Collection Report - September 15, 2013

Saturday September 15. 1:15PM, near low tide. Mid-60s, nice seabreeze. Mostly sunny. Fall-like crisp air.

Beach looking still a lot like September 7. If maybe a bit more "unkempt." The live algae down low on the foreshore was still there -- though getting more muddled & ripped up. The low foreshore a jumble of cobbles & pebbles & boulders.

Higher against back of foreshore August's clusters & clumps of pebble-sized rocks were still there. But matted down. "Aging." Smushing themselves back down, unrestored by the late summer's weak waves.

Sadly those weak waves brought their payload of vinyl lobster trap bits again.

This time instead of up against the back of the foreshore, the bulk was strewn amid the standing water and boulders of the live-algae zone. A one-day slightly higher tide seems to have had enough energy to first spill over the foreshore berm, and then partially drag some of the vinyl load back down.

But again, there was no energy for bringing in large & heavy things like rope. It was another zero-rope day. And another sobering day.

1151 pcs of nonrope debris

1151 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 0
• Fishing misc.: 1043 (979 vinyl lobster trap coating scraps, 5 bumpers, 5 trap parts, 54 claw bands)
• Food-related plastics: 30 (bottlecap, 3 bottlecap o-rings, 24 cup scraps, cutlery scrap, straw scrap)
• Food-related glass/metal: 2 (aluminum can scraps)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 11 (balloon, PhoneMate clip, Nifty Magnetic SpaceSaver Binder scrap, cord, cable tie, 2 plant stakes, anchor, 3 ring seals)
• Scrap plastics: 64 ( 16 > 1" , 48 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 1 (tile scrap)

A couple of the wash-ins were kind of cool. An ancient phone clip from an old PhoneMate answering machine system:

And a very worn & aged scrap from a "Nifty Magnetic SpaceSaver Binder":

Neither of these makes sense as ocean debris. Yet both were in the ocean. Probably from either an accidental trash-bag rip near a gutter, or debris from a violent coastal storm years ago.

But of course, the story this week, as many weeks running, is the lobster trap debris:

979 pieces of vinyl. A record.

That's barely enough to recreate one lost lobster trap. In the hour & a half that I was picking these pieces up at least 6 more lobster traps were lost in the waters of the Gulf of Maine.

That's not sustainable.

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 8991
• Pcs fishing rope -- 1812
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 5424

Collection Report - September 7, 2013

Saturday, September 7. 5:45PM. An hr before low tide. 70 degrees or so. A little rain over the previous week, but still nothing in the way of storms. Very much still a summer, calm weather pattern. And a shore that looked largely the same:

And a little bit different. For one thing, this day the beach reeked. The wraack on the low foreshore was starting to rip from its cobbles, die and rot. The runoff coming back down into the ocean had turned into a cloudy goo in places.

The mounds of cobbles & pebbles on the back of the low foreshore from August were still here. Along with some newly washed in bits & bobs. The back of the low foreshore up to the end of the algae was very flat. Then there was a noticeable lip as beach angled upward. Going up, the accumulation fell away quickly.

Thanks to the gentle summer waves, lots of vinyl ended again up at the southern end of my zone. Crazy lots:

Higher up on the bone-dry backshore,  offshore breezes blew the soft sand back off of the last bits of uncollected winter rope. That gave me a rope count for this week, even though no new rope came in. All told, another very busy day.

32 pcs of rope, about 20 ft total

744 pcs of nonrope debris

776 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 3
• Fishing rope/net: 32
• Fishing misc.: 662 (617 vinyl lobster trap coating scraps, 3 bumpers, 5 parts, bait bag, entrance ring, fishing line, 34 claw bands)
• Food-related plastics: 25 (2 bottle scraps, 2 bottlecap o-rings, 17 cup scraps, 2 bread tags, fork, plate scrap)
• Food-related glass/metal: 0
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 15 (2 bag scraps, cigarette, floss, bandaid, toy house roof pc, packaging, 2 cable ties, crate seal, 2 tubings, anchor, end cap, contact lens solution label scrap)
• Scrap plastics: 36 ( 14 > 1" , 22 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 3 (fabric piece, 2 sea glass)

It was a varied week. Lots of odd things across the spectrum. But really, there's still one story here:

Fix it, or drown in it. There are no other choices.

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 7840
• Pcs fishing rope -- 1812
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 4435

Collection Report - August 30, 2013

A return to beach and late summer memories.

Friday Aug 30, 1PM. Bright sun. Sea breeze, upper 70s, puffy clouds in the sky at different layers. The beginning of Labor Day weekend. (A few families wandering around the cove at the far end, enjoying the last of summer.)

