Letter to KIC volunteers for Week 3

Hi all you Keepers and KIC ers!

You have been very busy this week and have picked up a total of 34 bags of trash!!!  Whew hooo!!!!  Way to Go!!!  That makes our Grand Total 56 bags of trash!

On the sidebar you will find "Other WB Numbers".  Here you will be able to see some of the items that many of you are counting.  Now, of course, you don't have to count your trash, picking it up is enough!   But if you are like me and you are curious and just want to know..... let me know your numbers and I will post them.

Balloons

So, I know, we, as a group have only been monitoring the beach for 1 week, but Nancy monitored two weeks prior, so that means we are on week 3.  The big numbers thus far in 3 weeks are BALLOONS!  We have collected 81---way too many!!!!

A few weeks ago, we received a new patient at the Sea Turtle Hospital.  His/Her name is Riptide.  Riptide is a lot stronger now, but when he came in, he was very very sick, extremely thin, covered in barnacles, and lethargic.  I had the honor of holding him in my lap on top of a towel while Karen cleaned his tank.  When I picked him up from the towel to place him in his freshly cleaned tank, he had left me a surprise on the towel.  What do you think it was???  If you guessed a balloon, you are absolutely right!!!!  I couldn't believe my eyes (well, I really could), but right there on the white towel in the midst of Riptide's poop was a piece of a red latex balloon!!!  I was very happy that Riptide had been able to rid himself of this toxicity in his body, but upset at the same time that our (humans') litter has led to this type of tragedy.   I fished the balloon out and washed it, put it in a container, labeled it, and saved it at the hospital with the other balloons that other turtles have excreted.  Please, please tell your friends and families how dangerous these items can be to wildlife.

Other Totals

Since May 1, we have also picked up a lot of cig butts and straws.  Many of you do not have time to count your items and that is no problem whatsoever.  But, some of you do, and I have kept track of your totals.  Danielle Richardet is a KIC volunteer (anyone who picks up trash is considered a KIC volunteer) who picks up cig butts for 20 minutes at a time and has been keeping track of her numbers.  Since May 1, she has collected 1427 butts.  If you add her total to the other 85 that we have counted, we have collected 1512 butts!!!  Now that does not include all the butts that we don't count!!!!   Great job-----hopefully, one day the beach will look less like an ash tray.

Since May 1, we have also counted 105 straws, but collected many more that we haven't counted.

Invite Your Friends

If you or your friends are picking up trash at other times or in other communities, please let me know.  I would love to include that on our blog.  KIC is for anyone who is picking up trash.  We know that all trash goes downhill to the streams and Oceans, so any trash that is picked up helps to keep our Oceans clean!

More About KIC Blog

I update the blog almost daily so that I can keep up with your emails, so please check the blog to see what has been added---it is really fun to see what others are finding on the beach.   Also you can become a follower if you would like and you can share the blog with your friends.

I will be making some changes to the blog at some point and would like to make a tab at the top for the totals so that you can see them right away.  However, for now, you will need to scroll to the very bottom of the blog to keep up with the totals for each zone and for each week.

Don't forget to feed the fish!!  Yes, you can feed the fish.  At the top of the blog are swimming fish---if you click inside the blue area (Ocean), you can feed the fish and watch them eat.

Keep up the great work and I hope you all find nests!!!

Keep It Clean,

ginger