Mile 200 - Big Stump Beach, south Patterson SP - October 15, 2021

Report Details

Entered the beach at Patterson State Park to start the mile. As I started walking south near the ocean, there were little pieces of jellyfish on the tide line. I continued walking south and saw kelp, bull kelp, feathers, some crab pieces, a few moon jellies, and a couple of pieces of wood with nails in them. Observed 2 dead birds near the tide line and 3 bird skeletons near the bluffs. Many walkers were enjoying the sunny, windless morning. Reached the end of the mile and walked back near the dunes and bluffs. One of the goals today was to look for nurdles. The strand line was obvious and it was easy to find microplastics in the clumps of sticks and seaweed. I sorted through some of the clumps looking for nurdles. Most of the microplastics were small white round little pieces that were squishy and appeared to be styrofoam. I also found larger pieces of styrofoam near them. I did find 1 small (2mm) rigid white piece of plastic, most likely a nurdle. By no means did I do an exhaustive nurdle hunt, so I suspect where there is one there are many.

Conditions

Temperature: 52 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Tide Level: 6.6 feet.

Human Activities

Number of people: 28. Number of dogs: 6. Walking or running: 26. Playing in sand: 2.

Vehicles

Cars/trucks parking: 10.

Beached Birds

Total dead birds: 5.

Driftline Content

Seaweeds and seagrass, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), Ocean-based debris (from fishing boats, ship trash, etc.). hunks of wood, rope

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