Collection Report June 6, 2012

After six months of lull, nature re-awoke at Bay View beach on Sunday, June 3. I took my daughter to check out the high tide. But after seeing what it was doing, we didn't stay long.

My daughter enjoying the view & sea-foam for a moment

This was a no-name storm, little predicted before, little reported afterward. Inland, it was wet & windy, but unremarkable. At the shore, the violence was palpable. And hitting as it did at one of the month's highest high tides, it left this in its wake (pics from June 4):

Washed in from far away

In one or two hours, fierce waves completely remade a beach that had been slowly built up and shaped and tweaked over months. Different parts of the beach handled the onslaught differently.

Massive erosion against the seawalls
that protect homes S of my usual zones

While Bay View's advancing dune held
much sand steady even tho taking a hit

When a storm wave bangs against a seawall, the energy ricochets, hurling back toward the sea and pulling masses of sand with it. Meanwhile, dunegrass disperses much of that energy, sinking it into the sands and breaking it up, so less gets pulled back out to the deep. A seawall is a death knell to a beach. In the above picture, you can see the post stumps of an earlier seawall that had to be abandoned decades ago. How long will this one last?


As expected, the violence of the storm left much manmade litter behind, caught up in the dunes and higher ground:

Congrats, you landed.

Is this 2 pcs, or 2,000?

So when I did my full clean-up on Wed., June 6, what did I find? Well, Zone N:

136 finds:

• Building materials: 0
• Foam/Styrofoam: 114
• Fishing misc.: 6 (2 buoys, 1 scrap buoy, 1 rope, 1 lobster claw band, 1 fishing line)
• Food-related plastics: 5 (2 bottles, 1 gallon-sized juice jug, 2 bottlecaps)
• Food-related metal/glass: 2 (aluminum can, beer bottle)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 8 (3 bag scraps, 4 balloons, 1 non-food packaging)
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 0
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 1 (wine bottle cork - true cork)

The large chunks of foam aren't consumer-product foam. They're insulation and backing, ripped from structures somewhere far away. Almost all of this was up amid the dunegrass.

On to Zone S:

114 finds:

• Building materials: 0
• Foam/Styrofoam: 93
• Fishing misc.: 6 (1 buoy, 2 buoy scraps, 1 plastic rope, 1 non-plastic rope bit, shotgun shell)
• Food-related plastics: 4 (2 bottles, plastic cork, straw)
• Food-related metal/glass: 1 (aluminum can)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 9 (4 bag scraps, shoulder strap cushion, 2 flip-flops, mixing cup, insulin syringe)
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 0
• Paper/wood: 1 (wood fence slat)
• Misc./unique: 0

More of the structural foam. More of the same everything. (The syringe with its very sharp needle poking out was sobering.) There was little difference between Zones N & S this week -- the storm saw to that!

Sooner or later, every shoreline wakes from its occasional "dream of peace." Bay View woke up on June 3, 2012. The sandbar that spent months approaching, and finally beaching -- building cusps higher than even the fronts of the dunes by May -- was obliterated in a few hours. The shoreface utterly scoured & changed in the blink of an eye.

The ocean is a pitiless, wondrous thing.

Collection Report May 30, 2012

Down to wire for Year 2 at Bay View. This installment: Wednesday, May 30. Noon. 60 degrees. Foggy, overcast skies.

I missed the previous week due to rain, rain... And in the interim, Memorial Day weekend had come and gone! Still, the beach didn't look that different. There was the same old wrack line of dried-out organics. Same steep shoreface. Dunegrass encroaching & spreading as it has all year. Sand cusps from the beached sandbar high & pronounced. Basically, all just as it had been all spring.


