Curtis Cove Report - May 15, 2013

After more than two weeks away from the beach due to commitments & bad weather, by May 15 I was jones'ing to get back.

So, what did it look like? Let's see

Wednesday, May 15, 2013. 830AM. No clouds. Bright blue, temps in the 50s and warming quickly. No breeze. Still morning, a few shorebirds chirping in the distance.

The Rachel Carson Natl Wildlife Refuge had also prepared for the impending summer season with a great new plaque at the head of the trail.

Down on the beach, the cove was healing itself nicely from winter. The beach profile was returning to its gentle, steady slope -- high and proud on the backshore down evenly to the low foreshore. The foreshore cobbles & pebbles were all on display again. Winter's storms, which had dumped and dragged mud & sand on top, were now really a memory.

Lined along the backshore were the last remains of winter's rotted & dried-out wrack, some buried by recently blown-in or washed-in sand. As it dried, its plastic load peeked through.

It was going to be a busy day. Here's what I found:

(Tech mini-disaster means no rope photo - sorry!)

320 pcs of fishing rope, about 180 ft

96 pcs of nonrope debris

416 finds:

• Bldg material/furniture: 0
• Foam/styrofoam: 0
• Fishing rope/net: 320
• Fishing misc.: 35 (6 claw bands, 2 fishing lines, hard buoy top, 5 bait bags, 9 trap parts, 5 bumpers, tag scrap, 6 vinyl trap coating bits)
• Food-related plastics: 11 (2 bottles - 1 very eaten/damaged, 5 cup scraps, water flavorer wrapper, sauce pack, microwave meal box scrap, cutlery scrap)
• Food-related glass/metal: 1 (aluminum can scrap)
• Nonfood/unknown plastics: 29 (bag, Clorox bottlecap, broken comb, bandaid, 4 packaging scraps, crate chunk, clothespin, 4 upholstery scraps, 11 cable ties!, cord, crate seal, chopstick scrap, drawer organizer scrap)
• Scrap plastics: 13 ( 6 > 1" , 7 < 1" )
• Paper/wood: 0
• Non-plastic misc./unique: 7 (fabric scraps)

This badly-abused & fish-bitten bottle could tell quite a story.

A plastic chopstick scrap??

A mangled comb -- its lost teeth likely still fouling the ocean, somewhere.

A very abraded Clorox bottle scrap.

Clorox is used heavily on fishing boats for sanitation. Sadly, too many times the empty bottles are then just pitched overboard.

"Away"

Running YTD counts:

• Total pcs of litter -- 3680
• Pcs fishing rope -- 1375
• Vinyl lobster-trap scraps -- 1621