A Weekend Beach Clean Up Plus

Last Saturday marked the 30th annual International Coastal Cleanup Day sponsored around the world by the Ocean Conservancy. Last year during this effort, 561,000 volunteers in 91 countries collected more than 16 million pounds of trash along 13,000 miles of beach. Those of you who have read this column regularly for the past several years may remember that my husband, son and I took part in this world-wide effort several years ago. This year, having slipped away in an effort to hold onto summer a little longer, my husband and I once again found ourselves on Block Island on the day of the massive effort (our son is away at college but the budding marine biologist and environmentalist applauded our efforts). So, on Saturday morning we picked up our garbage bags and the Ocean Conservancy form for recording our data from Kim Gaffett, the Block Island organizer, at State Beach, stopped at home to get gloves and the dogs, and headed off to our chosen beach.

The beach, logically called Coast Guard Beach because it’s next to a decommissioned Coast Guard station, runs along one side of the entrance from Block Island Sound to Great Salt Pond, a harbor approximately one square mile in size. Twice a day, much of the water from Great Salt Pond flows in and out of this channel, scouring the shoreline in the process. However, it is a favorite site for fishermen and for families who come in dinghies from the hundreds of boats that visit the Pond on summer weekends; unfortunately, some of these folks leave trash that ends up above the high water mark along with washed up debris.

At first glance, the beach appeared very clean. You immediately notice obvious trash like plastic bottles and cans, of which we found three each. Straws (11) are also pretty obvious, but you have to train your eye to see much of the other stuff that’s actually there, usually caught up in dried seaweed – the plastic bottle caps (9) or metal ones (3), the pieces of nylon rope (multiple pieces ranging from an inch to two feet), yards of fishing line, and 49 cigarette butts. There were endless pieces of foam and even more plastic ranging from an abandoned child’s shovel to a large piece of shrink wrap off a boat to tiny shards of cup lids. We found a Band-Aid, a sanitary pad, a dryer sheet, and pieces of a pillow case as well as a dead bird, two tires, and what my husband decided must have been a steel signpost – the last too heavy for us to carry away. With help from a curious couple who pitched in briefly, we found all this in just an hour.

We were part of a cadre of 28 Block Island volunteers, who cleaned up approximately ten miles of shoreline, collecting about 500 pounds of trash. Our cigarette butts contributed to the 1,142 in total; our plastic bottles and cans to 132 and 142, respectively. Our fellow trash pickers found thirteen condoms, 18 fishing buoys, pots and traps and 59 balloons. And we left miles of shoreline untouched.

Overall, the Block Island trash collection largely mirrored last year’s international collection. Cigarette butts top both lists; we Block Islanders found very few plastic grocery bags – which is a really good sign – around the world, they were the seventh most frequently found item. We also uncovered relatively few plastic cups and plates compared to 2014 international totals. On the other hand, we found proportionately more balloons and plastic lids. Food wrappers, plastic and glass bottles, plastic bottle caps, cans, straws, and other plastic bags made the top ten list internationally last year and did so on Block Island this year.

It’s notable that so many of these items are made of plastic. Once you start to look carefully, you realize that the beach is strewn with plastic, often in tiny pieces. Research shows that humans dump eight million tons of plastic into the ocean every year. [i] Most of this comes from rapidly developing countries which also tend to have the least developed waste management systems. I remember being struck by the pervasiveness of plastic bags in Senegal. They were everywhere, even adorning the ubiquitous and otherwise attractive baobab trees in the middle of countryside. Senegal has a lengthy coastline and I can’t even imagine how many bags may blow into the sea.

Then what happens to them? They often get eaten by sea creatures such as sea turtles who mistake them for food. Recent research indicates that 52% of sea turtles have ingested plastic. A juvenile sea turtle can die from eating as little .5 gm of plastic. While Asia produces the largest quantity of sea plastic, the research has also identified other hotspots for turtle plastic ingestion including some along the East Coast of the United States.[ii]

Seabirds are even worse off. Currently, research indicates that 65% of seabirds have ingested plastic. The same research estimates that if we don’t stop the inflow of plastic into our oceans, by 2050, virtually all seabirds will have eaten plastic.[iii]

A rag caught my eye on the beach, but as I attempted to pull it out of the clump of seaweed, I realized that wrapped up with the shreds of pillowcase were also fishing line and a nylon rope. They had obviously all been tossed together for some time. They were so tangled that I gave up and just threw the whole lot in the bag. I imagined this mess might be a microcosm of the giant ocean garbage patches. However, it turns out that millions of very small pieces of plastic, much of it invisible to the naked eye, make up the bulk of those patches. In fact, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Marine Debris Program, it’s possible to traverse an ocean garbage patch without even realizing it. That’s actually much more disturbing than my vision of tons of plastic junk. Sea creatures undoubtedly just swallow the plastic as they swim along.[iv]

Coast Guard Beach looked very clean at first glance, but it turned out to harbor numerous hazards to sea life. In this, sadly, it’s probably similar to most beaches worldwide. Having a clean beach is nice, but helping to protect our precious marine environments, environments essential to the health of the planet, carries far more importance. The World Wildlife Fund has documented a 49% decline in the worlds’ ocean mammal, bird, reptile, and fish populations since 1970. Pollution and overfishing top the list of primary culprits. “The only hope of stopping mass death in the oceans is to radically and quickly transform human behavior,” say marine scientists. [v]

California recently banned single-use plastic grocery bags. Montgomery County charges us to use them, and I try very hard not to pay that nickel. I now will feel even greater urgency to bring my bags into the supermarket. Each of us can make a difference in this way, and collectively we can have a huge impact.

As we headed out lugging our bag of trash and two tires, we encountered some fishermen heading to the beach. One was carrying a drink in a plastic cup with a lid and a straw, the other a plastic Gatorade bottle. I almost reminded them to throw them away when they were finished. I didn’t, and I’ve regretted it since.