3rd February

 
Hooray, I have my beach back - the barricades are gone!!!
Today is the last day of work on the sea defences - the barricades came down yesterday and a solitary digger is working at the north end of the beach.

An icy wind blows from the northwest. Erosion at the foot of the cliff and a line of seaweed and rubbish (plastic bags, in particular) are evidence of recent high tides - it is a while since I have seen tides of this height. But now the tide is out and just the occasional disposable cup gently wafts in on the waves.

I find a Smartie top early on - a 'K', an old one too. And two old Ski (1960s/70s) yogurt pots...  - why do they wash up so frequently??

There are a lot of cuttlefish today - and too many sanitary towels.

high tide: 07.16 hrs 2.3m, low tide: 13.21 hrs 1.2m

time of arrival: 14.20 hrs

weather: cloudy with some sunshine, winds NW 18mph, temperature 2c
marine litter: primarily light plastics ie. plastic bags, sanitary towels, cups and bottles, mostly at the foot of the cliff deposited by a previous high tide.

 

    

 

  

 

 

4th January

 It's around low tide as I arrive and wide expanses of sand are exposed. The seascape has a haunting beauty. I find a huge flint, split in two, lying on the shingle. Stormy seas have bent and buried part of the barricade and signs, and there are fresh earthy cliff falls on the beach and clods of clifftop grass.

There is not much rubbish though I find a couple of good wildlife traps. These will be useful as most of my collection is currently on display in Spain. Of the three identifiable pieces of rubbish, two are foreign (French and Belgian) - moreorless par for the course at this time of year.

A dogfish lies washed up at the top of the beach where the footpath meets the shingle.

high tide: 06.39 hrs 2.4m; low tide 13.21 hrs 1m (est)

time of arrival: 13.14 hrs

weather: overcast, wind SW 20mph, temperature 8c
marine litter: moderate to low amount, nothing of note.

 

 

11th November

 A flying visit to the south of the barricades to see what is happening but all the action is north towards the ness.The seas are quite wild and have thrown a lot of plastic onto the shore so, though no time to stop long, it doesn't take long to collect a bag of rubbish. A lot of plastic bottles and containers this time - including from France and Holland, probably recent discards off ships.
Still the seaweed...

low tide:

time of arrival: 11.54 hrs

weather: cloudy, wind SE 15mph (est), temperature 10c
marine litter: bottles, containers.

 

2nd November

A sunny day with lively seas. An industrial-scale operation is being undertaken beyond the barricades and the bags are multiplying, lying in formation beneath cliff.
It is low tide and a large heap of sand is piled up just by the water - has this been imported for filling the bags or has it been collected at the site? Will it be used before the tide washes back up the beach??
There are signs of a fresh earth fall from the cliffs north of the works.
An unusual amount of seaweed remains at the high water mark.

The Coke can washed up with the weed (an all too frequent sight sadly) reminds me of the often forgotten global benefits of an Enviro-marketing TM approach to brand marketing... Once washed up, never forgotten.

Among the items I collect is an ancient Eden Vale tub and a 'Fleet Foot' rubber sandal, made in Canada. An internet search turns up the ads below. Fleet Foot was a brand of Dominion Rubber. The rubber shoes were manufactured from 1911 at St Jerome, Quebec, forty miles north of Montreal. In their heyday in the 1950s, 37000 rubber shoes were produced all over the world.  The newspaper ad is from the Montreal Gazette, June 11th, 1924! I would love to know the age and history of my new old sandal...

low tide: 09.21 hrs 0.6m; high tide 16.18 hrs 2.6m

time of arrival: 10.07 hrs

weather: sunny, wind SE 21mph, temperature 14c
marine litter: mostly larger pieces and heavier plastics; a headless teddy bear, three sanitary towels and, unusually, no identifiable foreign packing.