Spring Projects Remove Tons of Marine Debris From Cape Cod Shoreline

The Center for Coastal Studies and its dedicated volunteer Beach Brigade have been hard at work over the past month removing marine debris from Cape Cod shorelines and tabulating data related to it.

During an April 22  Earth Day cleanup at Wood End in Provincetown, 35 intrepid Beach Brigade volunteers clambered across the harbor breakwater at low tide and spent two hours collecting trash and debris along the moors shoreline, an area notoriously challenging to clear of trash because it’s remote access — vehicles are not allowed to drive overland and entry by boat is extremely limited. This year, in an unprecedented and successful collaboration, CCS teamed up with the Cape Cod National Seashore two weeks Earth Day and 20 people, including CCS Beach Brigadiers, Park Rangers and four ranger trucks removed the cached debris. In two hours, eight truckloads of trash were taken out, including parts of boats, foam blocks, barrels, cushions, two pieces of explosive shock tubing, and every other manner of trash conceivable. The Provincetown transfer station scale documented over 4,300 pounds of trash, which was disposed of by the Park Service.

CCS also sponsored a May Day In The Rip Rap Cleanup at the east end of Provincetown, where debris had collected in the stone revetement over the winter. A dozen CCS Brigadiers spent 90 minutes tugging, pulling, cutting, tweezering and otherwise removing 140 pounds of rope, net and balloon strings out from underneath the jumbled rocks. One piece of explosive shock tubing was found.

On May 15, after months of discussions and planning with the Dennis town officials, a small group of CCS volunteers joined shellfish grant holders in Crowes Pasture to remove broken and old aquaculture gear from the aquaculture grants there. The heavy lifting was done by the shellfishermen prior to the event, and a half-dozen volunteers worked tirelessly to dislodge sand from PVC pipes, creating a lighter load to dispose at the dump. Added to the shellfish debris was an hour’s worth of trash collected from Sesuit Harbor shoreline – including four pieces of explosive shock tubing – readying the area for the busy season.

Beginning last year, pieces of yellow “shock tubing” began turning up on Cape Cod beaches for the first time. After a bit of detective work by the CCS Marine Debris & Plastics Program, the tubing was linked to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blasting project in Boston Harbor. The Center has collected and documented the material and is asking the public to report finding the yellow explosive shock tubing by entering the finds at this citizen science data portal, or by contacting the CCS Marine Debris & Plastics Program at [email protected].

The Center for Coastal Studies’ shoreline cleanup efforts in 2022 are supported in part by the NOAA Marine Debris Program, Animal Welfare International, and the Diana H. Potter Fellowship.

Read more about NOAA’s International Debris Free Gulf of Maine project.

 Early Bird Cleanups

The Center for Coastal Studies, in partnership with the Urban Harbors Institute in Boston, are introduces an “Early Bird Cleanup Series” in June. Each Tuesday this summer from 6:00-7:00 a.m. a cleanup will be hosted at a different beach located along the Massachusetts coast from Provincetown to Boston. These cleanups are scheduled at designed to occur at popular beaches early in the day, before they fill up with beachgoers.

In the past, the Center for Coastal Studies refrained from scheduling beach cleanups during the peak summer months given then challenges of cleanups on populated beaches. The new CCS Research and Outreach Assistant, Kathryn Brooks, wanted to change that, and so the “Early Bird” cleanup idea was created.

“I didn’t want to take the summer off from beach cleanups so I thought, while early, morning cleanups might be fun! I really hope other people feel the same, otherwise I’ll happily be cleaning the beaches alone,” said Brooks.

Come join Kathryn, or her UHI colleague Nick, on Tuesday mornings at a beach near you! Our lineup for June is Scusset Beach (7th), Wollaston Beach (14th), Sandy Neck Beach (21st), and Kalmus Beach (28th). Have a beach you’d like to see cleaned? Let us know! We are still finalizing beaches for July and August and would love to have the input of the public.

The Center for Coastal Studies’ shoreline cleanup efforts in 2022 are supported in part by the NOAA Marine Debris Program, Animal Welfare International, and the Diana H. Potter Fellowship.

All cleanups are open to the general public. Early Bird signups and details available online. Email [email protected] for more information.