The Last Trip of the Year for Us.... Not the Last Day for Marine Debris

On May 11th, 2012 we had our last marine debris removal group from Moss Point High School come out to clean up site #4 on the South side of Deer Island.  It started off with a short rope swing experience and ended with 239.45 lbs of debris!  Great job guys!

 

They were a hard working group that was trying their best to beat the highest amount of debris collected so far, which is 851 lbs.

Even though it didn't seem like there was much to pick up out there, we found a lot of small pieces of plastic, including styrofoam fragments, bottle caps and rings and parts of fireworks.

They collected a total of 121 lbs of treated wood, not including the piece pictured above behind the student holding the log!

It took all of us to pull it off, but we finally pushed the cart all the way down the 1/2 mile strip of beach and across the island to the North side to load onto the boat.  We collected everything from a saturated couch cushion to a large, rusted piece of wire from a large vessel!

I want to say thank you to the students from Moss Point High School!  You all did a great job and I appreciate all your hard work.  Whether or not you feel like you made an impact, you should know that every small step taken is an impact in the making =)  Keep it up and I hope you share all that you have learned about the marine debris problem and how we can be a part of the solution just by picking up what we see lying on the ground!

Sweeping Deer Island for Debris with St. Andrews

St. Andrew's Episcopal came out to clean up Deer Island with us on Friday May 4th, 2012.  This group traveled down from Ridgeland, MS to help out with the Mississippi Marine Debris Removal and Prevention Project.  This was a really good group of students that were ready and rearing to go!

We found a few unusual things while combing the island for debris such as, a plastic cat head that was buried in the sand with a visor attached to it, large ropes, chunks of rubber and crab trap fragments.     

After we finished on the South side, the group in the front decided to add a wave to the island =)

We collected lots of treated wood with rusty nails in them, they listened very well and kept the sharp nails away from their hands during collection!

Some even ventured off the beaten track to grab some plastics they saw from a distance!

We were keeping out of the grasses because the Least Terns are making nests in the grasses and we wanted to leave them be, so we stayed in a specific area out of the grasses for the trip.

These two gentlemen in the picture above pulled the very heavy wheel barrow full of treated wood, shards of glass and chunks of scrap metal all the way from the South to the North side of the island!  Great job, great work ethic and I hope that you guys keep it up!

I want to thank St. Andrew's Episcopal for their hard work and dedication to this project, they traveled a great distance to make a world of difference =)  We collected a total of 410.49 lbs of debris!  This number makes this gorup the runner up of the Mississippi Marine Debris Removal & Prevention Project, following the 810 lbs collected by Mary Bethune High School!  Congratulations and keep on cleaning, no matter where you live, we are downstream from there! 



Picking Up Debris with Picayune Junior High

We took another trip out to Deer Island on April 25th, 2012 to site #2 on the North Side of Deer Island, this time Picayune High School joined us for a marine debris sweep!

There wasn't much debris on the island, which was a really good sign that things might be getting better!  Some of the things we did collect included chunks of scrap metal encrusted with oyster shells and barnacles, a plastic Incredible Hulk figurine and chunks of rubber. 

This group did a great job of scouring the island for the smaller debris, which we now know poses a great threat to marine organisms and human health!  Great job guys!

After all the work at come and gone, it was time to hunt for sharks teeth! 

 As you can see from the picture above, we found plenty of sharks teeth!  Each student found at least one and most walked away with at least 3.

Thank you so much for all your hard work and patience!  We collected a total of 63.85 lbs from a half mile segment!  Good work guys and I hope you keep it up... we need to clean if we want to keep our coast green!

Clean 'em and Weep!

Vancleave High School brought out yet another group to clean up Deer Island on April 16th, 2012.  This group of high school students really dug in and picked up a total of 331.65 lbs from site #3 on the South side of the island!

We started the morning off by cleaning up the camp site on the North side on our way over to the South side.  Needless to say, there were some campers that left it all behind for someone else to clean up!  It smelled just as good as it looks like it would...someone had a delicious crawfish boil on the island and we got the leftovers.  The wheel barrow was full within the first 15 minutes of our clean up!  We had to rebag it all in force-flex trash bags and load it onto the boat before we crossed the island.  Great job guys!

It wasn't all bad though, this little ghost crab decided to join the party!  Luckily this young lady was wearing gloves, he really had a hold of her fingers.

On the South side we found some pretty interesting debris including tarps, crab trap fragments, a gigg, a broom and a septic tank from an old boat.  The girls pictured below got down in the sand and dug the septic tank out, great job!  This may be a stinky job... but someone needs to do it.

Overall, this trip was very productive, they found lots of sharks teeth and cleaned up a half mile segment of Deer Island.  I really appreciate all your hard work and efforts to conserve our coastal environment!  Keep it up and I know that one day, we won't find hundreds of pounds of trash in even a ten mile segment, much less in a half mile!

Marine Debris March Madness

It was truly marine debris madness this March, with two trips that collected a bunch of debris.  Magnolia Jr. High School came out to Deer Island with us on March 29th, 2012 to see how much debris they could collect from site # 2 on the North side of the island.

 Let the games begin!

These kids dug right in and pulled up some interesting things right from the get-go!  The Miscellaneous category comprised 30% of the wet weight of the debris collected and included items such as blankets, derelict nets, large ropes, shoes, chunks of tire, batteries and boat oil filters.  

These students really gave it their all!

Total pounds of debris collected: 462.75 lbs! 

Thanks so much for all your hard work, keep it up!



Debris Change-Up.... East Beach Clean Up

On April 13th, 2012 we had the pleasure of hosting a marine debris clean up with 64 students from Lucedale Intermediate School from Lucedale, MS.  These 6th grade students cleaned up the mile long stretch of East Beach and ended the day with some seining in the Mississippi Sound!  These kids were really great... they worked so hard, some were stopping every two steps to pick up more debris =)

We collected everything from styrofoam cups and plastic fragments to treated lumber and crab traps!

Enjoying the day in the sun, see... picking up trash can be fun!

Looks like most of our trash was coming from in the marsh grasses.  Marsh grass not only keeps the beach where it is and protects our coastal communities from errosion but they also serve as a filtration and buffer zone, where it collects all that washes ashore (even the debris).  Everyone on this field trip could attest to the fact that Black Needle Rush is very sharp and it was no picnic to pick debris out of the stalks of sharp grass!

They worked really hard on picking up everything they deemed hazardous to the environment.  But that large piece of drift wood was put back on the beach, good thinking though guys!

Congratulations to the 6th grade classes from Lucedale Intermediate for collecting a total of 383.65 lbs of trash from East Beach!  Thanks for all your hard work and I hope you all continue to think green and be green =)

Good Sports, Good Fun, The Work Has Just Begun

A group of marine science students from the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College came out with their teacher Mrs. Christy Philippoff on 3/28/2012.  We set out to clean up site #4 on the South side of Deer Island, where the sand that had been dredged out of the channel was deposited.  This was the first time since last September that we had been out to site #4, we really anticipated quite a large haul!

We found quite a plethora of debris at this site such as, derelict fishing nets, blankets, large ropes from ships and lots of batteries of all different shapes and sizes.  This group cleaned the island so fast, I could hardly keep up!  You guys really did a great job and I appreciate all your efforts!

They collected a total of 303.65 lbs!

These students did such a great job sorting the debris, they even went as far as creating a seive out of the mesh trash bags to separate the cigarette butts and small plastic pieces from the sand.  Great job guys, I cannot stress enough how much we appreciate all your hard work and being so involved in and passionate about preserving your coastal environment!