Our Daily Ocean: Day 201

On Monday afternoon, while my daughter was at dance, I set out to Wrightsville Beach to make good on my personal goal of doing a beach cleanup as often as I could.  Wanting to do my 365th beach cleanup on August 9, 2014 is going to take focus, planning and commitment. 

Something I rarely mention is that the commitment is about more than just doing a beach cleanup.  Anyone who has taken the time to document beach cleanups, knows what I'm talking about.  The commitment for me involves a 20 minute drive to the beach, 20 minute cleanup, 20 minute drive home and the time to weigh, sort, and document.

  This is not a once a year beach cleanup. This is a portrait of a beach.... through the days, weeks and months of the year.  These small beach cleanups are how a lightbulb effectively got switched on for me.    My friend Harry (aka The Flotsam Diaries) just wrote a fantastic piece for the Portland Press Herald blog titled, "The International Coast Cleanup-- Bigger Isn't Better".  He writes:

"...have everyone get down in the sand, picking every last piece of garbage they can, til nobody can pick up one more scrap. Get in there with them. Make the beach spotless. Make it shine. Take a picture to remember how it looks spotless. Smile.

Then, gather your group at the same beach not in a year, but in a week.

There is nothing more jarring to the system than seeing a place you broke your back caring for, trashed again while the soreness of your effort is still in your limbs.

There’s nothing better to drive the point home that it’s time for a change."

Coastal Cleanup Day was on Saturday and I did this cleanup on Monday.  This is reality. 

It's time for change.

20 minutes on September 23, 2013 at Access 36

Litter by weight: 7.3 oz

Cigarette butts: 137

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 201 days:

55,962