Collection Report April 3, 2012

After a nice Easter holiday and trip to Mouse land, time to catch back up with beach cleanups.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012. Bay View beach, Saco, Maine. 1:30PM, an hour before low tide. 50 degrees, pure sunshine, gusty wind running from north to south.

Dead water in the distance. Clumps of seaweed in the receding tide staying perfectly still as the waves above roll over them. Only this lone bit of weed managed to beach. And, of course, it had rope in it.

Another day notable not for how much washed in, but what it was. Like this:

I think nature did this; happens a lot

To this:

Modern...ish.... I think. Too far gone.

To this:

Largest horse mussel I've seen here!

And, sadly, to this:

Complete with claw & bite marks,
for extra yuck factor

Quickly then, on to the details. Zone N:

44 finds:

• Building materials: 8 (6 asphalt, 1 block, 1 shingle)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 2
• Fishing misc.: 12 (3 rope, 9 lobster trap vinyl scraps)
• Food-related plastics: 2 (spoon, cup scrap)
• Food-related metal/glass: 2 (bottlecap, crushed aluminum can)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 10 (toy shovel head, 2 firecrackers, watch strap, tampon applicator, tear-top, bottlecap seal, 1 scrap >1", 2 scraps <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 8
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 0

And quickly over to Zone S:

16 finds:

• Building materials: 5 (3 asphalt, 2 shingle)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 1
• Fishing misc.: 2 (tiny buoy scrap, claw band)
• Food-related plastics: 1 (straw)
• Food-related metal/glass: 4 (3 can scraps, 1 sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 2 (tennis ball, 1 scrap >1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 0
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 1 (fabric scrap)

With each week now at Bay View it's become clear that the bay is very different than a year before. Dune grass is advancing, waves have no energy, and the amount of "stuff" -- organic & otherwise -- that they bring to the shore is negligible. It's all out there. But Bay View is becoming less of a place to see it come in. The question is, for how long?