On July 28,  Shawn and Andrew removed an estimated 1000 lbs of marine debris, including 4 tires, 9 fish pans of small plastics, 10 broken fish pans, ½” thick foam rubber (4×8′),  black plastic sheeting, (4×6’),  2 pieces of drag fishing net, (40 x 20 ft), 20 plastic buckets,  a rubber raft, a door, and an iron roller from a dragnet.  

On July 27, an additional 4000 lbs of debris was recovered.  A big chunk of this was a 1100′ long piece of rope, likely off a big tug or something being towed.  But we also removed another 300 lbs of plastic, 12 bags of garbage, javex bottles, a steel door, styrofoam, plastic signs, small rope pieces, a chunk of cushion floor, plastic flowerpots, blue bait bags, clear plastic bags, 50 ‘ of snow fencing, 5-6 bucket covers, a garbage pan cover, yellow foam, empty jersey can, 7’ of sewer pipe, piece of teflon used in crab pots, 2 hard hats, white styrofoam buoy, 3 milk crates, 5 gallon blue water bottle, a roll of plastic on cardboard tube, plastic housing for inside of a van console, and a bunch of lube bottles,  some 50 years old! 

In one spot we found about 16″ of plastic bags, compressed in layers and buried in the sod. The deeper you dig,  the more brittle the plastic is.  It really made us think about the importance of keeping marine plastic out of our shoreline environments, and removing them quickly before they start to break down. The longer plastic sits on our shorelines, the harder it becomes to remove.