Our Daily Ocean: Day 128

There are times when I wish I could explain either through pictures or words more clearly some of the things we find on Wrightsville Beach.... but sometimes, as much as I try... the pictures don't begin to tell the whole story and words seem to come up short.

Through words and pictures, I can only touch on how bad some things really are.  There is nothing like being there and seeing it for yourself-- as my friend Tracy can surely attest.  Yesterday was one of those days when we cleaned a section... looked back... and could see exactly where we missed.  Cigarette butts, bottle caps, fragmented plastics, styrofoam, straws... and.... condoms. humph  There were so many cigarette butts and plastic bottle caps (89) that Tracy started calling the area we were cleaning "cap and butt beach".

As I was going through everything that Tracy and I picked up yesterday... I paused at this Gatorade bottle that Tracy found tucked away in a sand dune.  I looked at the deteriorating cap and thought about all of the ocean samples that have yielded plastics.  I thought about Kamilo Beach.  I thought about the albatross on Midway Island....whales, sea turtles, fish...   *sigh* Looking at the cap, I knew that pieces of plastic so small had broken off and are now part of our sand at Wrightsville Beach...

Here is a plain and simple fact:  If we don't change how we use plastic... One day our beaches will be made of plastic sand.  It's already happening.  We now have the task of stopping it from happening further.  How do we do it??  How do we stop our oceans and beaches from turning into plastic?  Easy.  We reduce how much plastic we use.  We rethink our needs and realize that we can go without _______ because the convenience of today isn't worth the inconvenience of cleaning up the inevitable mess tomorrow.

20 minutes on March 20, 2012 at Access 43

Litter by weight: 1 lb 10.2 oz
Cigarette butts: 394

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 128 days:

42,518

Our Daily Ocean: Day 67

After an afternoon of playing in the pool, we headed to Wrightsville Beach with our friend Tracy and her two kids-- Liam and Emma.  We attempted to go to Johnnie Mercer's Pier, but even at 7 PM parking at the pier was packed... so we headed a few accesses down to Access 18.

It was a good call.  Looking north down the beach strand, people were everywhere... but for the most part everyone had cleared from access 18.  I say that's a good thing because when the beach is covered with people, it's often hard to know what has been left behind.

As usual, when we come to the beach with my kids friends... they do a lot of playing.  But what's great is that in the midst of playing they always find the time to pick up the litter that's around them...  running to us with handfuls of whatever they find.  In fact, Liam ran to me with a rash guard that he found in the water. (not on a person, of course ;) )  Have I mentioned that my kids favorite thing to find is beach toys??  By the end of summer, we're going to have a lot...

While I was walking over to take a photo for Tracy, I stopped in my tracks and said, "Did you accidentally dump your bucket???"  (Her answer was "no...")  4.5 trillion cigarettes are littered worldwide every year... I'm starting to wonder if that number is on the low side...

Awhile ago, someone told me the cigarette pack equivalent to how many butts we've picked up off of Wrightsville Beach.  I just did the calculation.... at this point we've picked up the equivalent of over 953 packs of cigarettes.  YIKES!  Also, this clean up puts our total weight of litter collected off of Wrightsville Beach to over 100 pounds.  *sigh* I have a feeling that number will easily double over the summer...

20 minutes on May 21, 2011 at Access 18

Litter by weight: 3 lbs 14.5 oz

Cigarette butts: 740

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 67 days:

19,073