Our Daily Ocean: Day 154

As I sat down today to update the cigarette butt tally from last night's beach clean up, my daughter took notice of the difference between the comparison that The Daily Ocean and I have been doing since March.  Since March, Sara has done 50 beach clean ups and removed 297 cigarette butts from her Santa Monica beach.  We, on the other hand, have done only 31 beach clean ups and have removed 6,620 cigarette butts from Wrightsville Beach.  My daughter had 2 reactions to that information.  First she said, "Mom, you really need to catch up!  You need to do more beach clean ups." And then she said, "Wrightsville Beach should be a smoke-free beach." (agreed)

This November, the residents of Wrightsville Beach will have the opportunity to vote on making Wrightsville Beach a smoke-free beach.  Though, Wrightsville Beach may no longer have the opportunity to be first smoke-free beach in North Carolina BECAUSE on Tuesday, Carolina Beach officials voted 4-1 in favor of a smoke-free beach ordinance!!!  My husband went to the meeting with other Cape Fear Surfrider board members and spoke out about some confusion that had been created by the town's attorney.  This is an exciting time for my area, as Carolina Beach is set to become the first smoke-free beach in North Carolina.  There is one catch though... the ordinance is pending state legislation that will allow Carolina Beach to enforce the ordinance, which should happen sometime in 2013.  Read more here.

It is not a single wave that shapes the beach, but countless waves over time.

20 minutes on August 17, 2012 at Access 36

Litter by weight: 1 lb
Cigarette butts: 121
Straws: 28 (22 from Oceanic)

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 154 days:

48,872