week 3 (mon5/16) John and Ginger zone 4

We entered our zone at access 32 and first thing John said was: "there are no trashcans".  He was right, there were cans at that access last year, but not yesterday.  We started picking up trash immediately and not just small micro trash, but large pieces that you could see from the dune line.  It makes me curious if the lack of cans at that point was  a reason we saw an accumulation of trash there???  I'm not sure, but am curious.


I did see a dog taking a poop ( see my comments below).  I have to say this is difficult for me b/c I love dogs and I like dog people, but poop at the beach is not a good thing.  Also, dogs could be very dangerous to nesting turtles or freshly laid nests.


We used reusable bags so I had to do a conversion when I got home to calculate how many plastic grocery store bags of trash fit into one reusable bag.  This is what I found out:  1 very full reusable bag will hold 3 plastic grocery bags of trash----if not filled very full, it is more like 2.5.


John and I therefore picked up 3.5 bags of trash.


Our treasure was a really good wine opener and two cloth dinner napkins (comes in handy since I am trying to use cloth napkins more vs. paper ones)  :)


Our trash: (you know I kept, sorted and ananlyed----that's why Dick calls me TQ) :)


lots of sandy gross plastic and paper stuff that I didn't identify


1pair of very large psychodelic worn out flip flops
1 braided leather belt
1 styrofoam cup
1 mylar balloon that said Happy Mother's Day (I guess it was the match to Nancy's)
2 balloon strings
1 balloon remnant
31 food wrappers and/or containers
2 plastic cups
3 plastic cup lids
5 paper beer coasters that had blown off Oceanic Pier (there were more to be gotten, but I ran out of time)
3 fireworks remnants
2 ziplock bags
2 plastic bags
1 plastic bottle
3 plastic spoons
18 toys or toy pieces
1 plastic 6-pack holder :(
25 bottle caps
23 straws
2 cigar tips
10 cigarette butts (saw lots more, but no time to pick those up when looking for turtle tracks)
1 metal rod?
1 dog poop---I saw the dog in the act, very kindly informed the owner of the fine and gave him one of the plastic bags I had found as litter on the beach so he could pick up the poop, which was right at the shore and water had already began to wash over it.  The owner was very friendly and did pick up the poop.