Collection Report April 9, 2012

Good morning from Bay View beach, Monday April 9. 8:05AM, low tide. Cool, colorful morning with bands of thick low clouds.

Being just after full moon, this "spring tide" was one of the lowest of the month. And again in the distance you can see Bay View's new sandbar peeking out from the receding waters. The same sandbar that seems to be vastly changing the shape of the beach this year -- and altering how much washes in, organic or otherwise.

The ultra-low tide exposed a complete bed of live sand dollars, including these folks:

"Fancy meeting you here"

And the terrace had another surprise -- in one small section the churning waves had sorted & collected a pile of boulders:

Only this one spot in some
600 ft of beach did this

A little more of the magic of the ocean.

The latest overnight high-tide -- also being a spring tide -- was one of the stronger ones since last November, pushing all the old wrack almost up to the dune's edge, leaving a blank slate in its place.

Much of this is new, clean sand dragged in, probably from the sandbar. Outside my zones, lobster traps that had been fully exposed were now half-buried in soft sand. All that energy & sand -- but zero new wrack -- is usually a harbinger of a small collection.

And sure enough, Zone N:

30 finds:

• Building materials: 9 (6 asphalt, 2 concrete, 1 asphalt)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 1
• Fishing misc.: 4 (3 rope, 1 claw band)
• Food-related plastics: 3 (straw, PS cup top, microwave plate scrap)
• Food-related metal/glass: 1 (gum wrapper)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 2 (rubber chunk, sand bag)
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 7
• Paper/wood: 1 (paper cup)
• Misc./unique: 2 (cords)

The only find of note:

When sandbags are made from plastic fiber, and they fail & wash out to sea, they don't go away.

Zone S:

9 finds:

• Building materials: 3 (asphalt, shingle, brick sliver)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 1
• Fishing misc.: 3 (1 rope, 2 lobster trap vinyl scraps)
• Food-related plastics: 0
• Food-related metal/glass: 1 (sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 0
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 1
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 0

Bay View's new personality started weaving itself together in late November, and it continues. The gunk is all out there; it's just chosen to spare Bay View beach this winter and spring.

About 5 miles south, at Curtis Cove in Biddeford, the story is vastly different. Here's just the derelict fishing rope that washed into 150 feet of beach there during the same week:

Think you know what's happening in the ocean? Dig deeper.

Collection Report March 12, 2012

Monday, March 12. 9:50AM. Just past low tide. A warm one this day, bright sun & energy in the air.

When I stepped onto the beach I was greeted by a new sight:

Low-tide sandbar exposed!

Never seen this sandbar before, not in two years! Pretty excellent evidence that the seabottom offshore is shifting and moving. And if that's happening, pretty good evidence for why this year's collection numbers are so different from last.

With this impediment in the way, the wash-ins were sure to be low. Which gave me a chance to reflect on the beauty of the moment. The stillness of the slack water left behind by the retreating tide, with the gurgling surf juuuuuust out of reach.

Rippled bar

Snail and worm tracks

Gotcha!

Within 10 minutes the turning tide had inundated this peaceful backwater, churning up the ripples & tracks, burying the bar back under silty sea. The ephemeral beauty of the beach.

On to the collection. Zone N:

26 finds:

• Building materials: 2 (asphalt chunks)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 2
• Fishing misc.: 5 (rope scrap, lobster trap bumper, trap vinyl coating scrap, 2 claw bands)
• Food-related plastics: 2 (straw, bottlecap)
• Food-related metal/glass: 1 (tiny can scrap)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 5 (baggie, toy thermometer, tennis ball, vinyl floormat scrap, 1 scrap <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 5
• Paper/wood: 1 (tissue)
• Misc./unique: 2 (rag scrap, leather strap)

The thermometer, dropped that week by someone's little boy or girl, will make a nice addition to my daughter's collection. Otherwise, it was the usual shlock -- and this year's usual amount. Down to Zone S:

13 finds:

• Building materials: 4 (2 asphalt chunks, 1 concrete, 1 vinyl-coatedmetal fencing)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 1
• Fishing misc.: 3 (2 lobster trap vinyl scraps, shotgun shell)
• Food-related plastics: 2 (bottlecap, mint "tin")
• Food-related metal/glass: 0
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 0
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 3 (2 filters, 1 packaging)
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 0

As far back as December I suspected this year was going to play out differently than last. A month ago I started seeing very old seabottom stuff that suggested the seafloor was shifting. And on this day I got to see the effects of that shift -- if briefly -- down at the end of the beach.

The ocean is ever changing. What it chooses to send up onto the sands can tell you a lot about what's going on beneath the waves. If you can figure out how to see it.