Garbage Sale: Where? Deer Island...When? Every Day....What? Everything and Anything

Adventure #4 for Stone Elementary School took place on October 10th, 2011 at site #2 on the North side of Deer Island.  It was a humid day out on the island and these students and their teachers did a great job out there collecting a total of 232.60 lbs!  

As pictured above, the students used GPS units to mark large items that we were unable to move from the island.  An example of such items from the day were large pieces of treated wood and ropes from large ships that were embedded in the sand and were not able to be removed.  We also marked small things such as broken glass and hazardous/medical waste that were not able to be removed due to health risks.   

We really collected some peculiar items on this trip such as, ropes of all different sizes, blankets, clothing items, plastic coated wires and a string of burnt decorative lights.  In terms of wet weight, the heaviest categories of debris for the day were wood at 151 lbs and miscellaneous items at 46.3 lbs.  

The enthusiasm exhibited by this group was outstanding!  I really applaud their time and effor they have put into this program and I hope that they will serve as an example of good coastal stewards to their friends, family and community members!

The Last Round of the Marine Debris Fall Showdown...Ding Ding Ding

The last, but certainly not least, group from Stone Elementary went out to Deer Island on 10/12/2011 and collected from site #1 on the North side.  Not only was the sun not out that morning, but there was a huge dredging pipe running through the middle of our clean up site!  Due to this obstacle, we decided to clean up the 1/4 mile that was available and not cross the pipe to get to the rest of the site.  Even though we were not able to clean up the entire 1/2 mile segment, we had found quite the array of strange debris.

This group of kids were really great, they were working in teams and were set on beating the other classes poundage of debris collected.  We found some interesting things that day, like buried ropes, a fiberglass car part, fired pottery pieces, a large dip net and the top half of a plastic 55 gallon drum! 

We collected a total of 116.84 lbs!  Great job guys!

I am happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed working with Mrs. Rose and her 5th grade students.  Thank you all so very much for participating in this program and to prove that being responsible about trash is not only cool, but fun as well! 

Keep it up guys and gals, I am very pleased that you are turning your generation into the greenest generation yet!

Deer Island's like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're going to get!

The fifth group from Stone Elementary made it's way over to Ocean Springs, MS to head out to Deer Island for yet another marine debris removal trip.  These kids did an amazing job, we had a nice day weather wise and collected quite the odd pieces of debris, on the South side of the island along site #4. 

As you can see in these photos, these students poured their heart, soul and muscles into this project!  I was really impressed with their dilligence and passion for picking up trash, they really showed that they cared for the environment. 

I remember when they found the tarp in the picture above, the students were so excited and driven to remove it from the island.  This took a lot of time and effort, but when it was all said and done, we worked together to dig it and pull it out of the sand.  Another unusual and bulky item we found was the door to a boat, along with a dead palm tree with a styrofoam base (*pictured below*).  Deer Island really is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.

We collected a total of 266.80 lbs!  Great job guys and gals, you did wonderfully!  You all made a big difference by taking the time to take care about the environment, because if we don't do it, who will?

Coastal America Ocean Art Contest- Regional Winners!

Congratulations to the members of the Allied Health Class from Ocean Springs High School who participated in this years Coastal America's Ocean Art Contest!  Led by a passionate teacher Dr. Judy Dalgo, these students put together 9 shadow boxes, filled with debris and other items collected from local beaches.   

Regional Winner: 

"One Man's Trash is not the Ocean's Treasure"

by Caitlin Woods, Bailey Winesky, Sean Bartosik and Gerrad McLauren

These pieces spoke volumes, not only did these pieces of art address the marine debris problem, but many focused on anothropogenic factors that affect the health of our oceans, like the Deep Water Horizon oil spill.  It astounded me how much these pieces struck me and the other judges, if pictures are worth a thousand words, marine debris is worth a billion words!

