:usaflag: Quality Time With Mother Nature, Another Kind Of Treasure Hunting!! :thumbup:

[Cupajo]

As many of you know I start my day with a hot cup-a-jo watching the sun rise over the eastern end of Long Island Sound. This is quality time I share with Mother Nature that sometimes is a delightful experience of watching lovely colors come forth chasing away the night with changing light intensity and a sudden brilliant burst of the suns golden rays over the horizon! After that first beam of sunlight sears its way over the horizon on a really clear day you must avert your gaze or suffer blindness!

On other days when low lying cloud cover acts as a filter tempering the blazing rays one can enjoy watching directly the colorful spectacle of the sun rising out of the depths of darkness and changing night to day. Slowly the sun climbs into view until about 31/2 minutes after the first rays of light are seen it is completely visible as a sphere of radiant energy balancing on the horizon. Too soon the colorful display is over and my day is well begun. I have only enjoyed this experience as a daily event since the beginning of the summer season due to the failing economy creating free time in my schedule.

As the summer season got underway I noticed that there began to be debris left on the beach after the days crowd was gone for the day. I can understand how one might lose something in the sand, but I cannot understand how a sane person can walk away from the mess they make of the beach.

I began to pick up these odd bits and pieces of trash left behind by thoughtless people and soon realized that I am living in an age of witless, insensitive and completely disrespectful idiots!!!!!!!!!!! I watched as people walked along stepping on or over trash to find a clear space where they might rest themselves in comfort while the stuff is blowing about them in the breeze off the water. Rarely would a person pick up any of the stuff and place it in a garbage container. Just as rare was the person who placed their own trash in the containers provided.

I began to pick this stuff up off my beach in the early morning as part of my daily routine and dumping it in the eight 55 gallon drums provided for that purpose. A six gallon plastic pail full was the norm and on several mornings I filled it twice. On the day after the Memorial Day weekend I picked up 13 plastic pails full!! The two 55 gallon drums on either end of the row of drums at the end of the beach access road were filled to over-flowing with trash piled all over the ground around them! The next two were

 

[Gold Nuggets]

Thanks for sharing your story Cupajo.....
I haven't noticed our beaches here in the Northwest
looking as trashy as you described your beaches.
Yes, we also have those that would just as soon throw
their trash anywhere except in a trash can, and I can
only hope that it won't get as bad as you describe your
beaches. Thanks for doing your part to keep the beaches
somewhat clean and safe for people to enjoy.
Gold Nuggets

 

[Wet and Dry]

All I can Say is ...THANK YOU !!!!!!

 

[Cupajo]

Thanks for your replies Fellow Hunters!!

This whole beach combing experience has been an eye-opener for me.

It's been a wonderful opportunity to interact with the general public and to discuss not only environmental issues, but to promote our hobby as a valuable service too!

I find it amazing that people in general pay very little attention to their environment and how few know anything at all about our hobby.

I believe that in the 40 years my family and I have lived here, I have spent more time on the beach and in the water than anyone in the area.

I have monitored the ebb and flow of the water front as the sands shift with the seasons and storms.

The beaches have always been a problem to keep clean, but it seems to me that the current crop of beach abusers are the worst ever!

I'll continue to do what I do as long as I can and perhaps by setting an example can see some change.

Regards,

CJ

 

[Dig]

Nice post Cup!

 

[Gulf Hunter]

Excellent writing & conservation CJ! Good on ya mate! I will pick up a can every now and again, but leave the rest for the clean-up crew. Most often the major holiday weekends are the most trashed though, but it DOES amaze me too how people can be so damn trashy. Those are the ones you hope lose their stuff, bad karma back their way!

 

[tvr]

I have asked people to pick up their garbage as they leave the beach. It is amazing that some just keep walking and swear at me for suggesting to them that they do the right thing. I've dug what I thought was a shallow can only to find chicken bones wrapped in foil and buried so someone didn't need to go to the trash can.

Even more amazing to me is that I have seen people driving down the road cut in front of convertibles just to throw trash up in the air apparently hoping to "score" a hit and then speed off. Even with a license number and good description, the police don't seem to think it is worth their while going to talk with these criminals.

