Curtis Cove Report - Mar 31, 2013

Sunday, March 31. 9:35AM. An hour after low tide. Bright, sunny, upper 30s on a day quickly headed toward the 50s. The air was rich with the cries of gulls, jays, ducks, geese. Scuds & snails & tubeworms were back in the tidepools. Spring was on its way, if not yet here!

The sand this day was striking. The rivulets draining back down the beach left dark stains in their tiny valleys.

Other larger outwash streams wound their usual beautiful plaits & threads behind as well.

Of course, the ugly was on display too. And the poignant.

"Pitch In" indeed

But the story of the day was, again, the lobster trap vinyl:

At least half a dozen pieces just in this tiny section

Another week of fine, pulverized wrack at the back of the foreshore meant one thing. A big day. But "big" doesn't begin to describe it.

122 pcs of rope, about 125 ft total

1113 pcs of nonrope debris

1287 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 2 (painted moldings)
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 122
• Fishing misc.: 1051 (958 lobster trap vinyl scraps (!!), 16 trap bumpers, 7 bait bags, 4 vents, opening ring, 63 claw bands, 2 bait tins)
• Food-related plastics: 17 (bottle, 14 cup scraps, bread tag, fork/spoon handle)
• Food-related glass/metal: 7 (3 aluminum can tops, can scrap, 2 sea glass, bottle cap)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 24 (latex balloon, balloon string, cigarette, glove, shovel handle, large strapping, 9 cable ties, plunger stake (?), 3 upholstery scraps, plant ID stake, goggle strap, 2 crate seals, rope-and-eyelet)
• Scrap plastics: 52 ( 18 > 1" , 34 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 12 (2 socks, 2 fabric pieces, 6 gloves, pottery shard, leather strap)

No words. Not like words would matter. Here's a picture of what 958 little flecks of lobster trap look like.

All of these trap vinyl bits put back together wouldn't even create one lobster trap. At least 38,000 are lost by Maine lobstermen alone, each year. Another side-effect of the lobster industry are the huge numbers of claw bands that go overboard:

Many have bite marks on them. They don't go away, not for years & years at least. And of course there's the larger lobstering debris -- the trap vent doors that release if the trap is lost. Storms bring them into Curtis Cove regularly:

Wouldn't want to hit one of those with a propeller.

What is the biggest source of persistent plastic debris that I find on the beach at Curtis Cove? No points for answering.

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 2258
• Pcs fishing rope -- 512
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 1363

Curtis Cove Report - Mar 22, 2013

Friday, March 22. 12:50PM. 1/2 hr before low tide. Sunny, 37 degrees, light breeze off the ocean, calm water.

It had been a couple weeks since 3/9's visit. The low foreshore was still, well, very low and flat. Few cobbles & pebbles visible down by the water. Which suggests that there was still sand & stuff dragged/pulled from the backshore burying the underlying stones by the water's edge.

It had been a quiet week, light snows but no storms. A slow remolding was going on at the backshore. Waves pushed & stacked the wrack up into high cliff faces.

Look at all the bits of fishing rope dangling out from the side of the seaweed mountain! And there was a lot of pulverized wrack and coralline algae at the front of the "cliff" too.

I've learned that delicate, pulverized bits like this mean loads of lobster trap vinyl. And sure enough:

Overall an exceptionally busy & grueling day.

220 pcs of rope, about 200 ft total

531 pcs of nonrope debris

751 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 220
• Fishing misc.: 455 (405 vinyl trap scraps, 13 bait bags, 3 trap vents, 10 bumpers, trap tag, 18 claw bands, 2 bait tins, glove, 2 trap parts)
• Food-related plastics: 17 (12 cup scraps, bottlecap seal, wine cork seal, 2 food wrappers, straw)
• Food-related glass/metal: 6 (5 ripped aluminum can scraps, sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 11 (bag scrap, latex balloon scrap, plastic balloon string, CLOROX bottlecap, glove, plant ID stake, disposable plant-pot base, fabric, 2 cable ties, string)
• Scrap plastics: 37 ( 15 > 1" , 22 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 5 (fabric gloves/glove scraps)

The vinyl lobster trap bits are the standout, of course. But it was also a day heavy in scraps of red SOLO cups & the like:

And as an amusing side note, a lesson in how hard it is to quantify trash. Both of the pieces below count as -1- piece of lobster trap vinyl debris:

Yet the big chunk on the left (all just vinyl, the steel long-since rusted away from the inside!) would eventually break into hundreds of little flecks like that on the right.

So much trash.

Running YTD-2 counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 971
• Pcs fishing rope -- 390
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 405

Curtis Cove Report - Mar 9, 2013

Saturday, March 9. 2:40PM. Half-hour before low-tide. A day of bright sunshine, and watching huge waves out in the distance crashing into the headland outcrops. The massive nor'easter that blew through New Engand on March 6 was still roiling the ocean. It had left its mark around the cove.

