Three Friday trash totals in zone 0

Oh, how the month of August has zipped by! Just this morning, I was reminiscing how years past brought sweltering temperatures in August, along with an ocean that was about the temperature of a hot tub. This year has been so dramatically different. I don't remember ever having such a cool August in Wrightsville Beach!

Friday, August 9

August 9 is my birthday, and of course I was happy to start the day with a walk on the beach. The sky was filled was dramatic, rapidly changing cloud formations. 

Overall, my trash total for the day was quite small. I did find several small shards of colorful plastic, and I'm not exactly sure what they were from. My guess would be large fireworks. Upon picking up these shards, I remembered that I also found similar pieces in blue and purple at the excavation of loggerhead nest #2, which was on the north end on August 6. 

 

Other items that I picked up included:

 -1 beer can

- 1 plastic fast food cup with lid and straw

- 1 beer bottle

- 1 plastic cup

-1 length of fishing line with hook

- 1 plastic ring toy

- 4 plastic snack and candy wrappers

- 3 plastic bags

- 2 straws

- 2 chunks of styrofoam

- 1 cigar butt

- 33 cigarette butts

Friday, August 16

The morning of Friday, August 16 was cold and dreary! I got pretty bundled up for my early morning walk. In fact, I saw a friend of mine when I was leaving the beach at about 7:30, and he commented that he did not even recognize me with my sweatshirt, hat, and rain jacket on. "You look like you're in the witness protection program!" he said.

As you can see from this photo, it was cold, rainy, and dreary enough that the beach was quite deserted. 

My trash total for the day included:

-1 plastic bag

- 1 tube of chapstick

- 1 tube of anti itch cream

- 1 Capri Sun pouch

- 1 foil food wrapper

- 5 plastic snack wrappers

- 30 cigarette butts

- 1 sunglasses lens

- 3 plastic straw wrappers

- 8 bits of broken plastic

- 1 sand toy

- 1 sock

- 1 green washcloth

- 1 balloon

- 6 plastic bottle caps

- 14 candy wrappers

- 6 straws

Right in front of Shell Island Resort, I also found a very large and very unusual insect. He was a good 3 inches long and I elected to just leave him alone because he was a bit intimidating! 

Friday, August 23

Yet another picture-perfect day on the north end of Wrightsville Beach! I must admit that this time of year, while it makes me sad to see the days getting shorter, I like it that the sunrise occurs just a little bit later. On August 23, the sunrise seemed to stretch on much longer than normal, painting beautiful colors across the sky. The tide was low and the water was calm, cool and glassy.

My litter total for the day included:

- 1 empty sunscreen bottle

- 2 pairs of sunglasses

- 5 snack wrappers

- 2 broken pieces of plastic

- 1 toy

- 2 plastic lids

- 3 cigarette butts

- 2 straws

- 1 plastic bottle cap

- 3 plastic straw wrappers

- 1 plastic cup

- 1 plastic knife

- 1 bubble wand

 

I cannot believe there is only one week left of August!

Peace,
Susan 

Ginger's last walk for the 2013 season :-(

Today, August 19th, the beach was beautiful!  I wanted to stay longer!  The ocean was the perfect color of aqua marine. The waves were rolling in very peacefully in an otherwise flat ocean, creating a beautiful splash of white sea foam contrasting against the aqua marine water.

I was a little sad this morning for a couple of reasons.  1. This is my last walk this season because next week I have to be at Lejeune very early.  2. I was walking by myself because John is out of town and I wish I could share my last walk with him.  Next week will be his last walk and he will do that alone as well.

But, I am so grateful to live here to experience and protect this beautiful place!

I did collect quite a bit of trash this morning.
Some of what I collected included:

22 cigarette butts (there were lots this morning, but I did not collect them all)
1 plastic cigar tip
29 food wrappers or pieces
17 plastic bottle caps

1 metal bottle cap
3 plastic lids
11 straws/stirrers
2 plastic spoons
4 plastic bottles
2 pieces of fireworks
5 foam pieces
11 plastic pieces
3 panty liners (REALLY?!)
4 articles of clothing (a bow tie, 1 shirt, 2 bikini top inserts)
1 towel
13 toys or toy pieces

5 shoes
1 pair of goggles
1 watch (water logged and no longer works)
1 toothbrush (this is a first for me)
4 boogie boards

I was happy to see that the big tractors, cranes, and other construction equipment has finally been moved off the beach at the Oceanic Pier.  Sad that it was there until my last day and almost until the end of sea turtle nesting season.

Goodbye from the beach this year!

