We like to think of Star Island as a fairly pristine environment, but it’s been inhabited for more than 200 years. Gosport Harbor provides a safe haven for hundreds of yachts each year, and let’s face it, people can be messy. Then there’s what the tides leave behind when they go out. So, inspired and led by Christina Dubin of Beyond Plastics and Jen Kennedy, Executive Director and Founder of Blue Ocean Society, we picked up 1,355 pieces of trash — 64 pounds — in two hours on the edges of Star Island.

Many items we picked up can be hazardous to marine life through entanglement or ingestion. We’re thankful you could help us remove these items from the beach before they were washed into the ocean.

Here are totals of the litter we picked up:

PLASTIC

Plastic bags – 18

Beverage bottles – 4

Plastic bottle caps – 6

Plastic film – 8

Fishing line – 3

Food containers – 3

Straws – 8

Wrappers – 13

Zip ties – 4

Other unknown plastic larger than 10 cm – 53

METAL

Beverage cans – 1

Bottle caps – 1

Other metal – 31

GLASS

Beverage bottles – 2

Other glass – 11

FOAM

Cups – 2

Floats/buoys – 1

Food containers – 1

Packaging material – 3

MIXED MATERIALS:

Balloons – 1

Cigarette butts/filters – 2

Lobster bands – 3

Personal hygiene items – 2

Rope and rope scraps – 44

Traps/pot pieces – 17

FRAGMENTS

Foam pieces – 48

Glass pieces – 62

Plastic pieces – 139

Other misc. items included paper and cardboard (39), ceramic/pottery, (18), nails (20), painted concrete (736!), and a shirt.

If you’d like to learn more, or have a clean-up on a coast near you, visit Beyond Plastics and Blue Ocean Society to support their programs.