With a few exceptions -- signs that Memorial Day had in fact come and gone. Such as (1) The return of the Bait Tank cigarette butt bin:

(2) Buried beer bottle bingo:

(3) Flotsam forts:

(4) Thoughtless chain-smokers at the "thinking log":

(5) And a new found toy for the collection:

All proof that the lazy days of winter and spring were past, and unofficial summer had begun. Despite the cold & damp of the day. So what was left behind in the sands? Zone N:

116 finds:

• Building materials: 0
• Foam/Styrofoam: 59
• Fishing misc.: 0
• Food-related plastics: 15 (bottle, 4 bottlecaps, bottlecap o-ring, 4 food wrappers, 3 straw wrappers, 2 candy wrappers)
• Food-related metal/glass: 2 (bottle, foil wine bottle top)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 61 (3 packaging scraps, tape, string/cord, 2 scraps >1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 24 (23 cigs, 1 packaging)
• Paper/wood: 8 (paper scraps)
• Misc./unique: 1 (swiffer cloth)

A local, summer signature. Except... so much foam. No idea where it all came from. Because looking at it, it's a little bit of everything! Insulation, coffee cups, coolers, squishy foam toys, clamshell packs... Just, everything. Some certainly washed/blown in. Portland, Maine is now considering banning styrofoam in the city. From my experience the past couple of years, I think it's high time.

On to Zone S:

66 finds:

• Building materials: 1 (asphalt)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 53
• Fishing misc.: 0
• Food-related plastics: 1 (candy wrapper)
• Food-related metal/glass: 3 (glass jar, jar lid, foil)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 3 (watergun plug, 2 scraps <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 5
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 0

The glass jar was a half-full jar of pasta sauce. Random! And then there's all the foam & styrofoam here too. Tons of it. Including many of the same-looking bits as Zone N, and bits that had clearly been nipped & pecked by wildlife (fish? crabs? seagulls?):

Not just ugly. Far worse than just being ugly.

So there we have it. May 30. Winter is over. Tourists are back, at least a little. Time circles back around. And the beach tells the tale.

Collection Report Feb 6-7, 2012

Monday, Feb. 6, 3:30PM. Low-tide. Brilliant late sun with its long shadows:

A whole lot of bright blue sky, and a whole lot of nothing else. The only thing to see was a dry "wrack" line of landborne reeds. The final gasp of the large sand-dump from two weeks before lay as a very faint sandbar just seaward from the foreshore. Otherwise, the beach was back to normal. No rocky strewn-field, no starfish, no tube-worm casings by the thousands. Just soft sand spread along from dune to terrace.

A lovely day for a walk, but dismal for collecting flotsam.

On a hunch, I stopped by again Tuesday. The difference a day makes. Noon, an hour past high-tide. Mostly cloudy, 40s again, slight onshore breeze, and another weak, low high-tide line. But... fresh seaborne wrack!

Overnight the Bay dumped a batch of fresh, seafloor "sea colander."

See? It sinks

All winter long there has been nothing floating into Bay View. Everything that gets kicked up is from different parts of the seafloor. In that regard, this week was the same as the past two months. But at least this week some combination of magic churned up the seabed and dragged in a few things of interest from the watery grave. First, Zone N:

78 finds:

• Building materials: 9 (7 brick, 2 asphalt)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 25
• Fishing misc.: 9 (5 rope scraps, 2 clawbands, lure bag scrap, shotgun shell wadding)
• Food-related plastics: 6 (2 bottlecap o-rings, 2 Solo cup scraps, food wrapper, fork)
• Food-related metal/glass: 1 (can scrap)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 17 (plastic glove, swiffer scrap, 2 toy scraps, battery/cartridge cover, silk flower, toggle weight ?, 5 scraps >1", 5 scraps <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 10 (9 cigarettes, 1 packaging)
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 1 (fabric swatch)

A lot of foam, but none of it showed signs of sea voyage. Probably bits and pieces blown in from up and down the shore, out of garbage cans or freed from dunes. The other, non-foam plastics showed signs of being ocean-borne. And like I said, they were all dense, sunken plastics tossed up from the seabottom.

