Mile 247 Report
South Spit Salmon River, Tillamook/Lincoln county line
January 9, 2025
Overall, the beach was gorgeous and appeared to be swept clean by recent high tides.
Report Details
Overall, the beach was gorgeous and appeared to be swept clean by recent high tides. But upon closer inspection, there was a LOT of microplastics — especially on our “official” Coast Watch mile. We tried to pick up anything larger than 1/4 “. Other items found were typical beach stuff like plastic bottles, styrofoam, synthetic ropes, etc. Also found on “our mile” was a fairly well-disintegrated dead seal.
Conditions
Temperature: 58 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Tide Level: 5 feet.
Human Activities
Number of people: 4. Walking or running: 4. Other Activities: 2 of the humans were my husband and myself, who were on the beach to pick up trash and look for any other interesting features to report. The other 2 were people walking through. All of us got the beach via kayak, but were not kayaking along Mile 247..
Concerns
Litter
Apparent violations: Overall, the beach was gorgeous and appeared to be swept clean by recent high tides. But upon closer inspection, there was a LOT of microplastics — especially on Mile 247. We tried to pick up anything larger than 1/4 “. Other items found were typical beach stuff like plastic bottles, styrofoam, synthetic ropes, etc. Also found on “our mile” was a fairly well-disintegrated dead seal..Dead Fish or Invertebrates
I dead seal, per note on previous page.
Driftline Content
Mile 247 seemed to have a lot more microplastic debris than the adjacent 248.
Natural Changes
Landslides/major boulder falls. This was the first formal survey that we’ve done in a while. There clearly is evidence of landslides of the hillsides along Mile 247, but am not sure how much is recent.
View south of Miles 248 and 247
Microplastics
Bag full of debris
Dead seal
Report Images
Joan Mahler
CoastWatcher
All Mile 247 Reports
Mile 247
South Spit Salmon River, Tillamook/Lincoln county line
Overall, the beach was gorgeous and appeared to be swept clean by recent high tides.
Joan Mahler
Mile 247
South Spit Salmon River, Tillamook/Lincoln county line
A survey team of Sitka Center staff and residency program participants (Jake, Nancy, Sharita and GraySea) accessed Mile 247 - Salmon River Spit by crossing the Salmon River Estuary via kayak and paddleboard.
Sitka Center
Mile 247
South Spit Salmon River, Tillamook/Lincoln county line
A survey team of Sitka Center staff and local volunteers (GraySea, Jake, Nancy, Laurie and Bill) accessed the sand spit via kayak and canoe. The survey team accessed the south side of the 'keyhole' area in the rocky intertidal habitat (southernmost portion of Mile 247) and conducted a 15 minute timed count of ochre sea stars to submit to the MARINe program.
Sitka Team and Community Members
Mile 247
South Spit Salmon River, Tillamook/Lincoln county line
A survey team of Sitka Center staff and local volunteers (Chris, Nancy, Lilly and Melissa) accessed the sand spit via kayak and canoe.
Sitka Center Team and Community Members
Mile 247
South Spit Salmon River, Tillamook/Lincoln county line
Trash and dead seal
Joan Mahler
Mile 247
South Spit Salmon River, Tillamook/Lincoln county line
A survey team of two Sitka Center team members, Jake and Nancy, accessed Mile 247 - Salmon River Spit by crossing the Salmon River Estuary via kayak and paddleboard. During this survey, the survey team was able to access the inner area of the rocky habitat and do a 15 minute timed sea star count in the two sea star monitoring sites. As the survey team walked back north noteable debris included a large tangle of ships rope, noteable wrack line content included a high concentration of giant mole crab casings/moults and small pieces of hard plastics.
Nancy Newman
Mile 247
South Spit Salmon River, Tillamook/Lincoln county line
Survey participants accessed Mile 247 - Salmon River spit via kayaking/paddle boarding across the Salmon River Estuary.
Mile 247 - Salmon River Spit
Mile 247
South Spit Salmon River, Tillamook/Lincoln county line
Sitka Center team member Nancy and Sitka Center artists in residence Evan, Rose, Katrina, Tim, Maria and M accessed the site via kayak.
Nancy Newman