Two things stood out to me when we visited Plumb Beach on Halloween. The first was the unusual shape of the beach, the second, the types of garbage we found there. As Professor Branco had previously mentioned, the beach sand had been distributed unevenly due to the way the water moves sand, but additionally, erosion of sand volume was also blatantly displayed. At a certain location of the beach, there was an actual shelf of sand which was unevenly worn away and abruptly dropped off to a lower level of sand. The shelf was at least two feet higher than the sand level next to it, and it was clear that a lot of sand had been moved off the beach already. With such a clear example of erosion (it looked like a textbook example!) one would hope that the Parks Department is diligently looking for funds for a beach nourishment project, or is contriving a better way to keep sand on the beach in a nondisruptive manner.
The plastics we found on the beach were largely the usual food waste and bottles, along with fishing and boating supplies, but, disturbingly, there were (used!) hospital items to be found more frequently than should be. We even found an IV bag that looked like it used to have blood or some other body fluid in it (thank goodness for our gloves!). These are clearly not items that happy beachgoers tote along for a day in the sun, which means that, like most of the plastic, it washed up with the tide. Which begs the question, what hospitals are dumping their waste in the bay, and why are regulations not stricter, or enforced? Sure, pollution needs to be prevented by changes in personal behavior, but a real biohazard could be eliminated by institutions being reasonably responsible.
By: Anna Fyalkowski on November 6, 2014 at 11:54 pm
Along with the weird IV bag we found, do you remember that refrigerator part that your mom had to break apart to fit into our bag? I agree with you completely that the items that we found on friday were not the typical beach bag accessories. It just goes to show the problem with plastic disposal by hospitals and other businesses. It is because of the unusual items of plastic washed up on the shores of Plumb Beach that I realized the extent of the problem of plastics and its harmful effects.
By: Brett Branco on November 11, 2014 at 3:08 am
It was just a few decades ago that offshore dumping grounds were used for municipal waste. Both legal and illegal dumping occurred. I wonder how much of the stuff washing up these days is stuff that was disposed of 30 years ago, only to come back to haunt us.