Collection Report Dec. 26, 2011

Another Christmas come & gone.

Why was this a good idea again?

Anyway! Presents, smiles, family time. Coffee & sweets. A beautiful day & beautiful time of year. I hope you and yours -- however you celebrate "The Holidays" -- enjoyed them.

Back to reality. Monday, December 26 had me at the beach again. 2:30PM. A couple hours after high-tide on this bright, blue, 40-something degree day.

I say, "back to reality." But the shoreline still lives in its December-long dream. As you can see, aside from the tiniest dusting of snow and maybe a cracked clam shell or two, nothing new seems to have arrived onshore for yet another week. It was another week of offshore winds and weak tides. A warm, dry, strange December.

Here's a closer look. Zone N:

29 finds:

• Building materials: 8 (5 asphalt, 2 brick, 1 slat)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 4
• Fishing misc.: 4 (2 rope threads, claw band, tiny vinyl trap coating scrap)
• Food-related plastics: 1 (torn food package end)
• Food-related metal/glass: 2 (can, foil wrapper)
• Nonfood-unknown plastics: 4 (empty dog waste bag, bottle cap from liquid soap bottle, 1 scrap >1", 1 scrap < 1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 5
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 1 (rubber stopper)

Not much to say about this. The dog bag probably blew out of someone's jacket pocket when they weren't looking. I do wonder about the soap bottle cap??

Quickly over to Zone S:

7 finds:

• Building materials: 4 (3 asphalt chunks, 1 roofing scrap)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 1
• Fishing misc.: 2 (1 rope scrap, 1 piece trap vinyl coating)
• Food-related plastics: 0
• Food-related metal/glass: 0
• Nonfood-unknown plastics: 0
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 0
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 0

That's as close to zero as I'll probably ever get. (And hooray, no personal care products!)

So. Winds, tides, currents -- some or all of these kept almost all flotsam, organic & otherwise, from Bay View throughout the whole of December. Looking back to last year at this time, the beach was an utter nightmare. I'm not complaining about how 2011 bowed out. Besides, it all helps add to the record of how the ocean & shoreline ecosystem works here in my little corner of the world.

But I know that, as with all dreamers & dreams, Bay View will wake up again one day. And remember what's happening in the Gulf of Maine. I'm not looking forward to the stark reminder.