And goodnight from one of our Rescues, Foxy!

love and abundance,
ginger

Meeting in the middle of zone 4

Ever since I have been working at Camp Lejeune, John and I have split the zone to save us time.  I don't like it as I would rather walk with him, but it is always fun to meet in the middle.

It is interesting to see what John collected when I sort our trash later during the week.

Here is some of what we found on August 12, 2013:

5 cigarette butts
47 food wrapper trash
12 plastic bottle caps
1 metal bottle cap
7 plastic lids
8 straw/stirrers
1 plastic cutlery
5 pieces of fireworks
6 foam pieces
5 plastic bottles
3 aluminum cans
1 large plastic garbage bag that I retrieved out of the surf

4 plastic cups

2 towels
1 pair of little girls shorts
18 toys or toy pieces
2 tubes of chap stick
1 tube of sunscreen
4 shoes
1 pair of goggles
1 tent under the pier which we called in so that it could be tagged, but only after we moved it farther from the tide line.

Ginger

4th Annual Pizza Party for KIC--2013

Every year John and I host a Pizza Party for the WBSTP and KIC volunteers.  This is a time when we all can get together to relax and not worry about picking up trash.  Also, it is a "plastic free" event!

It is always so much fun to visit with our like-minded friends!

Food, Friends, and Door Prizes!  What more could you ask for? (well, besides a clean beach and world peace.... )

Below are some photos of our amazing volunteers.  Just read about all the wonderful stuff they do in our community!  And this is just the stuff that I know about!

Celia and Vicky,  Beautiful People!  Also volunteers with Dreams (for kids) and Friends of Felines (for cats).

Friends gather here....  (also works and volunteers for Audubon (birds) and Meals on Wheels, and on and on and on)

......And Here! (rescues dogs, cycles like crazy; therfore rescuing our planet by driving less)

Two wonderful men.  One is my husband and the other is not.  :-)   ( also volunteers for WARM,  Ocean Cure,  Life Rolls On)   

John, Norm and Gigi.  (Also volunteers for The Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital.)

Danielle and her kids are participating in our guessing game to win some great door prizes!

( Danielle has picked up over 55,610 cigarette butts from WB.  Danielle, her husband, Aaron and their kids were the key players in advocating for a smoke-free WB.)

Lindsay Addison and Gigi.  Lindsay is the NC Coastal Biologist for Audubon and is a great advocate for the birds on WB.  In her spare time,  she volunteers to help save sea turtles!  Gigi rescues all people!

Nancy, WBSTP Coordinator.  She rescues EVERYTHING!

Part of the trash collected by John and Ginger on Mondays in zone 4.

Peace, Love, Light,  & Plastic-Free!

Ginger

Two Weeks of Trash and Turtles!

Well we have had an amazing two weeks at Wrightsville Beach!!!!

It is always so awe-inspiring to watch baby hatchlings make their way into the great big ocean!  Two nests in one week is almost more than one could ask for.  Witnessing this miracle of nature is always a true honor and one that stays with you and keeps you motivated during those long nights (and sometimes weeks) of nest sitting!  Another motivation is getting to sit with all the turtle peeps and absorbing their positive and giddy energy!  I love love love LOVE it!

But...on to the two weeks of trash, which is not as motivating, except for we know we are doing good for Mother Nature and all of her inhabitants, including us humans.

In the past two weeks (I'm behind a week due to all of the turtle action), John and I have removed 3 reusable bags of trash from zone 4 (which totals 12 plastic grocery store sized bags of trash).  We could have gotten more, but our recent work schedules are forcing us to leave the beach a little early.

Trash from the 1st week

Some of the items that we have removed include:

41 cigarette butts
50 food wrappers
14 plastic bottle caps
14 plastic lids
32 straws/stirrers
1 fishing gear
9 foam pieces
1 piece of sea glass

28 pieces of small plastic
6 plastic bottles
2 aluminum cans
2 plastic cups
3 foam cups
1 suntan bottle
7 tobacco packaging
1 panty liner (yuck)

5 articles of clothing including one negligee with the price tag still attached from Victoria's Secret.  My guess is that the person who purchased it was going to wear it once and return it?  Oh well.... it got left on the beach instead!

Gigi seems to like the item; although I think she is a little bashful!

4 mismatched shoes

While nest sitting on the beach Sunday night, I found a shoe like this in front of St. Therese Church.  I threw it away, but wondered where the match was.  Well, on Monday morning, my question was answered as I found this shoe (the match) in front of Blockade Runner.

3 bandaids
2 chap sticks
1 plastic dental flosser
16 toys
2 broken snorkel fins
3 towels
1 plastic arm while nest sitting!

