Museum of Litter

Litter Donations from July 4, 2010, Lauderdale by the Sea, FL beach

Here are pictures of the litter left behind from the 4th of July festivities.

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It was rainy all afternoon and evening of the 4th, with intermittent scattered thunder storms, so there were not a lot of beach-goers for sun or fireworks. I picked up only four bags worth of litter this morning from behind Aruba, Anglin's Pier, Oriana and south to the Datura Portal.

Lauderdale by the Sea has a contract with a beach raker that combs the beach and picks up most of the debris. However, the equipment doesn't go to the water's edge and they are not set up to separate the recyclables. So, I concentrate on picking up litter at the shoreline (to prevent it from joining the Atlantic Garbage Patch); the recyclables and broken glass. I leave the rest for the raker; especially the fireworks, some of which did not detonate.

Of the four bags worth of litter I gathered, one bag was trash, two bags were recyclables and the fourth bag was my 'pick of the litter' to add to the Museum of Litter's collections.

Litter Donations - June 4, 2009 -- Lauderdale by the Sea, FL

Blue skies... What a welcome site.

Pick-up this morning started at 7 am behind Windjammer. Headed north, past Orianna, the Pier and ended behind Aruba. Picked up three bags full from 7:00 to 7:30am. Headed back south with one empty bag. Didn't expect to fill it, but I did fill the fourth bag by the time I arrived back at Datura Portal around 8 am.

Just south of Windjammer got to see a special treat: a recent sea turtle nest. Watched the turtle patrol dig the eggs out by hand to relocate them to a safer spot.

Litter Donations -- May 25, 2009 (Memorial Day) -- Lauderdale by the Sea, FL

 

Late start because of the on-going rain -- around 10am there was a sunny break and we headed out, starting at the Datura portal (behind Windjammer ) going north past Oriana, the Commercial Pier, Aruba and High Noon, stopping at Minto's, Villas by the Sea.

 

When I first entered the beach, a very sunburned tourist spotted an small sea creature on shore that could not get back out to the ocean.  It was moving slightly & looked like a slug. Her friend got a cup for the creature, filled it with sea water & it came to life all undulating and frilly, like a beautiful Alvin Ailey ballet. Click on the following blue sentence to see it in action:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqJohD-kM84  Her kids took it far out into the ocean so maybe it has a good chance of survival.

 

In two places I found fishing line tangled around plastic debris with seaweed and fish hooks. I would have liked to save the hooks for display in the Museum's hook line & sinker collection but it was so tangled I couldn't safely remove the litter. As it was, the hook pricked my plastic glove. I removed as much of the seaweed as I could safely and threw the rest away.

 

Collected one large (kitchen size) -- very heavy -- garbage bag worth of litter, just from the shoreline, in about an hour.