The things that wash ashore

For decades, I was a beach comber. I prized sea glass and sand dollars most of all, but I picked up all sorts of things over the years, many of which required research…. How did this get here? The beach I combed the most was east facing in the Gulf Stream. I found buoys and life preservers. A Timex watch, that was still ticking. Shards of China from houses that had fallen into the sea further north. Tennis balls, fishing line, fishing nets, flotsam and jetsam of all kinds, cans, plastic, driftwood and trash, lots of trash. I walked in the early morning with my dogs as the sun rose out of the sea. I headed home when my trash bag was full.

You could tell when a container had been lost overboard. The beach would be littered with shoes or wrapped candies. One night bales of pot and cash came ashore- you could have a field day wondering how that happened.

Recently, in my Twitter feed, of all places, I came across an account called @legolostatsea, that chronicles the legos that washed ashore after a container spill in 1997 off the coast of Cornwall. For me, it is virtual beach combing filled with their daily finds.

Now, there is a book filled with photographs of legos and other plastic “artifacts” that the wind and tides have brought ashore. Adrift by Tracey Williams – The book is filled with photographs of Legos that are still washing up two decades after the spill – wow – let that sink in – pun intended.

I had to order the book from Amazon.U.K. as it is not available in the states yet, but it should be. For anyone who loves the sea, beach combing, a scavenger hunt or legos, its a story of changing tides and plastic in our oceans. The author has catalogued many of her finds with color photographs of everything from bic lighters to cereal box giveaways, toothbrushes, hose parts, fishing lures, plastic bottles and bottle tops and of course legos, legos, legos. Her plastic artifacts are seemingly endless as her daily beach walks always turn up something new. Interspersed with many of my favorite poems about the sea, as a bonus. She highlights, what many of us who have lived near the shore already know, the oceans are filled with drifting plastic and our shores are littered with it.

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