Coastal Cleanup Day

Photos by H. Murray

My daughter joined thousands of volunteers who swarmed nearly 145 miles of Coast waterways and beaches Saturday morning for the 21st annual Mississippi Coastal Cleanup. The event has always focused on the Coast’s mainland and barrier island beaches and waterways but this year included lakes, rivers, marshes, bayous, estuaries, and other watershed locations. More than 4,000 volunteers scoured 58 locations in Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson counties picking up enough trash and debris to fill 3,120 trash bags and more than five large dump trucks. The annual cleanup is a massive undertaking sponsored by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, the Mississippi Marine Debris Task Force with 80 cities, counties, organizations and businesses supporting the effort.

The teams took action to rid the beaches and inland waterways of litter, hauling off more than 50,000 pounds of unsightly and harmful debris. Some strange things were found on the beaches including the usual broken glass and cigarette butts. Shotgun shells were found on Front Beach in Ocean Springs. “Last year we found out that more than 60 percent of the debris was from recreational activities along the shoreline. This means the trash is not coming mostly from fishermen but from picnic and beach goers who do not throw away their trash, glass bottles, cigarettes, cans, and plastic products," the director of DMR said. Peculiar items found at Saturday’s cleanup included pieces of a foosball table at the Long Beach Harbor, a pile of animal bones in Hancock County, a live copperhead snake in Biloxi, a set of minivan seats at Heron Bayou in Jackson County, and a jelly fish, entangled in a six-pack ring, which was released by a volunteer near Courthouse Road. Organizers said volunteers also found the remnants of eight tents, eight 55-gallon drums, and the back of a plasma television set on Deer Island.

My daughters adventures (besides collecting trash) included paddling the Ocean Springs coastal beach and wetlands in a kayak, doing battle with a giant black spider, and having a mullet jump into her lap. All the volunteers were treated to a BBQ lunch donated by the ' SHED', in Ocean Springs.