Fortunately most people not like that.

Keep enjoying the sunrise.
tvr

 

[Cupajo]

The beach I consider "my beach" is only 1/2 mile or so long and during the summer season the town has contracted a crew that cleans up early in the AM.

I noticed that the crew misses some things though and the mechanical sweeper will only pick up so much too.

I help out by taking away those things they miss.

Shortly after the season the contract runs out, but the mess isn't so huge and I can handle it.

It only takes some of my early morning spare time and I enjoy the activity in spite of being annoyed at the attitudes that cause the problem.

I've found I agree with the old saying that ,"If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem!" and I know that even my small part has value.

After all, the can you pick up today is one less lying there tomorrow.

When I hunt the beach or the water with my detector I only do so when I have sufficient time to enjoy the experience so this early morning activity doesn't cut into my preferred hunting time.

GL&HH Friends,

CJ

PS This AM the first rays of sunlight pierced the dark, low lying cloud cover and sent a thrill deep into my primordial being and I can fully understand how the ancients worshiped the sun!

 

[dfxone]

CJ, thanks for a great post about the beach litter, and the beautiful sunrises. Just a little addition when through metal detecting and picking up the trash, keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in your car to sanitize your hands before eating or rubbing your eyes. GH, Don

 

[Cupajo]

Excellent advice Don!!

Between seagulls and people walking their dogs on the beach there are enough microbes available to make half the human race sick!!

There are signs clearly stating that pets are not allowed on the beach, however people still insist on doing it thinking that as long as they "pick up" after the pooch there should be no problem.

They give little or no thought to the biological residue left behind for people young and old to be exposed to!!

On a warm, dry, breezy day these elements can even be blown about by the wind!

CJ

 

[bdahunter]

I always make a point of hauling out the trash when I hunt. The metallic junk is an obvious one as it is easier to remove it as an eyeball find than it is to dig it up from 24" down. The glass is a simple matter of courtesy, I would hate to think that I had walked by something that was dangerous and the next person along (perhaps a child) had cut themselves because I was too lazy to scoop it up and toss it in the junk compartment of my finds jacket.
I have had several instances where someone with 'attitude' has asked me what I find and it is always and eye opener for them when I pull out a handful of broken glass and sharp metal. I always make a point of indicating where I found it, usually it is right where they were just swimming. It is amazing how even rude or suspicious people can often be turned around by a little education. I win, they win - it's all good.

Cheers All,

BDA

 

[Cupajo]

Kindred Spirits BDA,

This being the middle of beach season, I thought this post was worth bringing back for a re-run!!!

CJ

 

[srf2112]

You're one of the few Cupajo. I've spent 35 yrs of my life surfing and cleaning up the local beaches I'm now beginning to hunt. The 5th of July has always been the big day for our volunteer cleaning which always seemed to coincide with a pumping South swell. Beach sweeping for spent fireworks and bottles/cans/? between surf sessions makes for a long day but It's OUR local break and someone has to take care of it. The beach has been our "home' our whole lives so if we get static when we ask people to pack their trash as they leave, well... they end up seeing our side, we'll leave it at that. Now that camping at the beach and fireworks are banned there's a lot less trash but still plenty to keep you busy. Thanks for being one of the few to take care of the beach for all. It's a precious place.
HH
Scott

 

[OldBeechnut]

CJ, thanks for a great post about the beach litter, and the beautiful sunrises. Just a little addition when through metal detecting and picking up the trash, keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in your car to sanitize your hands before eating or rubbing your eyes. GH, Don

I second that!! Great Job CJ...........

 

[kered]

Where does one start. Some photos at 06:30am after the San Juan fiestas night.(23rd June)

A total of 32 tonnes of rubbish had to be picked up after the all night doo,

I definately prefer your story

 

[Cupajo]

And I thought the local beaches were a mess!!!

I sent the following in to a local paper after Memorial Day weekend.

"This AM early I headed to the Sound View Beach in Old Lyme for a quick look at how much of an impact the beach loving crowd had on the sandy shore yesterday.

The scene that awaited me there was enough to make a grown man cry!

The beach was covered from end to end with trash and items left behind by the