SeaCat
Hey, my Halo is smoking
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2003
- Posts
- 15,378
Locally we have a beach that has been closed since the storms a couple of years ago. It's a beautiful beach, or was, until the waters were filled with trash washed in by the storms. Swimming isn't allowed there.
Of course people have been complaining about the condition of the beach and the fact it can no longr be used. Of course no one is willing to do a damned thing about it. (The beach is under a large bridge and isn't in the best part of town. This may account for some peoples reluctance to do anything.)
This morning I was sitting around the place thinking about what to do when I had an idea. I started loading things into the back of the car. Ropes, mesh bags, trash bags, gloves, boots etc. Also in the car went a highly modified set of dive gear. Off we went.
When the wife and I arrived at the beach and started unloading the guy there watching over the beach asked what we were thinking of doing. I told him and he started grinning. He pulled out his cell phone and started making calls as he watched me and the wife getting ready.
My wife was dressed in shorts and a Bikini Top along with heavy sole wading boots and Kevlar Gloves. She was carrying a mesh bag as she stepped into the water and started picking up trash.
Me? I had on a dive skin with armored knee pads, boots and of course the Kevlar Gloves. (You never know what you're going to be picking up.) At first I just used a mask and snorkel as I started working.
As we filled each mesh bag we carried it to shore and set it on a concrete piling base to drain before we dumped it into a trash bag. (Three mesh bags per trash bag.) By the time e had several trash bags piled up here came a town contractor hauling a rather large dumpster. He parked it in the parking lot, waved and took off leaving the dumpster behind. Now we had a place to start dumping the bags. We kept working. WE had started working at 1000 and were slowly making headway. I was actually thinking of shifting to the tanks. I was also starting to find larger pieces of trash. Things like furniture. I was going to need the rope to haul this stuff in.
AS I was pulling on my first tank I noticed a couple of cars pulling into the parking lot. They pulled up and asked if we were the couple cleaning up the beach. I admitted we were and they started climbing out of their cars. I was wondering W.T.F. and if I should start worrying about defense when they opened the trunks of their cars revealing more dive gear. Cool. They looked at my somewhat unconventional dive gear and started getting ready as I headed for the water with the ropes.
Now I was in slightly deeper water, maybe ten feet. Hauling in each bag when I filled it would be a pain in the butt so I changed tactics. I had several mesh bags in my pockets as well as small bouys. When I had filled a bag I clipped it closed and attached a bouy to it. This way I or another could find them and haul them in several at a time. By the time I had finished filling the second bag the other two divers were in the water. They saw what I was doing and starte doing the same. Unknown to me as I slowly worked my way down the beach more and more people were showing up. My wife took over and started organizing things.
I was tieing off a rope to the first large piece I came across when I noticed a snorkeler hovering in the water above me. When she saw me looking up at her bikini clad body she motioned that when I was done hooking it up she wanted the rope. I shrugged and finished then handed the rope off. She swam for shore unreeling the line. Within a minute or two I saw the chair start moving towards the beach. When she came back she hadned me both the end of the rope as well as several of my mesh bags. Cool, that meant I didn't have to keep heading for the beach. I kept working.
Back on the beach it was organised bedlam. My wife had people working on the beach itself picking up trash while others hauled bags to the dumpster or pulled in the tied off ropes and then hauled the trash it was tied to over to the dumpster. In the parking lot a couple of cops were directing traffic as more cars streamed in including a trash hauler with an empty dumpster, a broadcast truck from a local TV Station, cars with more people who wanted to help and two large vans filled with people from local Mom and Pop restaraunts.
The County Fire Department Dive Team showed up with their gear as well as their mobile Command Post complete with an Air Compressor to refill tanks. (I used their services a couple of times but I stayed well within safety limits. The deepest area we were working in was only 13 feet.) They also had a rather large powered winch which was quickly put to use.
By the time we had finished I was wiped out. I had been in the water for most of six hours. My skin was well wrinkled. We had not only cleaned the entire beach but we had cleared the water out to a distance of more than 100 feet for the entire length of the beach. Our stats for the day:
One 600 foot long stretch of beach cleared out to 100 feet.
6 Dumpsters filled
3 boats retrieved (The largest was an 18 footer)
10 couches
19 chairs
1 car
more shopping carts than I could be bothered to count
Bikes
21 divers
I personally went through four and a half tanks of air.
The restaraunts that had come by had set up grills and had been feeding people all day for free. We're talking Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Italian Sausage and of course case upon case of iced soda.
We did of course have plenty of humor. As I came out of the water at the end of this I was pointed out by one of the other Divers as well as my wife as the person who had started this whole thing. A camera crew as well as a reporter came over and started interviewing me as I started climbing out of my gear. They asked me why I ahd started all of this and I just shrugged as I told them I hadn't started anything. Everyone had been complaining about the beach being closed but no one could be bothered to clean it up. I had just come down with the intent of at least making a dent in the trash. Everyone else had shown up on their own.
AS I was being interviewed another car pulled in and out climbed the Mayor of the city. He started spouting off about how proud he was of having organised the clean up. The guy video taping me during my interview saw me standing there laughing my ass off and shaking my head at this one. After getting my tanks refilled again for free and stashing my gear in the back of my car my wife and I left.
This evening the showed a news story about the beach clean up but they had edited out my interview as well as the shot of me laughing at the Mayor. Too bad. I don't mind though, I did what I had planned and cleaned up a little bit of that beach.
