September 22, 2010 - 5pm

The beach had been scraped clean! As if a bulldozer came and pushed away every piece of seaweed and trash in its path. It must have been fairly recent because there weren't even many foot prints on the flattened runway. Pristine. That is until I can see that no amount of cleaning could get all the small fish buried in the sand.

None-the-less, I'm delighted to know that our playground is groomed and looked after.


Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper

REPORT: September 20, 2010 - 5pm

Although the beach was noticeably cleaner, there were small, dead bait fish strewn all over the shoreline, especially in the seaweed tracks where the break had come up and receded. Fish heads, fish bodies. It had me wondering -- if this is what came ON shore, exactly how much was out in the water? Those two hurricanes churned up a lot of life.

Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper

REPORT: September 18 and 19, 2010

Still an enormous amount of rubbish along the shoreline, but not so overwhelming that I can't pick up a bag-full and feel that it was something. The rip currents continue to be a force greater than T. OCEAN can swim in, so we remain in the shallows and dry sand.

On the way home up the path, we stop and dawdle. Everything is game for interaction to a 3 year old boy.


Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper

REPORT: Septmeber 16, 2010 - 6pm

empty beach. rip currents too strong to swim. evening on the beach watching T. OCEAN play in the wide open space.


Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper

REPORT: Sepember 17, 2010

PHOTOS from the last couple of weeks....running along the shore break, rainbow as backdrop, drumming with found sticks...


OBSERVED over the past 2 weeks: more and more and more debris along the shoreline. Hurricanes Earl and Igor, and other smaller storms have brought so much trash to our beaches that I was overwhelmed today to even know where or if to begin picking up anything. Most days recently I have been able to take a bag-full away and feel like I made some small accomplishment. Today was not one of those days.

I have read about the recent confirmation by scientists who concluded that at least 3 of the 5 world's oceanic gyres contain a kind of "plastic soup"; and the only way to clean it is to prevent the debris from getting in there in the first place. After all, they say, it's difficult to clean once the trash gets into the ocean because it's so dispersed.

Since coming to the beach almost daily, I have a slightly different opinion. It seems to me that the ocean does a fine job of cleaning itself, even utilizing the powerful storms out at sea to help this process along. The waves deposit all forms of unwanted matter onto shore, thereby making it easier to remove. The trick is to do so before the next high tide comes to take it all back out again.

I sometimes imagine what it would be like if I had the time to come out every evening (on my own) with a rake and many large bins and just sweep along the shore line....but this is not only my beach or my town or my ocean. Realistically, I'll do what I can when I can.

In the meantime, my little boy has learned to sift through the seaweed tangled mess and pull out the sea-pods and sticks, only to joyfully throw them back out into the water so that he may watch them come back to shore again, repeating this process like a boy-Sisyphus. Observing him, I find the balance between the child who is able to recognize what is unnatural and destructive, and what is so intuitively his own place of beauty that he is always at home there.


Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper

REPORT: September 4, 2010 - Saturday - 5pm

Over the month of August there were many observations, and even a few carefully selected seashells and driftwood that I collected. There were days when the beach was practically free of debris, and others when an enormous an amount of trash washed up during storms and heavy currents. In this past month, my camera stopped working - hence, no pictures on this post.

I learned a few things and have watched as T. OCEAN has too. He now has an almost obsessive need to pick up the trash he sees. And when I insist on him not touching it, he absolutely makes sure that I take care of it. It also bothers him greatly when I have to explain that there are times when there might be too much for me to pick up -- to much for one person. Or that I'm not prepared to clean all the streets, and sidewalks and parks. To him, trash is trash. Without realizing it, I helped create something much bigger in him than I would have imagined. I'm still working on how to best work with him on this.

I have asked myself -- would it be possible to be on the beach without noticing debris and solely enjoy the beauty alone? While I have no doubt I will always find enjoyment being by the water, I have concluded that I can't look away from the trash without acknowledging that I am in fact looking away. Once aware, I cannot make myself unaware. So I guess I may always feel the compulsion to care this place I love.

As of today, the BP well was secured. The last step of finishing the relief well and sealing it off on the bottom will come in another week or so. Three days ago another rig off the Louisiana coast in shallower water blew up, although it wasn't nearly the disaster the BP rig was.

Even though the NOAA predictions for the oil to reach our South FL coastline came and went (August 18th) without it actualizing, the other suppositions that there are no oil plumes were disproved when scientists located one about 22 miles long.

News on all these stories is now getting harder to find in the headlines; other stories now more current, the imminent crisis abated.

Yesterday Tove and I went out to the beach in spite of the thunder to the southwest and light raindrops. We sat side-by-side under our large umbrella watching the most amazing waves. The only people out were surfers - small groupings of them along the north and south break - not a soul in between. Sea gulls teamed overhead making the most of plentiful fish. Hurricane Earl passed us just a day or two earlier, creating the optimal conditions for waves that appeared to rise out of the gray mist. Six to eight foot swells sent surfers skirting across the shoreline. New surfers scurried onto the beach, boards in hand, only to stop dead in their tracks upon realizing the amazing gift before them. The surfers who called it a day and came back to shore stood and watched, mesmerized. A rainbow provided the backdrop and a slight breeze and warm rain were our companions. It was, for me, one of the MOST BEAUTIFUL sights on this beach I have ever seen. And I felt lucky beyond belief to have been there. My little boy, his tiny hand on my knee, watched it all go by with me - together.

More to come...


Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper