Curtis Cove Report - Aug 31, 2012

Friday, August 31. 7AM. Already a bright, bright day. Crisp cool air, but the promise of a hot afternoon, following a delicious week in the low 70s with no humidity.

New tracks in the fine sand high on the backshore brought a reminder of the changing season, the fast aging summer.

Sandpiper highway

Places like Curtis Cove are vital to thousands -- millions -- of annual migrators. As these sandpipers picked through their own finds on the beach, I wondered how well they could tell food from flotsam.

One of these is a slipper shell, the other a coffeecup lid

And I wondered how many birds, fish, and sea mammals would think this bright green confetti -- dragged and smeared down along the low foreshore -- a feast:

Found the lobster-trap vinyl scrap motherlode

And I wondered, how many places left in the world can truly be called protected?

On to the week's finds:

42 pcs of rope, about 35 ft total

402 pcs of non-rope debris

444 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 42
• Fishing trap gear: 216 (204 vinyl trap coatings, 7 bumpers, name tag, vent, 2 trap parts, buoy rod)
• Fishing misc.: 43 (39 clawbands, 4 fishing line)
• Food-related plastics: 25 (20 cup scraps, 2 food wrappers, cutlery handle, old straw scrap, cooking-temp stick)
• Food-related glass/metal: 7 (6 aluminum can bottoms, sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 33 (baseball cap visor insert, long stapled strap, shoulder strap, 2 cable ties, vinyl carrying bag neck, 3 anchors, 3 plant pot tag bits, 2 o-rings, 2 tubes, sticker, screw-top neck, carabiner, large garbage bag, 5 bag scraps, cigarette, gauze patch, rubberband, comb, shovel handle loop, teacup handle, 2 nonfood packaging scraps)
• Scrap plastics: 70 ( 26 > 1", 44 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 8 (2 fabric scraps, 6 cords)

A few strange things this week. First, lots of fishing rope after a lull. And after a similar drought, 6 aluminum can bottoms scoured up from the deep! I wonder what has changed in the currents or the sea floor to let them finally land again. Each week brings new questions.

The only other real oddities were this:

Baseball cap brim insert

and this:

Intact -- though gnarled -- comb

Somehow all of the fabric of that baseball cap got left behind, leaving only the plastic brim insert to beach at the cove. And it's rare to find a comb still intact -- even if this one shows some signs of banging around on rocks & debris.

Another week of beautiful sights, and way too much garbage.

Collection Report Oct 20, 2010

October 20th at Bay View beach in Saco, Maine brought a long-lost sight.

Sandpipers and their overlord

Which brought a smile to my face on a very chilly morning. When you spend each week scouring the world for the ugly, it's all the more crucial to notice the beautiful. Sometimes -- no, especially -- in places you least expect it.

Someone's collection of found art

Because we all know there's plenty of ugly to go around.

...

Hmm...

I was just about to do the fancy segue. You know -- first show a few pretty pictures, and then hit folks with the ugly; insert obligatory shots of trash on the beach, tug at heartstrings, yada yada yada. Then it occurred to me, this one time I don't want to do that. That's so predictable. There are plenty of other pages on the Flotsam Diaries choc-a-bloc with depressing imagery. So many. Today as I write this, the sun is just rising over the treetops. Our home is bathed in a golden glow, and the branches outside that aren't yet bare are aflame with their last hurrah of color -- coppers and rusts and vermillions.

This one collection report, my heart isn't into the ugly.

But this is still a collection report; so I'll at least post what I found. If briefly.

Zone N, 77 finds:

• Building materials: 16 (fencing, asphalt chunks, brick bits, roofing tile bits)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 10
• Fishing misc.: 5 (shotgun shell wadding, bits of lobster trap coating, trap bumper)
• Food-related plastics: 4
• Food-related metal/glass: 1 (scrap of aluminum can)
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 11
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 23 (14 local + 9 "floaters")
• Paper/wood: 1
• Misc./unique: 6 (glove, chunk of wax, furniture fitting, gum, 2 bits rotted shoe leather)

Zone S, 43 finds:

• Building materials: 17 (mostly fence slats and bits of asphalt)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 11
• Fishing misc.: 5 (lobster trap feeder plate, bit of rope, shotgun shell, 2 shell waddings)
• Food-related plastics: 0
• Food-related metal/glass: 1
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 7
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 0 (!!! a first)
• Paper/wood: 1
• Misc./unique: 1

All told, 120 more bits of trash to add to the list.

It's so easy to cross that line between caring about something and being consumed by it. I was a guy who saw trash on the beach, and now I'm a Flotsam Diarist. It's clear that we're creating a plastic world, and that tugs at me. But in my heart, I'm not an outraged activist. I've tried that suit on, and it doesn't fit. I'm a radical moderate, who just wants to leave the world better than he found it.

A parting picture.

Scoured sand

The winds of October have already begun to reclaim the beach and return it to the ocean. As they have since the dawn of time. Much of the loose top sand has already been scoured, leaving an older and harder layer exposed. Throughout the winter, the sand will move far offshore, one storm at a time, and the beach will sink and be scooped away. Then the tides of summer will again slowly deposit it back, one wave at a time.

This is a good world. We should keep it that way.