In the past 2 1/2 weeks since my August 11 visit, the waves had built mounds & collection spots of pebbles & cobbles along the back of the foreshore. But there was still a mass fresh green on the low foreshore -- algae still growing, not being ripped up. So whatever was going on, it was low energy overall.

Also, underfood I felt a lot of fine, soft sand blown up from foreshore onto the backshore. Dry sand, low waves, and seabreezes blowing it up, up, up. Gorgeous sand! Fine and white and soft as dust.

Sadly, lower down was anything but gorgeous. It was a shocking day for vinyl. The knolls of cobbles helped slow the water down and let the wrack/vinyl settle out into carpets. Every nook and layer of carpet was just flooded with the vinyl coatings of dead & rusted-out lobster traps.

I followed big smears of wrack-carpet and vinyl far down dozens of yards toward the water. I picked & picked all I could. But I know I didn't get it all. This handful came from a dozen square feet:

What a day. Yet in spite of all the vinyl, I collected exactly ZERO pcs of rope! Another sign of low energy. Big things like rope, trap vents, large plastic chunks -- they need energy to get into the cove. The tiny vinyl bits are the opposite, they like it calm.

And calm it was.

1065 pcs of nonrope debris

1065 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 0
• Fishing misc.: 972 (928 vinyl lobster trap coating scraps (!), 3 trap parts, 2 bumpers, 38 claw bands, buoy o-ring scrap)
• Food-related plastics: 30 (4 bottlecap o-rings, 19 cup scraps, 2 bread tags, mini-fork, spoon, 3 straws)
• Food-related glass/metal: 1 (aluminum can bottom)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 19 (latex balloon, cigarette, hair band, toy truck front (old), 3 tubing pcs, 3 plant stakes, 8 upholstery scraps, cable tie)
• Scrap plastics: 35 ( 8 > 1" , 27 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 1 (paper towel)
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 7 (5 sea glass, fabric scrap, pc of leather)

This here is the story of the Gulf of Maine:

Does anything else need to be said, really?

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 7064
• Pcs fishing rope -- 1780
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 3818

Curtis Cove Report - August 11, 2013

Sunday, August 11. 6:45 PM. Low tide still a couple hrs away, but wanted to get in for the last hour of sunlight after being away for two weeks again.

There had been some energy in the past two weeks. Along the back of the foreshore were groupings & clusters of large cobbles & pebbles. A few had even pushed up toward the berm.

There were also countless sandpiper tracks -- the migratory birds had begun their long treks toward winter grounds, still here in the height of summer.

Back down at the low foreshore, where the slope broke at the back of the live-algae line, that's where the debris collected again, as with July 27th's collection. Debris carried in by high-tide waves washes gently rolled down with outwash on each receding tide. Leaving a narrow ring/band of debris trapped where the slope quickly turns from steep to gentle.

On this day, the lobstering debris was exceptionally thick. It had even overspilled its narrow band, smearing far down into the cobbles and boulders in the low foreshore. Many could be found wherever there were nooks & hollows.

I tried, in the failing sun, to get every last bit that I could find. Probably a fool's errand. But it was why I was there after all.

Then the last of the sun's rays caught a lump of quartz, illuminating it from within.

It was just what I needed at the end of a rather depressing collection.

This was the haul:

18 pcs of rope, about 20 ft total

749 pcs of nonrope debris

767 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 18
• Fishing misc.: 650 (602 lobster trap vinyl scraps, 43 claw bands, 3 trap parts, 2 trap bumpers)
• Food-related plastics: 25 (23 cup scraps, bottlecap o-ring, straw)
• Food-related glass/metal: 2 (can scraps)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 14 (bag scrap, 4 glove scraps, glove, 3 plant stakes, 2 cable ties, eyeglass earpiece, 2 wall anchors)
• Scrap plastics: 54 ( 21 > 1" , 33 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 4 (fabric pieces)

Nonfood plastics:

 Food plastics:

 And, the piece de resistance, lobster trap vinyl scraps:

The new normal.

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 5997
• Pcs fishing rope -- 1780
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 2890

Curtis Cove Report - July 27, 2013

Saturday, July 27, 7:50AM. Gorgeous sunny morning, an hour before low tide. It had been two weeks since I was here last.

Everything was alive, in bloom, greening out. The backshore was ringed by beach roses; the low foreshore full of pebbles, cobbles, and even boulders. This day we were coming off one glorious week following a week of heat, heat, heat! But there had been no violent storms to speak of.

Still, there had been change over the two weeks. The pebbles at the back of the foreshore were scooped into clumps and clusters. Not particularly well-sorted -- largely jumbled, but changed

Calm weeks mean heavy, small bits of plastic here at Curtis Cove. And the motherlode was there on the mid-foreshore, near the beginning of the live algae. Where the steep slope on the back crunches into the flatter jumble of cobbles lower, the outwash slowed and the small heavy plastics fell out.

