Madonna University- Sweeping the Coast with An Anti-Trash Toast!

Madonna University came out to lend a helping hand on June 1st, 2012.  This trip was the first since Moss Point High School which went out on May 11th, so needless to say, I expected quite a load of trash and was ready for a day full of debris!    

Tarps...

Tables...

And Boat Seats... OH MY!

We headed out to Deer Island to clean up site #1 and ended up pushing through into site #2 as well; both sites are located on the North side of Deer Island.  We cleaned up everything from plastic bottles, caps and aluminum cans to loads of duct tape, boat seats, tables, propane tanks and inner tubes! 

Another clean up day, more and more trash!  This was one heavy load, we collected a total of 655.21 lbs!  This total included an estimate on the weight of a huge piece of wooden debris that the students so diligently loaded onto the boat and was too large to move to the weighing station!

These students and teachers are a part of a service learning group that came down for the College Field Program to check out the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and help us with ongoing projects.  Thank you so much for all of your hard work!  I hope to work with your school again soon... keep it green!

Teachers Take on Deer Island 4th of July Debris

Welcome teachers to the 2012 Marine Debris Teacher Workshop!  We had participants from all over Mississippi and Louisiana, and after meeting all the teachers for this years program, I know this year's going to be a good one!

The workshop took place on July 5th and 6th, 2012.  On July 6th we hit the water and headed out to Deer Island for the clean up portion of the workshop.  Boy did we hit the ground running!

We cleaned up two sites, site # 1 on the North side of the island and site # 4 on the South side.  We ran into the dreaded landscape of left over tent frames, fireworks and party supplies! 

When we came upon something too large to move or a significant pile of debris, we used the GPS to mark a way point.  These way points are logged in the spreadsheets and used to map the areas on the island with large and unusual debris deposits to help identify the source later on in the project.

These ladies... and one gentlemen... really put the pedal to the metal and swept everything but the sand up from Deer Island!  Great job everyone!

We pushed through the heat and after a long day, it was finally time to load the boat up and enjoy the boat ride back!

After all was said and done, we collected a total of 648.80 lbs of debris!

Thank you all so very much for your hard work and perseverance!  I cannot wait to work with you and your groups later on this year and into the spring of 2013!  The new year is looking brighter every day thanks to your efforts =)