The same storm pulled at least two houses into the ocean at Plum Island, MA and ravaged the shoreline of Nantucket. Southern Maine was comparatively lucky. At Curtis Cove, the high foreshore sand was largely eaten & gouged away. The waves & winds left a very steep profile of tumbled cobbles at the back of the cove. In front of it now lay a nearly flat plain all the way down to the water, strewn with wrack.

The waterlogged high ground was trying hard to squeeze itself dry. Streams of outwash flowed perpendicularly at the base of the backshore stones. They found a weak spot in the sand lip, and burst through, making a temporary river running down the mounds of wrack out into the sea.

Mother Nature sets things right if given a chance.

As expected a big day at the beach.

170 pcs of rope, about 330 ft total

58 pcs of nonrope debris

228 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 170
• Fishing misc.: 20 (13 bait bags, bumper, 2 vents, Canada tag, cleat, claw band, fishing glove)
• Food-related plastics: 10 (2 bottles, ragged bottlecap seal, cup, 6 cup scraps)
• Food-related glass/metal: 1 (fresh/locally dropped can)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 14 (11 latex balloons, 2 cable ties, plant tag)
• Scrap plastics: 12 ( 8 > 1" , 4 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 1 (beach chair seat fabric)

As expected, the huge power of this storm blew in larger items, and sucked out much of the smaller stuff. Notable was this big clump of 10 latex balloons, all goo'ed togeter and tied round with strings and cords. The remnants of someone's party months or years ago.

As usual, scraps of coffee & drink cups washed in with bite & poke marks all over them.

No trip to the cove would be complete without the tag from a plant pot. I've picked dozens of these from the cove by now/

This ravaged bottle shows how modern bottling works. Bottles are created in layers. The middle layer may contain a token amount of recycled plastic. But the recycled material generally has to be sandwiched inside virgin PET plastic, because recycled PET often isn't as strong as fresh stuff. Another reason the recycling triangle is a lie.

And last but not least, a far traveled lobster trap tag from Canadian waters.

The stuff keeps coming.

This collection marks the first of my official Year 2 at the cove! Will be interesting to see how this year's finds stack up against 2012-13.

Running YTD 2 counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 228
• Pcs fishing rope -- 170
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 0

Curtis Cove Report - Feb 26, 2013

February 26, 2013. 2:00PM, a couple hours before low tide. My last cleanup of Year 1 at Curtis Cove! Bright sun, 40 degrees. Rough sea, but little wind.

The big breakers out on the outcrops at the head of the cove = soggy & sloppy sand & mud & wrack smeared up and down the shore. A real mess of a beach!

But the first hopeful signs of spring behind the backshore. As I had a big group of witnesses to my efforts this day:

The scooped-out sand and wave-dragged wrack from the backshore spoke of the power of the past week's seas.

And of course stormy days bring lots of plastic "gifts." Including ones that have no business on a beach. A soda/water bottle I could understand. But a honey-bear jug??

Even better, this week brought the remains of a plasticized menu from a Kennebunkport restaurant. From 2007!

We place restaurants right next to Maine's windy coast, and populate them with plastic plates, cups, bottles, ketchup packets, sauce tubs, salt & pepper shakers, forks & knives -- and now even menus. And we wonder why our ocean looks like it does.

So, surprising no one, a very busy day.

236 pcs of rope, about 550 ft total

110 pcs of nonrope debris

346 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 236 (about 550 feet)
• Fishing misc.: 34 (19 bait bags, 3 vents, 2 trap tags, 8 vinyl coating scraps, bumper, clawband)
• Food-related plastics: 23 (3 bottlecap seals, 16 cup scraps, drink wrapper, ketchup pack, honeybear jug, 2007 menu!)
• Food-related glass/metal: 5 (2 whole/new cans, 3 can scraps)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 31 (11 bag scraps, 2 mylar balloon scraps, 2 latex balloons, 3 balloon strings, thread spool, tampon applicator, toy shovel handle, pressure-treatment tag from 1988, 5 cable ties, EXIT (?) sign scrap, 2 end caps, plunger scrap)
• Scrap plastics: 13 ( 9 > 1" , 4 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 4 (2 gloves, 2 fabric pieces)

Yet again, fishing debris far & away took the gold this week. Stormy weather & choppy seas tends to fling floatable plastics up and over the outcrops at the cove's head, which is what happened here with the vents, bait bags, and trap tags.

The waves also brought weirdness. The honeybear, the 2007 menu. And this 25-year-old tag from a piece of pressure-treated lumber. Looking brand new!

