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TRASH TALLY

Herring Cove Cleanup Nets 3 Truckloads of Debris

600 bottle caps, 200 balloons, and one turtle

By

PROVINCETOWN — Lumber, Crocs, fishing gear, medical tubing, broken beach chairs, and beer cans were among the three truckloads of trash gathered in two hours’ time by volunteers at Herring Cove Beach on Jan. 14. Afterwards, the group’s gleanings were counted and logged in a database at the Center for Coastal Studies.

Some of the three truckloads of debris collected from Herring Cove Beach on Jan. 14 by a team from the Center for Coastal Studies. In the world of fishing gear, rope and net are all plastic these days, says CCS’s Laura Ludwig, and while “rope” here is generally associated with lobstering, “net” is more likely to be from a mobile gear fishery, like a dragger, trawler, or seiner. (Photos by Nancy Bloom)

Laura Ludwig, who manages the center’s Marine Debris and Plastics Program, organized the cleanup effort to coincide with the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. Thirty-three volunteers scoured the beach on a cold, wet Saturday morning, and 17 people stayed on to sort and count the debris.

Molly Tucker, right, a CCS right whale program intern, separates twine from rope — they’re in two separate categories of fishing gear debris. Lynda Simeone and Genevieve Martin sort shards of plastic.
Because of the wet, windy weather, the volunteer beach brigade brought sleds full of debris indoors to be sorted and counted. Laura Ludwig, who manages the Center for Coastal Studies Marine Debris and Plastics Program, pulls smaller plastic pieces out of a smashed lobster trap.

Distinguishing details about the debris and cataloging quantities, for example of rope versus net, is important, said Ludwig: “It comes in handy to effect changes in behavior or policies, such as has happened with balloon releases, single-use plastic water bottles, or plastic straws.”

Marianna Luz, left, skipped her bookbinding class to spend the entire day with the beach brigade. Sherry Brec was able to join the trash tally at the Center’s Hiebert Marine Lab.
John Muggerige, left, and Mark Labresh tally small blue bits. Behind them, Michelle DaSilva sorts yellows. Zoe Carlberg removes microplastics from sand in a Frisbee.

In an early, unofficial report on the tally, Ludwig said that 600 bottle caps and 200 balloons were among the detritus collected. One dead Kemp’s ridley turtle was found and reported to Mass Audubon, she said, and a pair of yellow wings were confirmed by Provincetown naturalist Dennis Minsky to have belonged to a Northern flicker.

Cans and bottles found on the sandy shore are generally too contaminated to recycle, but the team adds cans to the scrap metal pile and, says Ludwig, the glass bottles make nice dahlia vases.

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