Oregon Coast Beach Cleanup Finds the Odd, Spooky and Amusing

Published 03/26/2016 at 6:51 PM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Oregon Coast) – The spring beach cleanup put together today by SOLVE was a smashing success, with nearly 5,000 volunteers pulling some 90,000 pounds of litter and marine debris from Oregon coast beaches. (Photo: sifting small plastics at today's SOLVE Spring Oregon Beach Cleanup).

One cleanup effort included the help of goats.

This time around found beaches in a particularly dirty state, with winter waves being the culprit rather than Man. Storms had swept a lot of things in. Zone captains of the Spring Oregon Beach Cleanup described copious amounts of blue plastic crates with Asian writing, which have been alarming beach experts in recent months. These appear to be tsunami debris from fishing vessels struck down in Japan in 2011's earthquake.

There appeared to be more of these on the central coast than farther north.

Curiosities found included a few custom glass balls from artists that were left on the beaches of the south and central coast, along with wire fencing at Bayocean, a bottle with a note inside at Port Orford, half a kayak near Florence and an aluminum boat near Port Orford.

Sage DeLuna, zone captain for several beaches in the Newport area, said her group found lots of items from ships that had Asian writing on them, such as crates, helmets and buoys. But with a couple experts on hand, they were able to determine they weren't necessarily tsunami debris. Some had Korean writing on them.

Many items had been out to sea for quite awhile, as evidenced by a great deal of gooseneck barnacle growth.

One interesting find was a bottle from Asia that was miraculously unbroken. Others included some items so huge they had to call for the city to help haul them away, including a huge tarp heavily laden with wet sand.

Plenty of tires hit places like Nye Beach, DeLuna said, and there was gobs of fishing line.

Her area included the help of goats from the Cascade Packgoat Club. At Beverly Beach and the southern face of Otter Rock, the goats were packed down with discarded ropes and buoys. They have actually been helping SOLVE clean the beaches for over a decade.

“The Sand Lake area just got hammered,” said Kari Kaiser, zone captain for that part of the north Oregon coast near Pacific City. Her area got many of the plastic crates as well.

There were alarmingly large chunks of broken plastic, as big as a 55-gallon barrel. But one surprise created a few laughs.

“There was a saki bottle that maybe still had some saki in it,” Kaiser said. “But there were no volunteers to test it."

Crews found so much rope it created two massive stacks that had to be hauled away separately by a vehicle.

“There was not a lot of everyday litter,” Kaiser said. “It was all things that had come out of the ocean.”

In the Seaside area, zone captain Coral Cook said there were large chunks of sheet rock, all so large and so heavy they could not be carried. City workers had to be called for that one. These were found near Avenue S near a homeless camp.

At Netarts, captain John Anderson said there was lots of tsunami debris with Japanese marking on it, and plenty of the plastic crates. The oddest find was a large propane tank. Oregon Coast Hotels in these areas - Where to eat - Maps and Virtual Tours. More of some of these Oregon coast below:

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