Last week, 13 of the CCS Beach Brigade’s most adventurous volunteers joined the Marine Debris and Plastics Program on Cuttyhunk Island in Buzzards Bay to remove thousands of pounds of debris from the shores of the island. While the mission primarily centered on removing lobster traps that had inundated the beaches over the winter, we also collected and tracked the rope, net, buoys, styrofoam, shoes and bottles we found.
We began our journey on Sunday morning at the pier in New Bedford. We boarded the Cuttyhunk Ferry for an hour-long ride, during which the volunteers got to know each other and enjoyed the famous Cuttyhunk Ferry coffee. Once on the island, we met some of the partners we would spend the week working with: Seth Garfield from Cuttyhunk Shellfish farms who provided us with transportation assistance, Michelle Carvalho from the STEAM Academy (who provided us with food and housing assistance on the island) and Jonny Winet of the Cuttyhunk Climate Action Networkwho offered his support with meal preparation and dishwashing.
The week began by surveying the main beach where we would focus our efforts. Once we had a better idea of which areas needed the most attention, we began disentangling clusters of traps. Many of the traps were snarled together with tangled rope, buoys, other debris and interlocking pieces of rusted trap wire. During the first day on the island, our group of six was able to release one of three main pile-ups of traps on the beach. However, separating the traps from each other was just the beginning of the process! Using large sleds and bungee cords, we were able to stack the traps and trap pieces so that we could haul them to a part of the beach that was accessible for a 4-wheeler and trailer. This was a challenge because unlike our sandy beaches in Provincetown, the shores of Cuttyhunk are rocky. With great agility, patience and perseverance we spent hours making trips across the rocks to relocate 50-100 traps. Needless to say we earned the delicious dinners and desserts prepared by Chef Pamela (with the star of the show being her chocolate flan made with Chequessett Chocolate bars!).
During the middle of the week, we were able to repeat this process at two other locations across the southern shore: separating traps, gathering them in one location, and then working together to transport them to a vehicle-accessible location. Once the traps were staged by the dirt road, we were able to load them onto a trailer attached to a 4-wheeler, driven by the skilled oysterman Sawyer DeVoe. Each trap location required several trips on the 4-wheeler to the main dumpster; however, in a group of skilled knot-tyers, we were able to fully load the trailer and tie them down securely, not losing any traps on the bouncy ride back to “the Home Depot” near the ferry dock where we processed debris.
By the end of the week we were tired, sore, and a bit sunburned (we had great weather!), but spirits were high and we were determined to finish the job well. We disassembled the pile of traps we had carefully arranged, and restacked them in a large roll-off container, counting as we went (our final count was 167 traps!). With help from Wayne and some large machinery, the intact traps were smashed in the bin to make room for our heaping pile of trap scraps that remained. We loaded the scraps onto a huge tarp, bundled it with a rope, and then used a forklift to place our unwieldy package of sharp, rusty wire on top of the crushed traps. We all celebrated the fact that we were able to fit our finds into the dumpster, and then quickly moved onto the next tasks – using magnets to clean up abandoned metal pieces, counting other categories of debris and scrounging for reusable materials for artists.
On Friday evening, we said farewell to our new friends from Cuttyhunk and boarded the Ferry back to New Bedford. Over the course of six days we removed over 500 pounds of rope and net, 124 single-use plastic water bottles, 98 Gatorade bottles and 209 whole or fragmented lobster buoys. We are still awaiting the final weight of the dumpster that included ~200 lobster traps and thousands of pieces of trap scraps; we estimate it weighed ~1.5 tons.
We are grateful to Southeast New England Program (SNEP) Watershed Implementation Grants, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through a collaboration with Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE). Thanks to receiving this two-year grant, we have been able to remove over seventeen thousand pounds of debris from Cuttyhunk!
We could not have done this work without the generous assistance from Michelle at the STEAM Academy for housing, food procurement and general information about the island. Seth was instrumental in helping us with the logistics of hauling debris again this year, even though it was the busy week before Memorial Day Weekend. Finally, thanks to the hard work and dedication of CCS volunteers, we were able to pull off this daunting feat!
We are so grateful to all who support the work we do and help turn trash into data. The numbers we collect in tandem with the stories we tell from our time cleaning beaches have the power to reduce plastic pollution! Thank you for being a part of this community and for your continued devotion to the cause. If you are interested in volunteering for upcoming beach cleanup adventures and trash tallies, please email Marine Debris Operations Assistant Fritz McGirr.
– Wilson Haims, May 30, 2024