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.