This week I went to the beach. It was a slightly overcast day with cool temperatures perfect for walking and enjoying fresh air. Living so close to the beach I sometimes forget how relaxing it is to go there. It had been a few months since I had last gone, and far longer since I had gone by myself. I walked down to the water and saw a few bottle caps on my way there, then I hooked a right and kept walking.....I was dodging trash every few feet. It was rough.
But this my friend is what made me stop and pick something up. Behold a barnacled, broken, aluminum can. So old with age is it that I can't tell what it originally had painted on it's exterior. I couldn't leave it. All I could think about was a child stepping on it. So I picked it up as well as a plastic bag half sunken in to the sand.
My walk continued with interesting finds in sand and seaweed like this grip handle.
I even found a pair of ear buds. It was like Christmas!
I decided to leave these flip flops in case the owner was near by and coming back for them.
I found a few things that did belong on the beach.
RIP
RIP
(Deceased horse shoe crab)
I found enough straws and bottle caps that I started to wonder if we hold a straw and bottle cap convention that I am unaware of. Convenience food item wrappers and items like lollipop sticks, ring pop settings, and juice pouch and box straws were also in abundance.
A lot of items are small and blow away from people, but here's my thing......bring a cooler or bag, make sure it's weighed down, or put it under your blanket and then whatever you bring take back with you. Imagine the marine life that accidentally eats a piece of trash and chokes to death. Imagine a plastic bag getting stuck on a turtle or dolphins head and they die. Imagine a sharp object like broken glass or a tattered old can cutting a dolphin or seal and they bleed to death or are eaten by a predator now that they're easy prey. Put the trash back in your human world.....your child chokes on a bottle cap, a plastic bag over your child's head suffocates them, your child walks on broken glass or old rusted metal. Scary? Imagine not having opposable thumbs.
A lot of items are small and blow away from people, but here's my thing......bring a cooler or bag, make sure it's weighed down, or put it under your blanket and then whatever you bring take back with you. Imagine the marine life that accidentally eats a piece of trash and chokes to death. Imagine a plastic bag getting stuck on a turtle or dolphins head and they die. Imagine a sharp object like broken glass or a tattered old can cutting a dolphin or seal and they bleed to death or are eaten by a predator now that they're easy prey. Put the trash back in your human world.....your child chokes on a bottle cap, a plastic bag over your child's head suffocates them, your child walks on broken glass or old rusted metal. Scary? Imagine not having opposable thumbs.
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