Tampon applicators were a scourage for me at Bay View beach in Saco. Not many here at Curtis Cove, thankfully. But the cove isn't immune:

And, as always, the poignant bits of seabottom plastics with fish/crustacean bites & pokemarks all through them:

A heck of a thing we do to our world.

Year One Total counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 13854
• Pcs fishing rope -- 4011 (~6600 feet)
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 5245

Curtis Cove Report - Feb 19, 2013

Tuesday, February 19. 11:45AM. A very raw & icy day at the beach.

With ice on the low foreshore and drifts of snow higher up, only the thin wrack line was thawed and searchable this day. I thought it was going to be a quick & unimpressive cleanup.

Until I started seeing these.

Vinyl scraps, from lobster traps. The huge mat of fine, pulverized seaweed (including all that white skeletal coralline algae) is a sign of a very gentle high-tide. One that lets the finest bits settle out on the sand without being washed back. The perfect conditions for the vinyl trap coatings.

So, my hour-and-a-half was quickly spoken for by this thin sliver of shoreline between ice and snow. In the end, of course, I found more than vinyl. Such as:

Coffeecup lids wash in every week

And a surprising amount of fishing rope too for such a thin strip.

All told, it was a shockingly big haul for a beach that was mostly unsearchable.

76 pcs of rope, about 60 ft total

467 pcs of nonrope debris

543 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 76
• Fishing misc.: 422 (8 claw bands, 2 trap bumpers, 2 bait bags, 410 vinyl scraps!)
• Food-related plastics: 11 (bottlecap scrap, cap o-ring, 7 cup scraps, bread tag, fork scrap)
• Food-related glass/metal: 2 (aluminum can scraps)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 10 (bag scrap, bandaid, degraded detergent jug, 2 cable ties, 3 vinyl upholstery scraps, sleeve, duct tape)
• Scrap plastics: 20 ( 3 > 1" , 17 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 2 (glove, metal washer)

Without question, the story of the day was the vinyl trap scraps. 410 of them on just that one strip of exposed land.

All told, 498 pcs of the 543 -- 91.7% -- was plastic lobstering debris. As I describe in more detail in my Portland Press Herald blog piece, "A Vinyl Tide," someone will have to pay for this. We can start now, changing the way we fish our waters and paying the extra price at the plate for better gear in the ocean. Or we can leave it to our kids and grandkids.

One way or another, someone will have to pay.

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 13508
• Pcs fishing rope -- 3775
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 5237

410

410. That's the number of little bits of vinyl coating from lobster traps I found on February 19. All picked from a thin unfrozen line at the back of the foreshore at Curtis Cove, Biddeford, Maine:

That makes 5237 pieces from the cove in the past year.

We consumers demand "cheap" food, "cheap" everything. In the 1970s, plastic-coated lobstering gear became readily available. Seeming cheap & effficient, Maine lobstermen had no choice. They had to start using it. Those who didn't, soon became ex-lobstermen, pushed out of a competitive business by downward pressures.

See more about the issue of plastic fishing gear in the Gulf of Maine at my Portland Press Herald blog "Undercurrents." A brand-new article on this topic posted today!

Curtis Cove Report - Feb 12, 2013

After another wintery week off following January 20's visit, back again to the beach. This time also after so-called "Superstorm Nemo" blanketed New England! But even though inland the drifts were 3-4 feet high, at the cove, the blizzard's gale-force winds blew sea into shore and blew the snow clear away.

On the other side of the causeway behind the cove, the blizzard's lingering effects still held sway. The Little River Marsh was an ice-blocked and wintery wonderland.

No surprise for how much garbage the blizzard washed up onto the shore.

lobster trap bait bag

balloons, always balloons

And the best sign of the storm's force:

New, but mauled

210 pcs of rope, about 280 ft total

131 pcs of nonrope debris

342 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 1 (folding aluminum deck chair)
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 210
• Fishing misc.: 40 (2 fishing line, 2 clawbands, 13 bait bags, 5 trap parts, 3 trap vents, 2 bumpers, 13 vinyl scraps)
• Food-related plastics: 19 (3 bottles (2 badly torn), 13 cup scraps, 2 wrappers, bread tag)
• Food-related glass/metal: 2 (can base, sea glass)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 42 (13 bag scraps, 5 latex balloons, 2 mylar, 6 balloon strings, 5 packaging scraps, 4 cable ties, rocket base, scrub pad, pressure treatment tag, flower, fish-tag tie, sock tree, vinyl upholstery scrap)
• Scrap plastics: 10 ( 4 > 1" , 6 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 18 (8 gloves, 8 fabric scraps, sock, leather strap)

The worst part is that nearly every week there's debris that's clearly been eaten/clawed by denizens of the deep. Such as this ketchup pack:

and this fast-food coffee cup lid:

It's not just ugly. It's deadly.

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 12965
• Pcs fishing rope -- 3699
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 4827