May 6 with Nancy, Chinese Lanterns and the question: "Is someone nude?"

May 6th:  This was not the greatest of mornings, in more ways than one.  For starters, I found a very sick shorebird on the north end.  He didn't fly away as I approached, and on my way south, I noticed he was still in the exact same spot.  I got off the 4-wheeler and approached the little bird.  He tried to fly, but was too weak to make much progress.  Without much effort, I was able to lift him from the sand.  Tucking him under my arm, I headed toward Mallard St., where I park the trailer.  I have a box in the vehicle for just this type of situation.  Making sure the vehicle was well ventilated, I left the bird there to rest while I monitored the south end of the island.

The beach was totally trashed!!  I was completely distressed at the amount of litter left behind on the shoreline and at the over flowing trash cans all along the strand.  Even if visitors wanted to discard their trash in the cans, it would not have been possible.  It was completely overwhelming and horrible!  I collected four bags of random trash including four balloons, and one beach chair.  

At the Oceanic, I found numerous Chinese Lanterns, all left behind in the sand.  A cardboard box holding the extra bags and lots of candles was left sitting on the beach grass nearby.  Our new friend Roger was on the beach and once again helped me to clean up this awful mess.  All of the debris was placed in the trash cans.  Roger also handed me the keys I had found along with the pair of pants yesterday.  Oh boy!

Chinese Lanterns littered on the beach.

Next to the Oceanic, I also found a canopy frame (I like to call them skeletons).  According to the WB ordinance, these items should not be left on the beach overnight.   The discovery was called into the NH Co. dispatch center so that the item could be tagged and removed ASAP.

On my way off the beach, I found a hat, wallet, and another set of keys on a bench at Access #11.  Geez!!  The PD is closed on Sunday, but I called NH Co. Dispatch and made arrangements to meet an officer at the door of the building so I could hand over both sets of keys and other items.  This gave me a chance to ask the officer if anyone had been found wandering around nude and drunk on Friday night or Saturday morning.  He just looked at me like I was nuts and shook his head no!  Haha!

I took the small gull to Amelia Mason (the bird rehabber) for care.  She said she thought he was perhaps an immature gull.  Hopefully he is hanging in there!

Nancy

Oceanic Waiter caught "Keeping It Clean"

Dick and I were down at the Oceanic Thursday night with friends and saw from the window, an Oceanic waiter out in the dunes surrounding the Oceanic picking up trash.  I don't know if this is something the Oceanic does, if the waiter was tired of seeing a mess or just because.  But I think that it is a wonderful thing.  If it is something the Oceanic does regularly - I applaude them!  Linda Chapman

week 13 Kym expresses frustration with beach debris and "the acceptance of litter"

I collected 1 trash bag of litter - mostly small plastics & 2 bags of recyclables.

Oceanic was a mess! (north side), straws, paper coasters, napkins, etc. They really should do away with this type of inventory or clean it up themselves! Although not my zone, & all the trash was not from restaurant, I picked up everything but some napkins (uhhgh).


Yesterday was one of those frustrating mornings for me maybe it was the high humidly, or maybe it was simply all the appalling litter!  I was spending more time zig-zagging the beach to collect small plastics that I know to be harmful to sea life, rather than enjoying the beauty and peacefulness of the setting around me.  Most mornings I focus on the positive and can breath and soak it all in, yesterday was the exception.  It was frustrating to me that the 50-75 people I saw were enjoying all that our coastline has to offer, while either oblivious to the litter or accepting of it. Surfers, fisherman, swimmers, photographers, joggers, cyclists, families playing, beach combers, parents & children walking hand-in-hand.  If all of these people collected just one plastic bottle, aluminum can, firework debris, straw, coaster, napkin, fishing line, glass bottle, juice box, plastic bag, plastic container, cigarette butt, fast food wrapper, paper or plastic cup, plastic beach toy, flip flop, etc. of the many that I saw and collected, the beach would be such a more pleasant place. I do not understand the acceptance of litter.  Do people think it will go away on its own? Have they not seen the footage of the ocean trash pit the size of Texas and growing?
Someone once told me something so simple, yet so profound:  "If you walk by litter and do not clean it up, it is the same as littering yourself".
I want to be able to focus on the beauty of an ocean sunrise, the hope of turtle tracks and safe seas for all its inhabitants; simple and profound, yet obtainable, but only if we try

weeks 10-12 Nancy Faye Craig in zone 4

Nancy calls her reports into me and I have collected them for the past 3 weeks; so here they are:

week 10-- 2 bags.  1 bag of recyclables.  She also reported a lot of fireworks.

week 11-- 2 bags consisting of 4 bottles and 5 cans, and the most plastic bottle caps she has ever seen.

week 12-- very little trash--only 1/2 bag consisting of 3 cans, straws, bottle caps, and lots of receipts from Oceanic restaurant.  She also found 3 pieces of balloons with the ribbons attached.

Danielle hopefully makes progress with Oceanic---Woot!!!

Hey Ginger!  Thanks for the update!  I wanted to give you (all) an update and let you know that I talked to the district manager of LM Restaurants regarding the huge amount of straws that we find blown from Oceanic's dining pier AND the employee break area that is always loaded with littered cigarette butts.  He (Albert) assured me that he's going to get the ball rolling on getting these problems fixed... he's even going to look into paper straws!  He should get back to me in about a week, so I'll give you an update on what he says then :)

Thanks for everything that you (all) do and I'm looking forward to the pizza party! :)

week 11 Danielle & Family at Oceanic--lots of straws and butts

Hey Ginger!

We did back to back 20 minute clean ups at Access 36 on Sunday and Monday.  As you know, our family adopted access 36 and tend to go there quite often.  One thing that we find at access 36 is a lot of restaurant litter from Oceanic.  The litter can be found on the north side of the pier and includes lots of straws, papers, crayons, cracker wrappers, plastic condiment cups, etc.  One of the major problems, as you've noted before is the straws.  On Sunday, we picked up a total of 36 straws.  29 of those straws came from Oceanic.  On Monday, I picked up 21 straws... 16 from Oceanic.  Clear straws, some still in paper and also the little black "stirrer" straws.  If anyone wonders...yes, it's obvious that they come from Oceanic's dining pier as there is a whole line/section where they can be found... sometimes they blow into the grasses as well.

Another thing that is always a problem when cleaning up at access 36 is the amount of cigarettes left in the employee break area.  On Sunday, I was so frustrated that I skipped cleaning up the employee break area.  But, when we came back on Monday... the "break area" was in the same dismal state.  In just that one area, I removed 99 cigarette butts.  What makes me very bothered by that is that if the employees are smoking during their break and littering their cigarette butts... I have no doubts that they are littering them in other places as well.  Oceanic has an opportunity to educate about the negative impacts that cigarette litter has on our environment... and just like the straws... they need to take full responsibility and fix the problem.  Wrightsville Beach is their home... their backyard... they should cherish it.  I am going to contact them again, but I think that it would make more of an impression on Oceanic if many more people contacted them as well.

Also, Monday evening the trashcan was overflowing.  Looking down the access (to the north) there were a lot of trashcans spread out... most completely empty.   There really needs to be more trashcans at the access point as that's where the majority of people are coming and going.

Here are the links to my blogposts... they're a bit ranty from my frustrations of cleaning up after Oceanic.

Our Daily Ocean: Day 78
Our Daily Ocean: Day 79


Totals:

Cigarette butts: 544
Straws: 57
Plastic spoons: 2
Caps: 16
Toys: 3

Danielle

week 10 John & Ginger "Happy 4th of July" in zone 4

Wow!!!  I think lots of people celebrated in zone 4 yesterday!!!  And they were already setting up this morning with tents and trolly carts of chairs and toys--- it looked like a lot of work to me and I don't want to work that much on 4th of July!....or do I????  After all, we did collect 13 bags of trash!!!

