Collection Report March 6, 2012

So many things building up to write about, but first I will get these Bay View Collection Reports caught up. Without further ado: Tuesday, March 6, 1:00PM. Sunny, bright, maybe right around freezing. An hour or so before low tide.

A big day of sand & shell (some shells 8 inches big!), following a snowy & rainy week that brought rare energy to the coast.

And dislodged more old seabottom debris from out in the deeps like this:

Young sea colander growing onto an
old lobster trap bumper

and this:

Whole trap, #3754 0495 ME 03 EEZ Z:G

Disturbingly, this trap -- likely lost 8 years ago -- was still fishing for finds. Its bait bag was intact and filled with a new colony of mussels.

Ghost fishing

This is one danger of so many lost traps. If their vents are blocked and/or don't open to allow catch to get back out, creatures will die inside and simply become bait for the next generation. Over & over for years. There are probably half a million lost lobster traps on the bottom of the Gulf of Maine. That number is rising. The amazing work of folks like the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation is starting to shine a real light on the problem.

Again, the numbers at the beach this week weren't spectacular. But the variety -- and what did come up -- kind of was. Zone N:

62 finds:

• Building materials: 15 (7 asphalt chunks, 7 roof shingle scraps, 1 fence slat)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 2
• Fishing misc.: 13 (7 lobster trap vinyl scraps, 1 trap bumper, 1 bait bag, 2 claw bands, shotgun shell, shell wadding)
• Food-related plastics: 4 (bottlecap liner, sauce pack, food wrapper, fork handle)
• Food-related metal/glass: 8 (2 can scraps, 6 sea glass including 1 very old)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 14 (2 bag scraps, tiny tire scrap, plastic pipe, 3 scraps >1", 7 scraps <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 0
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 6 (3 rag scraps, metal paperclip, 2 leather shoe soles)

As with last week, this week it was less about how much came in as it was about what came in. Like this glass bottle neck (labeled ...F O R D(?)...).

The bubbles & imperfections suggest a very old piece of glass. How long had it been out there? Was it buried for decades along with the 1970s aluminum I've been finding lately? Wish there had been more of it.

Beyond the glass, notable was the number of roof shingle and leather scraps. Another weird day with clusters of things that usually don't appear at all.

On to Zone S:

35 finds:

• Building materials: 9 (4 asphalt chunks, 3 roof shingle scraps, 1 brick, 1 mortar chunk)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 0
• Fishing misc.: 8 (3 claw bands, lobster trap, 2nd trap hunk (not pictured), 3 vinyl scraps)
• Food-related plastics: 2 (bottlecap liners)
• Food-related metal/glass: 4 (can scrap, 3 sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 9 (tube, sleeve, large bit of plastic fencing (not pictured), lip balm tube, 4 scraps >1", 1 scrap <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 0
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 3 (fabric scrap, intact t-shirt (not pictured), iron fencepost (not pictured))

A lot of "not pictured"s here. The large trap hunk and fencing were too big to bring home and lay out; the shirt too sopping wet. But it was a day for big things! And small. Like this tube of Carmex lip balm, complete with more fish bitemarks.

Which wraps up the week with yet another reminder: If it's out there, something is going to take a nibble of it. And there's a lot of stuff out there.