In between squalls, the sun came out today, so I headed out for another beach walk. I spent the first mile and a half looking for interesting things, and the next mile and a half picking up storm debris. I hauled 2 bags full and several arms full of plastic and rope off the beach. As I was gathering debris, I had the great fortune of finding another glass float. This one is a rolling-pin float, 6 inches long. It was rather dirty, and looked rather drab amongst the other debris along the drift line.
I brought the float home, and scrubbed it off, picked up the camera, and returned to the beach to photograph more debris. The bottom photo is the cleaned-up rolling-pin float near some kelp.
Early in the 20th century, glass floats were extensively used by Japanese fishermen to hold up their fishing nets. After World War II, the floats may have been manufactured from melted down Coke or sake bottles, which explains their color. After plastics became widely available, fishermen replaced their glass floats with plastic floats.
Along the drift line, where the high tide had deposited debris, today I noticed lots of tiny pieces of plastic that looked like confetti (and included a pink plastic dog, middle photo). Plastic doesn't decompose, but gets brittle and breaks into smaller pieces. Marine animals mistake the tiny pieces of plastic for prey, and ingest them.
The top photo is some of the beach debris, just as I found it.
Great pictures! I wish you weren't alone in your effort to clean up the beach. I would like to see, not only individuals but many organizations getting involved in this effort. It seems as though there is no limit to the complaints about trash but no suggestion of solution to the problem coming from our society. It would be nice to see something like a neighborhood watch organization or youth organizations getting involved. The more advertisement the better. Good for you, wish we were there to help.
ReplyDeletewow Jill... that float is awesome... i have some rather 'irritating' photos of debris too :( how i miss being able to wander the beaches...
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