Regional Honorable Mention:

"Coastal Ca-tar-strophe"

By:  Marissa Gonzalez, Kristen Thomas, Jena Hceckly, Karisma Slusher, Eduardo Martinez, Kristen Davis

 Although, we were only allowed to submit one Regional winner, I believe that every, single piece had something unique, impactful and powerful about it that really hit home.  All of the collages submitted represented the Ocean Literacy Principle that The Ocean and Humans are Inextricably Linked.  These pieces did a great job of showing just how much of an impact people have on their envrionment and that we need to take responsibility for our way of living if we wish to continue living that way, we need to create a balance with nature.

Thank you again for all your hard work and for sharing your artwork with the USM's Gulf Coast Research Lab's Marine Education Center, a Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center.  These works will be judged at the National level in Washington, D.C. at the Coastal America office starting March 1st, 2012.  Winners will get a free trip out to D.C. and will be recognized on Capitol Hill.  Good Luck! 

Catching Those Litter-Bugs with Stone Elementary!

It was a hot, Wednesday in September when the third group from Stone Elementary School came out to clean up site #1 on Deer Island.  These kids pushed through the heat of the day and collected a good amount of trash!   

Many of the items that we collected that day included very small plastic fragments, cigarette butts, light bulbs and many different styrofoam products.  We collected many different articles of clothing, fly swatters and flip flops!    

This group did a great job in working their way down the half mile long stretch of beach, even in the presence of such obstacles as the Great Blue Heron pictured above!  I guess he wanted to come and thank us for a job well done, no more plastic for dinner Mr. Heron.

We collected a total of 169.76 lbs, the majority (46%) was treated wood! 

Thank you so much for all your hard work kids!  You did a great job in making our coast a cleaner place =) 

WANTED: 160 lb Tire.... REWARD: Cleaner, Greener Future

Round two for Vancleave High School and their 4th grade gifted class was a total knock out!  We set out to Deer Island on September 27th, 2011 to take on site #2, also located on the North side of the island.  It was all hands on deck and man, did we clean house!

We collected a record high of 395.95 lbs that day!

At the end of site #2, there is a popular camping site, where we found a huge aluminum tent frame, a large tire (which we later found out was the most wanted piece of debris on the island, weighing in at 160 lbs) and a variety of lovely camping trash left in the trash bag for good samaritans to take care of.  This was such a great group of kids, they are examples of environmentally aware and conservation minded individuals!  With kids like these running things in the future, it's looking like a clean, bright, new world. 

As a result of our clean up trips, Mrs. Leslie Salter and her marine science class has started a plastics recycling program at their school in Vancleave, MS and it has taken off like wild-fire!  These students have taken a true environmental initiative and their passion for conservation and inspired others to join in the green movement.  They have made recycling cool!  These students have participated in a marine debris clean up program with me and have proven great knowledge and compassion for the conservation of their local environment.  I am impressed by their dedication and ingenuity and strongly believe that they deserve proper recognition for their proactive efforts.  They are proving that small steps can make a big difference.

Tallest Order: 500 lbs of Treated Wood.... Coming Right Up!

On Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 we took a trip out to Deer Island from the Schooner Pier, with the students and teachers of Mary Bethune High School.  Seeing as these students were from Hattiesburg, MS some had never been to the coast, nor been on a boat ride before, so this was a big day for all of us in some way or another.  We started our day at 9:30am and didn't finish until well after 2pm.

It turned out to be one of the best days we've had yet this winter, it was just the right amount of wind to keep the bugs away and enough sun to wear a t-shirt.  We cleaned up site 2 with great ease, with the exception of the loads and loads of treated wood we loaded into the wheel barrow and the plastic drum (which, ironically enough, used to be a trash can).  We found everything from small, hot pink, plastic pieces resembling elbow macaroni to entire channel markers washed up on the shore of Deer Island.  When it was all said and done, and the trash was sorted, weighed and logged into the computer, we had collected 821.58 lbs!  This is a record weight of debris collected from any 1/2 mile site we have designated for this project!  Great job guys!  This just goes to show, with a little hard work and little bit of land, we can work together to make a huge difference!