June 24, 2012

Report Details

Walked miles 172-174 from south to north, then cut across the dunes inland and followed Sutton Creek back out to the ocean. There is less debris on the beach than there has been over the last month or so, but I was still able to pick up three bags of litter--flat foam pieces, Japanese and Chinese water bottles and plastic beer bottles. There doesn’t seem to be much, if any, debris left in the dunes or along the creek at this point. Hard Styrofoam fishing floats of indeterminate origin were found on the beach—two large floats, one medium, two small. None of these had any markings, but they had clearly been in the water for a significant period of time as all of the paint was worn off. I found the float pictured below by itself on a pristine section of beach at the north end of mile 173. It is hard plastic, nearly a foot in diameter and weighs three and a half pounds. I initially assumed that the marking were Japanese, but it turns out that they are actually Chinese and indicate that the float belongs to the East China Seas Fisheries Research Institute, located in Shanghai, China. The East China Sea is south and west of Japan. I am starting to see a bit of bull kelp on the beach for the first time in a while. There is also a lot of crab molt going on right now. While the snowy plover nesting area appears undisturbed, several of the fence posts cordoning off the area have come down and need to be re-buried in the sand.