Zone S:

30 finds:

• Building materials: 9 (6 asphalt, wood offcut, tile, concrete)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 6
• Fishing misc.: 2 (rope scrap, bait bag)
• Food-related plastics: 4 (bottlecap o-ring, 3 food wrapper scraps)
• Food-related metal/glass: 1 (can)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 5 (balloon w/ string, 2 large vinyl upholstery scraps, 2 scraps >1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 0
• Paper/wood: 1
• Misc./unique: 2 (cloth strip, leather offcut)

Those upholstery scraps were some of the most brutalized, tortured pieces of vinyl I've ever seen. Whatever their story, I'm sure it's a doozy.

Still, flotsam-wise there really is no comparison between Winter '11 and Winter '12. The same can be said weather-wise. Are the two related? Does warmer air shut down the systems that normally drag thousands of bits of plastic into the bay? Does less snow/rain = less river runoff = changed circulation patterns? I don't know. But it's worth looking into.

Collection Report Jan 30, 2012

Monday, January 30, 11:30AM. Bay View beach, Saco, ME. Low tide. Blue skies, mild wind from the west to east, maybe gusts to 20 mph.

Another week of weak tides and no fresh seaweed washed in. But there -was- a wrack line, mostly made up of land-based plant matter. And noticeable bits of plastic in the mix.

What happened to all the fresh sand dumped onshore the week before? It all slumped down to the terrace -- a slow-motion mudslide.

Quicksand a foot deep,
literally mush underfoot

Clearly, the beach "knew" that this batch of fresh sand didn't belong. It didn't fit or mesh into the rest of the beach. Instead, the beach sloughed it off, and each tide eroded more of it back out to sea. Sometimes leaving depressions or bowls where the scour was the strongest.

More interesting from a flotsam aspect is that, this week, stuff was actually left behind -- or exposed by the erosion. Zone N:

65 finds:

• Building materials: 5 (4 asphalt, 1 brick)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 27
• Fishing misc.: 7 (rope, clawband, shotgun shell wadding, 4 trap vinyl coating scraps)
• Food-related plastics: 4 (2 bottlecaps, two tear-off tops)
• Food-related metal/glass: 5 (can bottom, 4 sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 5 (rubberband, silk flower, PVC pipe scrap, 2 scraps <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 7
• Paper/wood: 3
• Misc./unique: 2 (tiny scrap of yarn, sharp metal offcut)

Crumpled up on the sand was a nice cautionary tale.

A receipt from Fayetteville, NCNY!
(many thx for heads-up on that)  

Obviously this didn't wash in; it came out of a very local pocket. A good reminder not to jump to conclusions about where something came from without good evidence. (See recent reports of Japanese tsunami debris already reaching US west coast.)

Zone S:

23 finds:

• Building materials: 2 (asphalt, brick)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 12
• Fishing misc.: 2 (trap vinyl coating scraps)
• Food-related plastics: 0
• Food-related metal/glass: 4 (tiny scrap of can, 3 sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 0
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 0
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 3 (leather offcuts)

By the time I left, the winds had picked up. The dry wrackline was quickly blowing down to the terrace.

To be washed away.

Where will it wash up next? And what will wash up with it?

Collection Report Nov 28, 2011

Monday, November 28. 10:00AM. Bay View beach, Saco, Maine. Temp in the 50s. Overcast with occasional sun. Like, well, this:

A weird day. The kind of day where the sea has left behind rock gardens:

The purses of mermaids:

The homes of tubeworms:

As well as two horses and a rider with a fuzzy hat??

Then, of course, the usual:

So, what came out of the sand, all told? Zone N:

134 finds:

• Building materials: 4 (asphalt)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 62 (!!)
• Fishing misc.: 5 (2 shotgun shells, claw band, 2 bits of fishing line)
• Food-related plastics: 8 (3 bottle-cap o-rings, 3 food wrappers/scraps, 2 gum)
• Food-related metal/glass: 5 (bottle cap, 2 foil wrappers, 2 sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 17 (o-ring, plastic hairband, plastic glove, bandaid, 2 wall anchors, kids shirt tag, rubberband, 2 scraps >1", 7 scraps < 1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 32
• Paper/wood: 1 (wood firecracker stick)
• Misc./unique: 0

