Coastal Cleanup by the Numbers (and a Baked Potato)
Somebody left a baked potato at South Beach Park. Wrapped in foil, just sitting there, until the Dyer Subaru crew found it on September 19.
It won them a trophy. It's no brick of drugs, which is what turned up last year, but we'll take a slower year on the contraband front. The potato was also the least worrying thing pulled off of our coastline that morning.
Coastal Connections, Inc. just released the final numbers from this year's International Coastal Cleanup, and almost all of them are records: 1,324 volunteers at 26 sites, hauling 4,863 pounds of debris off our beaches, waterfront parks and boat ramps. That's at least 41,502 pieces of trash that are no longer headed for the lagoon or the ocean.
What they found most:
9,172 hard plastic pieces (5,850 of them microplastics)
5,343 pieces of plastic film
3,807 cigarette butts, over 1,000 more than last year
2,524 bottle caps
2,187 bits of foam
This was CCinc's fifth year running the local leg of a cleanup Ocean Conservancy started 41 years ago. Globally, more than 19 million volunteers have pulled over 400 million pounds of debris out of the water since then.
As for the awards ceremony:
Indian River Distillery took the Turtley Terrific Team Title with the name Purple Prophylactic Propagules. They also won Trashiest Location for the second year running, averaging 55.88 pounds per person (558.87 total).
The Willow School once again claimed Green Team Spirit, sending 80 people to Humiston Beach Park.
Dyer Subaru got the Trashy Treasure Trophy...for the potato.
Honorable mentions go to the City of Sebastian Natural Resources Board, which hauled the most weight of anyone, 618.4 pounds from the Capt. Robert Hardee Main Street Boat Ramp, and to Pelican Island Classical Magnet School (PICMS) and the Environmental Learning Center, who picked up 3,574 pieces at Golden Sands Beach Park, the most at any single site. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was right behind them on piece count, with 3,310 from the Wabasso Causeway. PICMS also fielded the second-largest team with 52 volunteers.
Everyone finished the day at Walking Tree Brewery, where they were rewarded with a much-deserved free beer.
Next year, bring gloves (and leave the side dishes at home, please).
