Sea of foam

Blustery beach.

By my estimation, no one's been on the beach for weeks. It's been downright frigid here in Montauk. And the only reason I went down to the beach on this blustery day is that the waves were actually scary-looking from the road and I felt the need to check them out in person. Some sort of sick calling, I guess.

But I was surprised when I got down there to find the beach absolutely covered in trash — mostly tiny bits of Styrofoam this time — washed up by the angry waves. I didn't dare venture farther than about 10 feet in either direction — I could have easily spent my entire day walking the beach and picking up plastic, but I had other obligations that required my time today.

For every piece I picked up today, I begrudgingly left 20 in its place.

Today's tally:

32 pieces of Styrofoam

+ 1 piece of plastic fishing gear

+ 1 tennis ball

+ 4 pieces of plastic film (one with a hard-plastic snap)

+ 1 plastic cigar tip

+ 1 plastic glow stick

+ 2 Chap Stick tubes + 1 unidentified plastic tube

+ 1 Bic pen (couldn't get the cap off to find out if it was working)

+ 4 plastic Ring Pops rings

+ 5 plastic things I have to assume come from fireworks

+ 14 pieces of hard plastic

+ 2 plastic lollipop sticks

+ 4 plastic straws

+ 29 plastic caps

Saved today from the Great Atlantic Garbage Patch: 102 pieces of plastic.

Total saved: 294