Nancy Fahey subs and finds a light bulb (now there's and idea!?)

Hey Ginger,
 
I subbed in Zone 2 on Sunday, 05/27, and Zone 3 today (Wed. 05/30).  Here is what I found on the beach:
 
Sunday, Zone 2:  One bag of random litter consisting mostly of plastic bottles and wrappers, plus 2 mesh beach toy bags.  My least favorite thing to find!
 
Wednesday, Zone 3:  Two bags of litter consisting of two balloons, one feminine personal product (Oh joy~maybe mesh bags are not my least favorite things to find, after all!), lots of plastic bottles, lots of straws, three socks (none of them matching), one little girl's shoe, two plastic spoons, a few toy sand shovels, and various plastic wrappers.  In addition to the two bags of litter, I took a large beach umbrella to the trash cans as well as a small sand pail.  And here was the most bizarre find of the day:  A long fluorescent light bulb; the kind that is usually found above a kitchen sink, not at the tide line!  Only in Zone 3!  :)
 
And what I did not find: The tracks of a nesting sea turtle! 

Pam and Thom find a clean beach in zone 2!

If you know zone 2, you know it includes JM Pier and to find it this clean is pretty amazing!  I have read in the Lumina News that the WB police department are cracking down on litter and have been writing tickets.  Maybe we are seeing a result!  Thank you WB PD.

Hi Ginger,

 

    We walked Zone 2 this morning (5/26).  The beach was the cleanest we’ve seen in a long time!  We picked up a half a Walmart bag of trash.  Hope the whole summer goes this way, except for the fact that there were no tracks .

Thom & Pam Becker

week 17--Renee in zone 2

Renee collected 4 bags of trash in zone 2.

week 16--Nicole in zone 2

 I collected one bag of trash in Zone 2 on Friday August 19th.

Susan Miller's Grand Finale

Well, my last day of monitoring for turtle tracks this summer was definitely a climactic one! The ocean was looking quite angry this morning. There were some visitors on the beach who seemed to be getting in their last dose of the Atlantic before hunkering down for the storm. I expected to see a lot of surfers, but as conditions are quite dangerous at this time, there were only a brave few.

Normally, on Fridays, I find a good deal of evidence from the week's beach goers in the sand. Today that was not really the case. There were some scattered beer cans here and there, and only 2 sand toys. However, because Irene is churning and the tide is coming in very high, there was already a great deal of litter along the tide line. In fact, I would say the amount of litter that has already washed in from the sea is quite shocking.

 I stuck solely to picking items up from the tide line, and completely filled my reusable bag. Towards the end, I was kind of smooshing everything down to try to make more room. I'd say this was probably equivalent to about 4 and 1/2 grocery bags.

Since the litter had already been tossed around in the sea then washed up, a lot of it was indistinguishable. There was so much plastic-- really just plastic, plastic everywhere. I also found balloons in several different colors. The biggest surprise for the day was a single Haviana flip flop that I found. Here's the crazy thing... I picked up its mate last Friday! I know that sounds nuts, but it's true. I found the right flip flop today, and it had obviously been out at sea for a while because it was wet and had pieces of sea grass on it. If you look at this photo that I have cropped from last week, you can see the left flip flop on my patio.

As I was walking today, one thing that I found really overwhelming was the number of cigarette butts. There were so many that I couldn't even focus on picking them up-- I didn't know where to start. It got me thinking about how Mother Teresa once said, "If I look at all this mass, I will never act."

 Dr. Melanie Joy, the author of "Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows" theorizes that this idea is why the meat industry continues to operate in such an inhumane manner in the United States; because in a system where 10 billion land animals are killed each year, where does one even begin in stopping it? How can we even begin to comprehend the slaughter of 10 billion living things each year? Anyway... the connection I am trying to make is that if we see one cigarette butt on an otherwise pristine beach, it is easy to pick it up, throw it away, blame the sole smoker for being careless, and move on. But when we walk down the beach and see 1,000 cigarette butts, which ones do we pick up? Where do we start? And whom do we blame? I think this is why so many people walk past the cigarette butts and don't stop to pick them up. The enormity of the problem is so great. It takes people like us to say, "hey, you can start by just picking up one." We are the Mother Teresas of the beach. ;)

Okay, now for the grand finale today... are you ready? Between Johnnie Mercer's Pier and beach access #32 today the number of plastic bottle caps I picked up was... 122! Yep, 122 plastic bottle caps were scattered along the tide line. Wow.

Peace to everyone. Stay safe this weekend!

-Susan





-- 
Susan Z. Miller
Freelance Writer and Editor
email: szmiller980@gmail.com
web: http://www.szmiller.homestead.com

week 16--Dewi and Martha find 5 holes while subbing in zone 2

we collected 1 1/2 plastic bags of the usual trash. There were a number of holes in the sand and a massive hole come sand model of a ship; in fact 5 holes plus the ship!
Best Regards
Dewi and Martha

week 15- Allison & Hank in zones 1&2

Thank you for the reminder!  On Friday, August 12 we collected two bags of trash in zones 1 and 2.

