I love going to the beach.

[SeaCat]

My wife and I went to the beach today o check out the waves. Nice waves they were too, running at roughly si feet. Hell the surfers were happy but the bathers certainly weren't.

After walking the length of the beach and back again while wishing I had a metal detector we sat on the sand and just people watched.

As we were sitting there this couple showed up with their herd of screaming brats. Mother and Father set up the blankets and coolers, cranked up the radio and just let the kids run rampant. The Lfegaurd came out of his tower and chewed them out for not keeping their kids away from the waters edge. Several people came over to their blankets and complained only to be told to "F" Off by the parents.

Then the humor began. The couples oldest son, maybe ten years old but good sized and fairly heavy decided to harrass one of the kids on the beach. This kid, who may have been a small eight years old, got fed up with the bullying tactics, turned and walloped the hell out of the bigger kid sending him running back to his parents. Pandemonium reigned for about fifteen minutes.

When things finally calmed down again and the kids were once again rampagin about the beach the second part of the humor began. One of the younger children found something further down te beach and began investigating it. Two others saw this and ran over to see. Before long they had found a rather large bucket and were busily loading it with whatever they had found. Of course Daddy saw this and bellowed down the beach for the kids to stop what they were doing. Naturally they ignored him and he finally gave up and returned to blasting his radio. My wife and I were read to leave by this time but decided to wait and see what happened.

Sure enough after a bit here came the kids up the beach struggling with their burden. They got to their blankets and tripped over something dumping the bucket onto the blankets and their parents. The yells and curses started and rapidly went up in volumn. They quickly packed up their gear, excluding the blankets and left with their highly upset kids in tow.

I just had to see what had happened so we wandered over to investigate. I almost pissed myself even as I held my nose. It seems the kids had located and filled the bucket with a washup comprised of what looked like a rather large and aromatic dead fish, a rather well used and still soiled diaper, (I don't know if this was washed up or just deposited) and several other pieces of trash of the rather nasty variety.

Me being me I walked over to the lifegaurd tower and asked him for a trash bag and a pair of gloves so I could at the least get rid of the blankets. He asked what had happened and after I explained and he calmed down he gladly supplied me with what I needed. The blankets were duly trashed and a cone was placed over the rest of th remaining mess so the beach crew could find it easily.

My wife and I left the beach with our spirits lifted.

Cat

 

[jomar]

People watching is a great pastime. Can get stuff for stories, or just for pure entertainment value.

 

[rgraham666]

Eesh. Humans.

 

[TE999]

I always go to the beach in the early morning or late afternoon--or when school is in session.

You encounter less vermin that way.

Not in the ocean, in the parking lot.

 

[glynndah]

Thank you for cleaning up the mess. We frequently walk the trails in the parks around here and always manage to fill up a garbage bag or two with other people's litter.

 

[SeaCat]

Thank you for cleaning up the mess. We frequently walk the trails in the parks around here and always manage to fill up a garbage bag or two with other people's litter.

I'm a tad green in that way. Whenever my wife and I go walking on the beach we take along at least one trash bag. By the nd of our walk all the bags we brought along with us are filled. I go even further when I dive. I have a smallish fine mesh goodie bag I carry with me. As I dive I pick up what ever trash I come across and stuff it in the bag. This includes fishing line and lures, bottles and cans, bags, and damned near anything else you care to mention. (I have found some neat things while doing this. Three dive knives, two steel and one Titanium.) Half a dzen watches including a Rolex, several old bottles, a Sterling Silver Keepsake Box, Rings and chains and once an entire dive rig.

The best day I had though was when I was diving off one of the warves in Woods Hole Mass. I had entered the water and saw so much large junk I returned to the beach. I found the Harbor Master and told him what I was willing to do. He was more than happy and made several phone cals lining up people and equipment. Before I knew it there was a crowd on the Warf armed with ropes. Again I entered the water and swimming along the warf I would surface when I found something worthy of being pulled up. They would pass down an end of a rope, I would tie it off and the would haul the object up to the surface and then onto the warf to be disposed of.

I used two tanks that day and came back the next day for another two tanks. By the end of it we had retrieved numerous bikes, including five still chained to a bike rack. Car and boat parts including an anchor. Hell we even pulled up a rusting car. All in all over a ton of trash was hauled out of there.

Two of my largest gripes are with people who don't pick up after their animals on the beach, and th people who just toss their smokes on the beach. (Yes I am a smoker and I do smoke on the beach but I take out what I bring in.)

Cat

 

[glynndah]

The last time we walked a trail, we were threatened with a fine because we were carrying drinks with us. (We missed the sign forbidding food or drinks on trails.) The head ranger who stopped us and was going to ticket us, saw the full bag of trash we had filled up and another one ready to go and told us we could continue as we were. If we ran into any trouble from any of the other rangers to tell them we had special permission to eat and drink in the park. He shook our hands and said thanks. A very good day.

 

[SeaCat]

The last time we walked a trail, we were threatened with a fine because we were carrying drinks with us. (We missed the sign forbidding food or drinks on trails.) The head ranger who stopped us and was going to ticket us, saw the full bag of trash we had filled up and another one ready to go and told us we could continue as we were. If we ran into any trouble from any of the other rangers to tell them we had special permission to eat and drink in the park. He shook our hands and said thanks. A very good day.

A coupe of weeks ago I was doing a beach dive in an area frequented by boaters. They like to anchor in this area and swim. I swam out there and after poking around a bit started filling trash bags. (Okay thes aren't your normal trash bags, these are mesh bags that allow water to pass through.) Each one of these bags was roughly one foot wide by two feet long.

Okay so I was methodical, and cleaning up was my intention. I had a lot of bags with me and I planned things out. I would fill a bag and swim it in to an area near the beahc before dropping it and heading back out. By the time I had finished the dive I had filled six bags, (All I had with me,) and had placed several items in my pockets. As I staggered out of the water with the first two bags I was met by an Environmental Officer. He wanted to check my bags for Lobster.

I told him he was free to dig through the bags, but I had more of them to retrieve. As I carried the bags in he just looked on in surprise. When I had all six bags stacked up on the beach he told me to dump them so he could check them for the Lobster he was worried I was poaching.

When he demanded this I told him I could dump them there on the beach, but I wouldn't pick up the trash after, or he could help me crry them to the trash cans in the parking lot where he could sort them at his leasure.

Hell I helped him to sort the trash from the bags. I picked it out piece by peice as he watched. Every piece was inspected before it went into the trash cans. He didn't see a single Lobster, although he did se plenty of beer cans and bottles, as well as pieces of clothing, plastic bags, fishing line, pieces of clothing, Tampons and Tampon Holders, rope, Diapers, Condoms and other items of trash.

He didn't check my vest pockets, which is a good thing as he would have certainly tried to confiscate the two rings and three chains I had found.

Now here is something that surprises even other divers. I pick up lead whenever I find it. I'll toss the odd fishing weight in my pocket. Some days I'll come out of the water with a couple of ounces, some days I'll come out of the water with a couple of pounds. (I kid you not.) I drop them into a bucket in my storage area. When I have a couple of buckets filled I haul them down to a dive shop I know and sell them to him. In 15 years of diving I have probably recovered two tons worth of lead from the waters.

Cat