Our Daily Ocean: Day 211

On Monday morning, we accepted a break from our normal routine by going out for hot chocolate (in a reusable ceramic mug, of course!), checking some books out from the library and doing a beach clean up.  It was a good morning...

Since this was a break from our norm, I took the suggestion of my friend Kim and did my beach cleanup between accesses 19 & 18 (Oxford and Henderson Streets).  You see, Kim had text me a week before telling me how bad it always is at Henderson St.... and since my beach cleanups have been on the cleaner side lately... I wanted to see if it really was worse there.

 We walked in at access 19 (Oxford St.) and to be honest... the beach wasn't that bad.  BUT... as we walked north to Henderson St. (access 18), the amount of litter began to increase.

 I found bottle caps posing as seashells.

 Plastic fragments trying to pose as broken shells.  Some are easier to spot.... blue is a dead giveaway for plastic.

We also found lots of plastic straws-- 10 to be exact-- which seems to be a high amount for this time of

year.  

AND... we picked up more cigarette butts than I wanted to find.  161

 So... this clean up wasn't horrible.  I didn't leave the beach wondering how people could be so disrespectful.  But, nonetheless, I'm curious.  There was definitely an increase in the amount of litter we found as we approached Henderson St.  ... I'm feeling like I need to do more cleanups at these accesses and talk to the good people of the Henderson Street League for the Environment and Responsible Government and the team of Wrightsville Beach View.  Have any insight?  Feed my curiosity!

20 minutes on October 21, 2013 at Access 19

Litter by weight: 14.4 oz
Cigarette butts: 161

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 211 days:

56,431