Beach Clean Up At Beach Plum Island State Park today, We Pick Up What Others Won’t.
Beach Plum Island State Park surf fishing drive on beach was covered in plastic trash today. One would think the water and wind must have pushed a lot onto the sand, but as you really look you realize it is daily. Recently someone said to me “Why do you bother picking up this trash, you didn’t put it there those damn tourists come here and trash our beaches. It isn’t my trash why should I pick it up?”
WRONG … It is winter, I don’t see any tourists here spreading around trash. In fact I get a lot of tourists that come down here to help with these clean ups. It isn’t our trash, but these are our beaches and we should try to keep them clean, it isn’t going to pick itself up.
There was trash farther up the beach in last weeks wrack line, old plastic bags and wrappers filling with sand, soon to become part of the beachscape. This trash is coming from the Delaware Bay and ocean. In the case of Beach Plum Island State Park, mostly the Delaware Bay and River. Washing down from storm drains and blowing onto the beach from beyond the dunes. So in a way it is coming from tourists, because the trash is the tourist in this case, except it truly doesn’t belong here.
Four people filled a sixty gallon trash bag to the rim with plastic trash it is literally mostly what was out there. Bud light beer caps, miller liter beer cans, red solo cups, bottle caps and the usual plastic straws but for the most part it was all plastic wrap. A product that is used once and thrown away to be buried in a land fill, or in this case the beaches of Delaware and the east coast.
When someone says to me why bother I always tell them this, “It Isn’t Our Trash, But They Are Our Beaches.” What aggravates me the most is seeing foot prints near half buried trash, or someone sitting in a beach chair pointing out something that needs to be picked up. Sometimes they even thank you for what you are doing, instead of helping. This isn’t a community service, we aren’t doing this for a saint hood, punishment, or community hours, we do it because we want to help and we care. Anyone who does need community hours is welcome to come out and help.
My favorite exchange from a few years ago in the summer on a public walk on beach …
Dude on beach … “What are you doing?”
Me … “Cleaning the trash off the beach.”
Dude on beach … “Why? What are you in some sort of work release program?” Him being a smart Alec, I decide to respond in kind
“Yeah as a matter of fact I just got out, and this is my penance.”
Dude on beach … “Oh really what were you in for?”
Me … “Killing a tourist for putting cigarette butts in my beach”
Dude on beach …
Me …
Me … (looking next to him)
Dude on Beach … “ummmm sorry” as he picks up his collection of cigarette butts he has by his head jammed in the sand like an ashtray. He puts them in my trash bag, cautiously, and then moves (runs) to the other side of the beach.
I kind of felt bad after this exchange, well maybe for a minute, but it made me realize a few things. People are clueless where most of the beach trash comes from, the source. Ninety percent of it comes from the ocean. It is winter and we are picking up entire construction sized trash bags of plastic and junk on the shortest drive on beach in Delaware. The least find this time of year is cigarette butts too by the way.
After that comical exchange and thinking on it a lot, I decided I should organize clean ups and hopefully educate people where this trash comes from and maybe it would help. Who knows, but you have to start somewhere.
So that is why we do this, not for glory or a slap on the back, we do it to educate and help. I’ve been accused of doing it for glory, by the very people that should be out here weekly helping clean up “their” beaches. Irony is a funny thing. I could think of much more glorious things to do on a Sunday morning with our time, like surf fish.
Fish On!
Rich King
Schedule for December … We meet at the corresponding beach parking lot and start by 9 AM. Buckets and gloves provided by DSF. Water provided by DS Custom Tackle. Light snacks afterwards by Iron Hill Brewery Rehoboth Beach
Sunday 15th …. The point in Cape Henlopen State Park (CHSP)
Sunday 21st … Point Comfort Station to Naval Crossing CHSP
Sunday 28th … Herring Point to Gordons Pond CHSP
January 5th … Keybox to Faithful Steward in Delaware Seashore State Park (DSSP)
January 12th … Southside to 3Rs DSSP