Curtis Cove Report - Aug 3, 2012

Friday August 3, 8:30AM. Blue skies and the promise of a hot day.

8:30AM was a good time to be here this day!

A few splashes of fresh green rock algae and tumbled pebbles. Some energy hit the cove during the past week. New moon had just passed, and brought with it a very high tide.

Even without storms, a lunar high tide can pack a wallop

The deep soaking saturated the fine, mud-like sand. Pools of water stood amid the intertidal cobbles low on the foreshore, struggling to drain back to the ocean.

Amid the cobbles, a bog

Sadly, again the purpose of my visit was made clear quickly enough.

Lobster trap vinyl coating

Amid the wrack -- and even standing alone like this -- plastics glittered. So what did my collection bring, all told? A lot, again.

67 pcs of rope, about 45 ft total

314 pcs of non-rope debris

392 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 1 (heavy cornerpiece)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 67
• Fishing trap gear: 239 (230 vinyl trap coating scraps, 3 trap parts, 3 bait bags, 3 bumpers)
• Fishing misc.: 20 (17 claw bands, bait lid? scrap, 2 fishing lines)
• Food-related plastics: 15 (2 bottle scraps, 2 bottle-cap o-rings, 10 SOLO cup scraps, PE juice spout)
• Food-related glass/metal: 2 (sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 15 (4 bag scraps, mylar balloon, latex balloon, 2 jug scraps, hairband fragment, tire scrap, toy barn? scrap, shovel handle, bowl bottom, sack scrap, "Bon Bon" plant tag)
• Scrap plastics: 30 (12 >1", 18 <1")
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 3 (fabric scraps)

A couple standouts for the weird and wacky things that wind up in the ocean.

"Bon bon" plant/flower tag

Star-shaped mylar balloon, paint gone

Worn, rounded toy barn(?) pc

Battered SOLO cup

All of the above show different ways that plastics age in the ocean. The printing on the plant-pot tag has faded. The mylar balloon is yellowed & all the paint gone. The toy scrap's edges have been smoothed and rounded off by years of bouncing around the seabed. SOLO cups always tend to split vertically into slivers like the one above has. (One wonders where the rest of the cup is.)

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 6788
• Pcs fishing rope -- 1717
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 3009