It was going to be a busy day.

11 pcs of rope, about 15 ft total

287 pcs of nonrope debris

298 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 1
• Fishing rope/net: 11
• Fishing misc.: 237 (18 claw bands, 2 fishing line, 212 vinyl scraps, 5 trap parts)
• Food-related plastics: 13 (11 cup scraps, 2 bottlecap o-rings)
• Food-related glass/metal: 0
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 13 (2 mylar balloon scraps, toy lid/top, 3 bandaids, hairband, 2 cable ties, clothes size tag, 3 cords)
• Scrap plastics: 22 ( 6 > 1" , 16 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 1 (seaglass)

The bites and pokes on the plastic bits were unsettling, as usual.

But the story of this day was the lobster trap vinyl.

It's going to be the story of many days, I'll bet.

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 5232
• Pcs fishing rope -- 1762
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 2285

Curtis Cove Report - July 11, 2013

Thursday, July 11. 8:15AM. Lowtide, a weak one. Pea-soup fog. 70 degrees, very slight seabreeze.

Despite the gloomy day, a little color burst through.

It had been two weeks since my June 27 visit. Since then the beach had shown some movement of rocks, some energy. We were now a week past an outrageous heatwave, followed by a week of cool rain & drizzle. Nothing particularly stormy, though a few gusts. Yet there were lots of bigger cobbles -- even boulders -- down low that seemed to have been tossed around.

Better, there was now a great arrangment of pebbles & cusps at the back of the foreshore.

All arranged by nature's hand. Behind this "wall" lay a large amount of older wrack, periwinkle shells, and some of larger bits of debris.

The ocean had built a perfect breakwater/energy damper.

So, what did it deposit?

29 pcs of rope, about 40 ft total

294 pcs of nonrope debris

323 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 1
• Fishing rope/net: 29 (40 ft)
• Fishing misc.: 231 (193 lobster trap vinyl scraps, 22 trap pieces, 15 claw bands, ball of fishing line)
• Food-related plastics: 23 (16 cup scraps, 2 bottlecap o-rings, 2 bread wrapper tags, saucepack, food wrapper, straw)
• Food-related glass/metal: 0
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 12 (Clorox bottlecap, bandaid, hairband, cable tie, camera lens cap(?), chunk of plastic rod(?), 2 wall anchors, 2 cords, 2 plant stakes)
• Scrap plastics: 24 ( 6 > 1" , 18 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 3 (sea glass)

The lack of storms means a lack of rope. But the calmer seas means these can settle out:

I'm on pace this year to beat last year's 5245 scraps of dead lobster trap. Gentle summer waves bring them in and deposit them behind.

Rope, or vinyl? Take your pick.

They never, ever go away.

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 4934
• Pcs fishing rope -- 1751
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 2073

Curtis Cove Report - June 27, 2013

Thursday June 27, 9AM. Low-tide 2 weeks since last visit. Stormy day the day or two before. Overcast & wet skies.

Green algae healthy on the low foreshore shows that the recent storms didn't have a lot of ripping/tugging energy. Life quickly growing back into the pulverized backshore:

A day of contrasts. The tide pools high up, away from the rotting wrack, were crystal clear, beautiful, and full of life:

The tide pools caught in the line of runoff were miasmas, dead.

There's such a thing as too much nutrients -- too much of a good thing! As well as, of course, way too much of a bad thing:

The smear of tiny plastics spread throughout the fine pulverized wrack on the foreshore told me this would be a busy day. All told, here's what I collected:

67 pcs of rope, about 80 ft total

252 pcs of nonrope debris

300 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 1
• Fishing rope/net: 67 (80 ft)
• Fishing misc.: 158 (127 vinyl lobster trap coating scraps, 15 trap parts, 2 bumpers/cleats, 13 clawbands, buoy-stick scrap)
• Food-related plastics: 21 (19 cup scraps, 2 food wrappers)
• Food-related glass/metal: 3 (can scraps)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 11 (3 straps, vinyl stitching, old flanged tube, cable tie, 5 cords)
• Scrap plastics: 36 ( 20 >1" , 16 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 3 (fabric scrap, 2 sea glass)

All of the above that I found is new -- it's not the remnants of winter storms filtering back into the sea. This is just new stuff that the sea is continually dumping on the shores of Curtis Cove. A couple of the more curious items:

-Ancient- plastic chair/table foot

Badly fish-eaten lobster claw bands

We keep giving it to the ocean. The ocean keeps giving it to us.

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 4611
• Pcs fishing rope -- 1722
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 1880