Cat
Of course people have been complaining about the condition of the beach and the fact it can no longr be used. Of course no one is willing to do a damned thing about it. (The beach is under a large bridge and isn't in the best part of town. This may account for some peoples reluctance to do anything.)
This morning I was sitting around the place thinking about what to do when I had an idea. I started loading things into the back of the car. Ropes, mesh bags, trash bags, gloves, boots etc. Also in the car went a highly modified set of dive gear. Off we went.
When the wife and I arrived at the beach and started unloading the guy there watching over the beach asked what we were thinking of doing. I told him and he started grinning. He pulled out his cell phone and started making calls as he watched me and the wife getting ready.
My wife was dressed in shorts and a Bikini Top along with heavy sole wading boots and Kevlar Gloves. She was carrying a mesh bag as she stepped into the water and started picking up trash.
Me? I had on a dive skin with armored knee pads, boots and of course the Kevlar Gloves. (You never know what you're going to be picking up.) At first I just used a mask and snorkel as I started working.
As we filled each mesh bag we carried it to shore and set it on a concrete piling base to drain before we dumped it into a trash bag. (Three mesh bags per trash bag.) By the time e had several trash bags piled up here came a town contractor hauling a rather large dumpster. He parked it in the parking lot, waved and took off leaving the dumpster behind. Now we had a place to start dumping the bags. We kept working. WE had started working at 1000 and were slowly making headway. I was actually thinking of shifting to the tanks. I was also starting to find larger pieces of trash. Things like furniture. I was going to need the rope to haul this stuff in.
AS I was pulling on my first tank I noticed a couple of cars pulling into the parking lot. They pulled up and asked if we were the couple cleaning up the beach. I admitted we were and they started climbing out of their cars. I was wondering W.T.F. and if I should start worrying about defense when they opened the trunks of their cars revealing more dive gear. Cool. They looked at my somewhat unconventional dive gear and started getting ready as I headed for the water with the ropes.
Now I was in slightly deeper water, maybe ten feet. Hauling in each bag when I filled it would be a pain in the butt so I changed tactics. I had several mesh bags in my pockets as well as small bouys. When I had filled a bag I clipped it closed and attached a bouy to it. This way I or another could find them and haul them in several at a time. By the time I had finished filling the second bag the other two divers were in the water. They saw what I was doing and starte doing the same. Unknown to me as I slowly worked my way down the beach more and more people were showing up. My wife took over and started organizing things.
I was tieing off a rope to the first large piece I came across when I noticed a snorkeler hovering in the water above me. When she saw me looking up at her bikini clad body she motioned that when I was done hooking it up she wanted the rope. I shrugged and finished then handed the rope off. She swam for shore unreeling the line. Within a minute or two I saw the chair start moving towards the beach. When she came back she hadned me both the end of the rope as well as several of my mesh bags. Cool, that meant I didn't have to keep heading for the beach. I kept working.
Back on the beach it was organised bedlam. My wife had people working on the beach itself picking up trash while others hauled bags to the dumpster or pulled in the tied off ropes and then hauled the trash it was tied to over to the dumpster. In the parking lot a couple of cops were directing traffic as more cars streamed in including a trash hauler with an empty dumpster, a broadcast truck from a local TV Station, cars with more people who wanted to help and two large vans filled with people from local Mom and Pop restaraunts.
The County Fire Department Dive Team showed up with their gear as well as their mobile Command Post complete with an Air Compressor to refill tanks. (I used their services a couple of times but I stayed well within safety limits. The deepest area we were working in was only 13 feet.) They also had a rather large powered winch which was quickly put to use.
By the time we had finished I was wiped out. I had been in the water for most of six hours. My skin was well wrinkled. We had not only cleaned the entire beach but we had cleared the water out to a distance of more than 100 feet for the entire length of the beach. Our stats for the day:
One 600 foot long stretch of beach cleared out to 100 feet.
6 Dumpsters filled
3 boats retrieved (The largest was an 18 footer)
10 couches
19 chairs
1 car
more shopping carts than I could be bothered to count
Bikes
21 divers
I personally went through four and a half tanks of air.
The restaraunts that had come by had set up grills and had been feeding people all day for free. We're talking Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Italian Sausage and of course case upon case of iced soda.
We did of course have plenty of humor. As I came out of the water at the end of this I was pointed out by one of the other Divers as well as my wife as the person who had started this whole thing. A camera crew as well as a reporter came over and started interviewing me as I started climbing out of my gear. They asked me why I ahd started all of this and I just shrugged as I told them I hadn't started anything. Everyone had been complaining about the beach being closed but no one could be bothered to clean it up. I had just come down with the intent of at least making a dent in the trash. Everyone else had shown up on their own.
AS I was being interviewed another car pulled in and out climbed the Mayor of the city. He started spouting off about how proud he was of having organised the clean up. The guy video taping me during my interview saw me standing there laughing my ass off and shaking my head at this one. After getting my tanks refilled again for free and stashing my gear in the back of my car my wife and I left.
This evening the showed a news story about the beach clean up but they had edited out my interview as well as the shot of me laughing at the Mayor. Too bad. I don't mind though, I did what I had planned and cleaned up a little bit of that beach.
Cat
from the good little witch.
at the mayor. Good job in taking the initiative on your part. 
