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:
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| 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.
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| 211 pcs of rope, about 250 ft |
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| 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
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