spoil island clean up/ picking up plastic

here are a few photos of a recent cleanup with my friend julie hurley.  we were at the south end of wrightsville beach , nc across from the coast guard station.  this particular spoil island is where we have found over 300 bio-discs so far.  tomorrow morning we will paddle over again with a group to help clean up even more and to look for bio-discs.

julie found a hand full of plastic and styrofoam within just a few minutes

these plastics eventually make there way to the ocean, affecting many species of marine life. 

plastics are a huge problem in the ocean and the 5 gyres.  sea turtles and others mistake plastic bags for food, ending up with a stomach full of plastics and starving to death.  this is just not okay.  we have to cut down/ stop using single use plastics.  

plastic water bottles (single use plastic) are one of the worst hazards, as they float to the bottom of the ocean and land on the sea bed where sea turtles, manatees and other marine animals feed.  this type of debris kills then sea grass, essentially impacting the organisms that marine life depends upon for food.  

all of this was floating around the high tide line ...caught in the marsh and reeds.  

these are bio-discs, used in water treatment plants and in aquaculture, we are beginning to find more and more of these among the shores of banks channel.  working to find the source so that a trap of some sort can be put in place to keep them from losing these.  bio discs are made to never break down.  there are 110 in this photo.

signs used to protect wildlife are often made from plastic... eventually blowing away and breaking down into micro-plastics.  all 5 gyres in the ocean contain micro-plastics.  marine life cannot differentiate between natural habitat and plastics floating in the ocean, so there is a lot of marine life living in this nasty, toxic plastic.  we can do better.  

wherever you go, please pick up any plastic that you find.  it is estimated that 80% of plastic found in the ocean is from runoff.  we can do a lot to prevent this from happening, by picking it up and by saying NO to single use plastic! 

if you do just one thing, it will make a difference!

*say no to straws

*take your own re-usable bags to stores (say NO to plastic bags)

*stop buying single use water bottles (use your own glass bottle or re-usable water container)

plastic water bottles leach harmful chemicals into the drinking water.  

YUCK!

please feel free to contact me with any questions.

kim@bigstronggirldesigns.com