"It's all fun and games until someone loses an arm!!"

As always, I like to feature our Rescue Animals:

We have four:
1 dog--Gigi
3 cats--Foxy, Sasha and Ringo

Sasha and Ringo ready to pounce on the trash.

Ringo enjoying some love.

Slip and Slide on the Dune

On the big beach holiday weekends, John and I have noticed that someone sets up a huge slip and slide on the dune of one of the "dredge islands".   I have to admit that it looks like a lot of fun!  People get on floats of all sorts and slide down the huge piece of plastic sheeting right into the water!  This island is located between the ICW and Banks Channel (if I have my bodies of water correct).

As usual, someone has to work really hard so that others can enjoy themselves.  This project seems to consist of a huge pump that pumps the water from the waterway into some pipes up the dune hill and then down the plastic sheeting.  There is what appears to be a very thin piece of clear plastic sheeting topped by a heavier yellow piece of plastic sheeting.  The sheeting is very large and very long.  This is held down by burlap sand bags.

Again, all of this looks like a lot of fun (except for those who go down without a float as I think that looks rough on the butt cheeks!)

We saw this on July 4th.  The next weekend, we saw that the clear sheeting was still on the dune and was dangling in the water.  We were not able to stop and collect the plastic ourselves because we were towing some unfortunate boaters who had run out of gas.  I made some phone calls to try to have this removed as all I could think of was the plastic breaking off and becoming part of the ocean environment.

On July 21st, we boated by the "dredge island" and noticed that the burlap sand bags and parts of the heavier yellow plastic were still there.  This time, we stopped.  The plastic was buried deeply in the wet sand.  Not to worry, I have sand diggers that I have collected from my beach walks; and so John and I went to work.  After breaking one sand digger and bending the other, we were finally able to get the plastic.  It was huge.  I wish I had taken more pics, but we were more concerned with getting back on the boat safely.

We were not able to remove all of the sand bags...yet....

Please clean up after yourself so that you do not ruin the fun for everyone!  More importantly, clean up after yourself so that you don't endanger the marine environment and animals.

Have no idea what this piping could have been used for, but it is no longer on the island.

What a view! I love this place!

July 22, 2013


On this morning, John and I drove separately and parked at each end of our access; thus meeting in the middle.  Why did we do this?  Because we were in a hurry.  I have accepted a contract position for 68 days at Camp LeJeune and I have to be done quickly in order to make it to the base on time.  Getting to the beach so early meant that it was still quite dark and we were not able to see as much trash.  Plus, we were more focused on being able to locate tracks.  Once the sun rays lit the sky, we did not have as much time to collect the trash.  However, we still filled 3/4 of a reusable bag.

Due to my rush, I did not stop to take pics on the beach.  However, I did take a picture of the view from Airlie Road on my way home.  Sure wish I had time to SUP on that slick water!  Aren't we so lucky to live in this beautiful place?  Let's protect it all we can!

Our trash included:

46 butts
23 food wrappers (9 of these were sippy straw sleeves)  :(
33 plastic bottle caps
1 metal bottle cap
9 plastic lids
16 straws/stirrers
1 plastic fork
1 balloon piece
2 fireworks remnants
12 foam pieces
17 plastic pieces
2 plastic bottles
2 plastic cups
2 socks
7 toys or pieces of toys including one kite with a big ball of twine in which birds could easily become entangled
1 shoe
1 pair of swimming goggles and a nose clip
1 plastic dental flosser (why?  it is such a waste of disposable plastic)
1 snorkel flipper (I left this to collect on my way back, but new volunteer, Michelle beat me to it!  :-)  It was fun to see her checking on our nest.

ginger

Sand Tunnel in Zone 1

Ginger,

 

     Terri and I thought we'd share a picture of one of those excavations we talk about from time to time which are subject to cave-ins and a threat to young and old alike.  We came upon a tunnel on Friday morning opposite the parking garage of the Shell Island Resort.  Presumably it's been destroyed by now but it's interesting to see what folks will build without thinking of the threat involved.

John Littlejohn

KIC has reported about the dangers of digging holes in the sand in the past.  According to engineers, sand is a very unstable medium and it can collapse without warning, killing those who are trapped.  When someone digs a hole near the tideline, the water can come up quickly and turn the sand into an instant trap, much like quicksand.  Each year, individuals become victims of collapsing sand and have to be rescued.  The weight of the sand pressing against someone can damage their internal organs.  Please be careful on the beach and do not dig deep holes.  They can be very dangerous.

Ginger

Monica's pictorial continues in zone 5

Week 12:

Week 13: