids, condom & wrapper, tampon, 4 scraps >1", 7 scraps <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 85 (84 filters, 1 cigar wrapper)
• Wood/paper: 22 (18 paper scraps, 4 wood firecracker sticks)
• Misc./unique: 10 (4 flipflops, 1 sock, 3 scraps fabric, saw blade, rusted scrap)

A thoroughly summer beach collection, with a couple hints of lobstering thrown into the mix. Still, as always a pretty fascinating slice of life. The 29 objects below tell an awful lot about a summer day (and night) on a Maine beach.

Summer in Maine

What stories does your shore tell?

Sadly, I either misplaced or erased the picture of lightly-traveled Zone S.

* thoroughly unimpressive *

* picture missing here *

21 finds:
Building materials: 0
Foam/Styrofoam: 3
Fishing misc.: 3 (2 rope, 1 rope twine)
Food-related plastics: 3 (2 bottlecaps, straw)
Food-related metal/glass: 1 (bottlecap)
Nonfood/unknown plastics: 3 (bag scrap, 2 scraps <1")
Cigarette filters/plastics: 6 (filters)
Wood/paper: 2 (paper scrap, wood firecracker stick)
Misc./unique: 0

Fortunately, there really was nothing to see. Again, an almost pristine swath just a short stroll down from a well-polluted one.

So ended my day. The rest of the weekend was spent inside, watching news reports, or watching the trees blow & bend sideways. What did Irene leave in its wake? That'll have to wait til the next collection report.