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.