Our Daily Ocean: Day 2

Yesterday, after I picked my daughter up from Surf Camp, we all headed out to Wrightsville Beach.  I decided to change our location and thanks to a perfect parking spot.... we ended up here:

One thing that I didn't post the other day was that thanks to the hard (and disgusting) work of my friend Jennifer on the Cigarette Litter Prevention Program... there are these signs posted at beach access sites. (see above).

Access 36 is completely different from access 43...  for starters there are more people thanks to it's convenient location with plenty of parking and showers and restrooms... not to mention all of the rental properties and condos.

But another thing that makes it so different is that there's an ocean front restaurant with a pier.  And with that comes litter that I didn't see at access 43... restaurant litter.  The theme was apparent... and I got sidetracked from picking up cigarette butts to picking up the litter from the restaurant.

Crackers with your soup or salad anyone?

How about a coaster for your beer?

And of course, you need a straw in your drink... or do you?  Whenever we go out to eat, my husband and I request no straws.  Really we don't use them at home... why do we need one when we eat out?? REFUSE ;)

One of the almost 20 straws we found... some were still in wrappers.  It's no wonder that straws are #9 on the International Coastal Clean-ups top 10 marine debris items.

In case you're wondering....#6 of the top 10 marine debris items.

Walking under the pier, my youngest son started picking up trash without realizing that the trash still had ownership... I'm now questioning whether it was right to tell him not to pick it up.... 

Of course, the other litter on the beach didn't sidetrack us completely....there were always a cigarette butts to pick up... including this freshly put out butt :(

20 minutes on August 11, 2010


Litter picked up by weight: 2 lbs 9 oz


Cigarette butts: 197

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up in 2 days off of Wrightsville Beach, NC: 543


Also, just like Day 1 as I was driving home I witnessed another litterbug throw his cigarette butt out his window. :(