One of the first things that John found was an American Flag near the surf.  This flag is now in one of my big plant containers and it looks great with the Hibiscus Tree.  :)

We could have collected more trash today, but honestly after 13 bags, we were really done!

Besides lots of plastic, straw sleeves, paper, and other bits and bops, our bags contained the following:

31 butts
17 plastic bottles
8 glass bottles (several of which were buried in the sand) (we actually uncovered them for the picture below)
10 aluminum cans

7.5 plastic cups
4 plastic condiment cups from Oceanic
3 styrofoam cups
5 plastic cup lids
39 straws/stirrers

6 fireworks and a lot more plastic remnants from fireworks.  We picked up two large boxes of explosives and saw more in the trash cans.

1 towel
1 pair of sunglasses
1 pair of reading glasses
1 panty liner (yuck)
1 plastic bag of tent stakes ( a friend of ours took those)
46 various plastic bottle caps

1 blistex chap stick
1 Bobbie Brown lipstick (not my shade)
1 large metal scooper that said "jelly belly"
30 toys (including foam shapes of a duck and elephant)
3 balloons
2 nets for toy packaging

2 ziplock bags
3 plastic bags (two of which we utilized to finish picking up trash)
1 boogie board (left at trashcan)
2 pair of flip flops
7 clothing articles (one we left by the trashcan on the beach with the towel)

We also found one volley ball net that was left up near the yacht club.  I know it is difficult to assemble those nets and take them down and put them back up b/c I have one at home.  However, turtles get tangled in these types of structures that are left on the beach.  They even become stuck in beach furniture, such as chairs.  There was a false crawl at Caswell Beach this week that apparently was deterred from nesting due to an abandoned tent that had been left on the beach.  (sigh)

On our way back, we did see Nancy Faye Craig on her bike and that made for a really "Happy 4th of July"!

Yesterday, we were boating and we scooped 1 ziplock bag,  3 plastic bottles, & 5 aluminum cans from the water + 1 boat key floatie.  There were no keys attached, so we plan to use it on our water proof camera. :)  (I am going to add these numbers to our totals)

The picture below is the celebration across from Masonboro.  I have to say that the island itself looked pretty great thanks to Masonboro.org.  They are doing a fabulous job!

week 9 John & Ginger--We are all "beams of light"

Hello Sunshine!!!

John and I had a beautiful sunrise as we entered Zone 4.

We encountered a HUGE hole in front of life guard stand 10.  I did not climb inside and you cannot tell from this picture, but it probably came up to my chest!!!  It was huge.  The scary thing is that as I was standing there looking at it, I could see sand falling from the walls.  You might ask "why is that scary?"  Well, because from research we have done in the past, we know that holes made from sand are the most unstable and dangerous according to engineers.  The sand can collapse at any time trapping any person or animal that is inside.  If the hole is near the tideline (which this one was), the sand can act like quick sand and make it incredibly difficult to dig someone out.  We also know that there are accounts of people being trapped in sand almost every year causing emergency crews to be called onto the scene.  In fact, 60% of victims trapped in sand holes die (a very dangerous scenario indeed).

So, while I was standing there watching the sand fall, it made me shiver to think that someone may crawl into that hole.  Unfortunately, I did not have time to fill it in, but since it was in front of the Life Guard Station, I felt certain that they would take the time to fill it in and protect everyone's safety on the beach.  A thanks to all life guards who keep our beaches safe---please let everyone know that there is a town ordinance requiring beach goers to fill in their holes before they leave the beach.  Any turtle or human falling into such big holes would surely be injured, if not worse!

Farther south, we spotted a sea turtle sand sculpture.

And then we spotted what seemed to be the makings of a Castle.  As you can see from this picture it is a very large castle with large moats around it---Again a dangerous obstacle for sea turtles and humans.  The mound of sand that formed the castle was so large we had to walk around it---as large as some of the natural sand dunes on WB.  Obviously, we all have more and more education to do.

Closer to Crystal Pier, we found a kite that was tied to a pole and it was "high flying".

