Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Curtis Cove Report - Apr 23, 2013

Tuesday, April 23 & back again! 1 PM. Raw. Gray, hovering masses of dead clouds. Barely 40 degrees, spitting drizzle on & off.
The cobbles on the low foreshore spoke of a slowly healing beach. All the sand that had slumped & dumped onto them from winter's storms was now re-sorting itself, returning to normal.

Higher up, vanishing drizzle marks revealed the last high-tide at the slumped sand by the backshore.
One interesting find tis day: Amid the soaking & squishy & smelly wrack, a very biofouled dog-frisbee.
Hard to collect on a leaden, soaking & chill afternoon. The story, as usual, was the fishing rope. Here's the overall haul:
155 pcs of fishing rope, about 180 ft
27 pcs of nonrope debris
182 finds:
  • Bldg material/furniture: 1 (small fiberglass/plastic resin chunk)
  • Foam/styrofoam: 0
  • Fishing rope/net: 155 (180 ft)
  • Fishing misc.: 17 (9 vinyl trap coating scraps, 2 claw bands, 2 bait bags, 2 bumpers, trap part, ball of fishing line)
  • Food-related plastics: 1 (scrap of drink cup)
  • Food-related glass/metal: 0
  • Nonfood/unknown plastics: 5 (dog frisbee, 3 cable ties, crate seal)
  • Scrap plastics: 3 ( 2 > 1" , 1 < 1" )
  • Paper/wood: 0
  • Non-plastic misc./unique: 0
In the gray light, with churned up squidgy rotting seaweed, everything on the beach looked the same. I'm sure I missed small bits despite my efforts. That said, minus the old rope this is a very small haul. So, did winter's storms actually purge the local sea of its debris? Or is the just the calm before the next deluge?

Keep tuning back in to find out.

Running YTD counts:
  • Total pcs of litter -- 3264
  • Pcs fishing rope -- 1055
  • Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 1615

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Curtis Cove Report - Apr 17, 2013

Wednesday, April 17. 11:10AM. Bright sunshine, 55 degrees, light seabreeze, just after low tide. Spring returns.
A fantastic day to be at a deserted beach! I say "deserted," although all around were mockingbirds, chickadees, gulls, big juicy sea-ducks... and snails.
Snail superhighway!
Winter faded, as the rare chunk of marsh-grass looking out onto the open cove greened back up:
Surprise!
It was truly a beautiful day of rippled sand:
Nature's recycling:
A little mystery:
And admiring the stories left behind in the stones:
And, of course, there was plenty of this:
It had been a low energy week-and-a-half since April 8. As winter's wrack rotted back into nothingness, it revealed much left behind.
177 pcs of rope, about 150 ft
xxx pcs of nonrope debris
324 finds:
  • Bldg material/furniture: 2 (weatherstrip, car/boat console piece)
  • Foam/styrofoam: 0
  • Fishing rope/net: 177 (150 ft)
  • Fishing misc.: 90 (55 vinyl trap coating scraps, 6 trap parts, 2 bait bags, 2 trap tags, 11 bumpers, crab vent, cleat, 11 claw bands, ball of fishing line)
  • Food-related plastics: 18 (2 bottle top-halves, ALMADEN bottlecap, 4 bottlecap seals, 4 cup scraps, MRE pack, meat stake, wrapper scrap, fish-bitten ketchup pack, abraded whole spoon, 2 cutlery scraps)
  • Food-related glass/metal: 2 (aluminum can scraps)
  • Nonfood/unknown plastics: 23 (2 bag scraps, 4 balloons/scraps, 2 hair bands, toy soldier leg, large floormat scrap, plant pot hook, strap, "silk" flower, Xmas tree light, 4 cable ties, plant stake, fabric strip "Berkshire Blanket," black tape scrap, crate seal, sock hanger)
  • Scrap plastics: 10 ( 8 > 1" , 2 < 1" )
  • Paper/wood: 0
  • Non-plastic misc./unique: 2 (fabric scrap, leather strap)
A wild day.
Sealife nibbled the heck out of this
Silk flowers aren't silk anymore
Remember that statue ruin on "LOST"??
Plant pot hooks, Christmas tree lights, plant stakes, and a car console... If it's made of plastic, an example of it is now in an ocean near you.

Running Year 2 YTD counts:
  • Total pcs of litter -- 3082
  • Pcs fishing rope -- 900
  • Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 1606

Monday, May 6, 2013

Curtis Cove Report - Apr 8, 2013

Wow. Way too far behind now. Time to make a few brief posts to catch back up if I can! Monday, April 8. 1:15PM. Three hrs past high-tide. Strong seabreeze, low 50s. Bright sun, a beautiful day to be here.
The beach was still healing itself nicely after winter's violence, getting its old shape back. On this day I found great natural sorting -- a tight layer of wrack & pushed-up plastics at the back of the foreshore; beautiful rippling and sand on the low foreshore.
All the wrack was very old & pulverized. Not a lot of new energy this week. Though at least one wave brought something interesting:
Took a wrong turn at Albuquerque
Normally, this would be the kind of day with very limited finds. But, this is Curtis Cove. And the beach's healing process included releasing more of the pent-up plastic from winter's storms. As the seaweed rots & disintegrates, ever more plastic gets left high and dry.
211 pcs of rope, about 250 ft
289 pcs of nonrope debris
500 finds:
  • Bldg material/furniture: 0
  • Foam/styrofoam: 0
  • Fishing rope/net: 211
  • Fishing misc.: 230 (188 vinyl scraps, 4 bait bags, 3 vents, 2 trap tags, 2 bumpers, 5 various trap parts, 1 glove, 25 claw bands)
  • Food-related plastics: 16 (2 bottles, 1 bottle half, scrap bottlecap, 1 whole cup, 11 cup scraps)
  • Food-related glass/metal: 5 (4 aluminum can scraps, bottle cap)
  • Nonfood/unknown plastics: 18 (4 upholstery pcs, duct tape, 2 washers/spacers, bead, warning tag, caulk strip, 2 plant tags, cigarette lighter, bag scrap, mylar balloon scrap, latex balloon, bandaid scrap, toy taxi)
  • Scrap plastics: 14 ( 8 > 1" , 6 < 1" )
  • Paper/wood: 0
  • Non-plastic misc./unique: 6 (3 fabric scraps (1 large), 3 gloves)
Wow, 500 on the dot! I promise I didn't plan that.

A varied week. "Only" 188 vinyl lobster trap scraps, a step in the right direction. But a really eclectic week. Of course lobster fishing heavily dominated. But a big slice of modern life was represented. A couple stand-outs:
Warning tags aren't paper anymore; they're plastic fiber. Surprise, surprise.

And of course I found still more of these plant ID stakes:
As I'm now clearing out our condo's community garden, it's easy to see why so many of these stakes get into the ocean. I'm finding many years' worth in the overgrowth. A good rainstorm can easily tumble them into the drainage gulley, and from there, straight out to the Deep Blue. :/

Running Year 2 YTD counts:
  • Total pcs of litter -- 2758
  • Pcs fishing rope -- 723
  • Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 1551