Thanks!
Allison Burnett

week 14--Nicole in zone 2

August 5th Friday Zone 2 picked up 1 grocery bag of trash.  Found one grocery bag.  Did not walk August 12th because I was out of town and Hank and Allison kindly covered for me.  Thanks.
Nicole

Renee collects 6 bags in zone 2---week 15

Ginger,
     Today, in zone 2, I collected two plastic bags of trash.  (I found the plastic bags on the beach) and one canvas tote as well (total of 6 bags).  In the tote I put the recyclables.  Plastic toys, flip flops, and clothes.
Renee

weeks 10-12 Renee in zone 2

Renee sent me her report for weeks 10 - 12 in zone 2.  Each week she collected the equivalent of 6 bags of trash for a total of 18 bags.  Thank you Renee!

week 14--Julie finds case of beer cans in zone 2

Hi, it’s Julie, subbing in Zone 2 this a.m.
No tracks…Darn.  Hot and still, very low tide and lots of trash.  We picked up three bags of the usual stuff: food wrappers, drink bottles, broken plastic toys, diaper, party remnants in front of the Holiday Inn (a Budweiser case and the empties – yep, all of them on the beach) and 5 socks.  Dragged two white plastic Holiday Inn chairs out of the surf and above the tide line.  Left about 4 pairs of flops…if they’re together and a pair and above the tide line, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and think they belong to a beach walker.  There was a large hole in front of the Holiday Inn but my attempt to fill it in didn’t quite do the job.  Extremely scary about the California rescue of the teen in the sand.

week 13--Nicole in zone 2

Zone 2 Friday July 29th, one full grocery bag of trash.  Also one broken chair taken up to the trash can.


Nicole

week 13--Thom and Pam in zone 2

Hi Ginger,
    No tracks on zone 2 Saturday .  We picked up a little more trash this time: 2 1/2 walmart bags.  There was a lot more paper like kleenexes and wrappers than bottles or cans this time.
Thom & Pam

week 13--Julie Nichols thanks WB Sanitation and meets other kindred spirits in zone 2

This Julie Nichols.  I subbed for Renee this morning in Zone 2.
It was quite trashy out there this morning.  I picked up 2 bags of items…mostly the bigger stuff—articles of clothing, fireworks, cups, bottles and toys. Didn’t have time on a weekday to pick up everything, so I aimed for the big stuff. I cleaned up around the gazebo area while I waited for my walking buddy.  Trash wasn’t too bad there, except that you really don’t want the first thing a visitor sees when approaching the beach to be a discarded pair of panties. L

No turtle tracks, but for the good part -- I saw a couple get engaged at sunrise in the life guard stand.  Nice!

I also ran into a visiting family.  The mom had stuff in her hand and saw my bag and asked if it was trash and she contributed.  She said she’d picked up quite a bit of trash around the pier and she just couldn’t understand how people could come to this beautiful beach and leave their trash.  I told her about the turtle walkers in the morning and that we also pick up trash and thanked her for helping.

There were no full or overflowing trash cans.  Thanks WB sanitation dept. 

I’ll be doing it again for Renee next Thursday.

Julie

weeks 11 - 12 Nicole reports from zone 2

Friday July 15th Zone 2 collected one grocery bag of trash.




Friday July 22nd Zone 2 collected one grocery bag of trash.

week 12 Tammy and John photograph sea turtle in sand

John & I found this beautiful sea turtle in Zone 2 this morning! :o)

weeks 9 & 10 Nicole in zone 2

Zone 2 Friday July 1st 1.0 grocery bag of trash
Zone 2 Friday July 8th 2.5 grocery bags of trash

week 9 Thom & Pam zone 2

Hi Ginger,
    Thom and I were pleasantly surprised this morning walking zone 2.  The beach was very clean considering it is 4th of July weekend.  When we combined our walmart bags we totaled one bag.  Unfortunately, there were no tracks.
Pam

week 9 Julie--Daipers and Shower Caps--oh my!!!

Ginger,

I subbed in Zone 2 for Brian this morning.  No tracks L.

There was a lot of trash, of which we picked up four grocery bags.  We only collected trash below the escarpment. Most of it was water bottles, beer cans, the usual array of toys, a Frisbee, single flip-flop, wet-wipes, straws, food wrappers and cups, and an absolutely ridiculous amount of diapers.

Plus I cleaned up around the gazebo, just because it was such a mess.  I hate that that is the first thing many visitors see when they come to Wrightsville Beach for the first time.  The trash cans at the entrance were not full, but there was still a lot of trash around them.  The outdoor shower had a bunch of trash and clothes, food wrappers, and more diapers at the gazebo.  Threw away the men’s t-shirt and boxers that were under the bench at the gazebo and mixed with sand (may have been there for awhile) but left the ladies pair of shoes and beach cover-up on the end of the bench that was clean.  Hopefully she will return for them.

And shower caps – the disposable kind.  I’d never found those before but there were 3 or 4 that I picked up around the shower/gazebo area.

Beautiful sunrise but a messy morning.

week 8 John & Tammy zone 2

Ginger,
            I apologize for the delay in getting our email to you. Tammy and I walked Zone 2 on Saturday, the 25th, and collected two plastic grocery bags of trash and one grocery bag of beach toys. We also saw quite a few holes that were too large to fill without some sort of tool.

John