And of course as we reached the Pier, I could hear a flute---it was beautiful.  I knew it was Sonny, John and Jesse.  Sonny informed me that his band, Transtrum would be playing on Castle Street July 8 & 9 for the Sea Turtle benefit.  Sonny also informed me that "transtrum" means "beam of light" and he said "we are all beams of light".  I love that---thank you Sonny.

We collected a total of 6 bags of trash which included:
11 butts
8 plastic bottles

4 plastic cups
7 toys

2 balloons
24 straws

4 plastic bags

3 ziplock bags
2 cans
1 cloth napkin
1 shoe
2 hair bands
13 bottle caps

1 cigarette package
4 plastic lids
1 pacifier
lots of paper and plastic bits

Also, as we were boating the weekend before, we pulled two more plastic bags out of the water, so I am adding those to our numbers.

week 8---8 straws (1 for each week) ;)

Wanted to tell you that my family from out of town picked up 8 straws at Oceanic yesterday morning during their walk. "Still in wrappers...It was obvious they blew off the pier."


Danielle 


My concern with straws in paper is that a "single use plastic" item was not even used one time before it became non-biodegradable litter.  Also, if a wrapped straw blew off the pier, did the customers ask for another straw?  If so, then that is more waste.  I really wish the area restaurants would reduce use of straws and only supply them on a limited basis (such as someone needs it for medical reasons, etc.)  I think if the restaurants adopted the position of "we do not serve plastic straws due to their detrimental impact on our environment", the customers would embrace it (at least most customers).  Come on Oceanic, lead this movement!!!!

Ginger

week 4 Kathleen Holly--zone 5 (4 days)

Hi Ginger,  I used 4 one gallon degradable bags this week  (walked 4 days).. one surf board strap, 4 kiddie pails, 5 kiddie shovels or scoopers, few butts (shocked), one plastic knife in sleeve, 3 plastic bags, 18 beer or soda cans, a few straws, 1 disposable cig lighter, remains of 2 balloons.  no one practicing safe sex or camping out this week.


Reusing the plastic bags more than 2x yields a really stinging smell in the trunk of my car.  hence using the Teeter's new eco bags at least 2x.. but disposing of them once they get a bit gamey.



...It is somewhat disappointing people will stop and say thanks to me for picking up but not bothering themselves.. Do you think that we are the garbage people and they no longer need to be picking up???   No gnarly finds, just more pieces of plastic kiddie things and fast food cups, papers and straws.  A lot of straws, pepper and salt, napkins etc blow off the Oceanic pier.  I pick those up most every time. I am sure the Oceanic sends people down but the wind blows these goodies around.
Kathleen

Balloons in Surf and Birds in Trash

Today I had to walk by myself b/c John was out of town.   I collected 4 bags of trash and that doesn't include the trash that I picked up right beside the trash can.  I didn't count this trash b/c I just threw it right back and b/c I saw the culprits of the non-human type---birds.  We have talked about this every year and we can't blame the birds--they are just doing what is natural---what we need are trash cans with lids.  Lids would help keep the birds out of the trash and also keep the wind from blowing the trash out of the cans.  Hopefully, we will see this one day on WB!


The other alarming thing I saw was a white balloon with a blue string washing in on the surf.  In this picture, you can see the foam of the water still around the string where the balloon had just washed in.  I couldn't help but think how this white balloon really would have looked like a jelly fish out in the water.

I also found 2 more balloons--one orange and one yellow.  According to one study, sea turtles actually seem attracted to a brightly colored balloon.

My trash total today was 4 bags which included:
12 toys
3 balloons
6 plastic bottles
1 glass bottle
23 cig butts & 1 cigar tip
6 cans
21 straws
7 bottle caps
1 coat hanger
1 towel (I left at the life guard stand)
1 pair of "justice" shorts
2 shirts
2 types of fishing gear
1 toy netting
2 ziplock bags
2 plastic bags
3 brightly colored plastic ice cubes shaped like sea life
1 pen
1 disposable toothpick brush
lots of paper, sugar packets, receipts, and straws that blow from the Oceanic  :(

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.