This was the week for foam! See the riot of deadly color:

What I discovered this week is that the little protected corner near the access point is a real collection spot. There's an old log there, and the windward side amasses all kinds of seaweed, reeds, leaves, and plastic -- mostly light stuff like cigarette butts &, well, styrofoam. And now on to Zone S:

22 finds:

• Building materials: 1 (asphalt)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 3
• Fishing misc.: 3 (1 rope scrap - natural fiber, 2 vinyl coating)
• Food-related plastics: 2 (bottle, pepper packet)
• Food-related metal/glass: 2 (sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 9 (baggie, strapping, folding step!, 6 scraps <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 2
• Paper/wood: 0
• Misc./unique: 0

This, obviously, is the most interesting find:

Not least because I had no idea what it was, until a quick FaceBook "crowdsourcing." Flotsam Diaries fan Irene Parsons knew right away: the top of a folding step-stool! How it got to Bay View, with oceanic algae attached, I'll never really know.

My big takeaway for the week: If you don't know, ask. There's probably someone who does!

Collection Report Oct 12, 2011

The times, they are a-changing.

Bay View, Wednesday October 12, 2011. 12:30PM. A day of clouds & chill gathering after an astounding Indian Summer weekend of 80 degrees and bright sun. The sea this week had been busy, the wrack line pregnant with plastic:

A winter wrack line

Ghost of feasts past

As well as other oddities from the deep!

Ruby wishes I'd brought this home

So what all turned up on the two 250-ft stretches of beach this week? Zone N:

178 finds:

• Building materials: 1 (asphalt)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 30
• Fishing misc.: 23 (13 clawbands, 6 rope scraps, trap bumper, buoy scrap, trap vinyl coating scrap, reel cap)
• Food-related plastics: 6 (3 wrappers, bottlecap ring, 2 chewing gum)
• Food-related metal/glass: 5 (2 cans, 1 can scrap, 2 glass shards)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 40 (7 bag scraps, 3 cords/ties, rubber band, chair leg foot, netting, 3 hairclip scraps, bandaid, glove, sticker, toy shovel handle, 10 scraps >1", 10 scraps <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 64 (62 filters, 2 packaging)
• Paper/wood: 4 (2 wood firecracker sticks, 2 scraps)
• Misc./unique: 5 (sock, fabric, 2 flipflops, battery)

This is a strange mix. The beautiful summer-like weekend no doubt brought the flipflops and beer can. But this:

and this:

look a lot more like winter debris than summer.

Especially when you take into account Zone S:

88 finds:

• Building materials: 1 (asphalt)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 11 (inc. large chicken? grocery package chunk)
• Fishing misc.: 22 (8 rope, 10 claw bands, shotgun shell, 3 trap vinyl scraps)
• Food-related plastics: 10 (2 bottlecaps, bottle, 6 food wrappers, old broken fork)
• Food-related metal/glass: 2 (can scraps)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 22 (balloon, Listerine packet, 3 bandaids, 4 strapping, 7 scraps >1", 6 scraps <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 11
• Paper/wood: 3 (paper scrap, 2 wood firecracker sticks)
• Misc./unique: 6 (4 fabric, tennis ball, candle wax)

For the past several months, Zone S has been averaging only ~1/8 as much debris as Zone N. This week it was up to 1/2. Clearly a bounty from the sea, spread up and down the shoreline. Lots of vinyl and other far-traveled scraps, including this oddity:

"Sealed: Do Not Remove"

I can only wonder what the story is there.

At any rate, a very interesting week. For one thing, lobster trap vinyl coatings were back! These dense bits of plastic coating from rusted lobster traps used to show up all the time. Then, back in May or June, they stopped. For months not one bit of dense vinyl made it to Bay View. Vinyl is much denser than seawater, and sinks to the bottom. (As did the mussel shells, fish bones, etc. that also arrived this week.) So for months it seems that sea-floor currents weren't bringing stuff into Bay View, now suddenly they are again. What will that bode for future weeks? Guess I just have to wait and see.