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!