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Stranded

AIR DATE: Friday, September 19th 2008

POSTED BY: EMILY HARRIS

Download the mp3 for this show.

What do finds on our beaches tell us about the rest of the world?

I still remember that magical day as a kid on my favorite Oregon beach when I collected 100 whole, white sand dollars. I ran from one to another in a tipsy mix of disbelief and joy; filled both hands repeatedly and probably every bucket and bag my family had along.

My mom wouldn't let me take all of them home, but I'm almost certain some are still in a shoebox in a closet with other childhood treasures. I took them out a few times to play with them, but in essence, my sand dollar story stopped there.

If only author Bonnie Henderson had found them! In her new book, Strand: An Odyssey of Pacific Ocean Debris, Henderson traces the orgins of six objects she finds during regular walks on "her" stretch of the Oregon coast - Mile 157, between Florence and Reedsport. A glass fisherman's float, a dead common murre, a running shoe, a minke whale, the charred hull of a fishing boat, and the perfectly evolved egg case of a skate.

Tracing the industrial and natural history of her finds takes her to a fishing village in Japan, a factory in China, a former sea captain's home in Roseburg, and a dead bird seminar in Bellingham, Washington. It connects the stretch of coast she loves to the world via ocean currents, and the changes she is seeing on her beach to the environmental changes happening globally.

 

GUESTS:

 

• Bonnie Henderson: Journalist, author of Strand: An Odyssey of Pacific Ocean Debris
• Julia Parrish: Professor of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, founder of COASST, the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team
• John Verberkmoes: Former captain of the fishing boat Sanak
• Charles Moore: Founder, Algalita Marine Research Foundation

 

Photo credit: axoplasm / Flickr / Creative Commons

Tagged as: beach · ocean · shipwreck

Best find?

That very deeply primitive power of ocean waves, the sound, smell, and feel just seems to go in and take hold somehow.

I don't know if there's something inside a human that recognizes that's where I came from but that's the feeling I get of it. Rapport.

I wonder how someone would feel experiencing the ocean for the first time. I have forgotten, it has been so long ago.

Tom D Ford — Thu Sept. 18th 9:06p.m.

Twice a year thousands of Oregonians comb the 354 miles of Oregon's coastline during SOLV's Beach Cleanups. The fall cleanup takes place tomorrow, Saturday, September 20th and is part of the International Coastal Cleanup Day. If you haven't participated in these cleanups before they are a fantastic way to discover what kinds of things end up on our beaches. Common items include car parts, plastic bottles, and of course thousands of cigarette butts. For more information visit www.solv.org or call 800-333-SOLV.

lyonbm — Fri Sept. 19th 11:56a.m.

As a volunteer COASST observer, my favorite finds include three black-footed albatross bodies that my wife and I found washed up on the beaches of Pacific City. We would never have seen these spectacular birds unless we chartered a sea-sickness-inducing pelagic trip on a boat. Albatross and their relatives, shearwaters, nest far from Oregon in Japan and the south Pacific and it is incredible to find them on our local shores.
-Max Smith

oregonmax — Fri Sept. 19th 12:06p.m.

On a recent trip to the coast I found a beautiful piece of yellow ware pottery with part of the maker's mark still visible. There are so many questions about it for which I'll never have answers - what was this part of, when did it come into the ocean, and where, and where was it made, who used it - sometimes mysteries remain mysteries, and that's okay with me.

In the Grove — Fri Sept. 19th 12:25p.m.

My husband and I and our three children were walking on Arcadia Beach recently when we found something that looked like a missile! It was all wrapped in kelp and must have been six feet long at least. When we investigated, we discovered it was something used by NOAA out in the ocean. It had a phone number to call if it was found, so we all memorized a part of the number. After walking further, and playing for several more hours on the beach, we completely forgot about the strange object we had found. Listening to your show today, I finally remembered! Definitely the most interesting thing we have found on the beach yet.

bradysmom — Fri Sept. 19th 12:28p.m.

We appreciate efforts to clean up the beaches, but is this discussion on dead birds and beach trash really neccessary? Let's move on to something more worth our listening time. This topic is so boring!

mikejoc — Fri Sept. 19th 12:31p.m.

My favorite find are heart shaped small rocks. I find many near Rockaway beach. I keep my window box filled and love to pick them up and re examine them when the mood hits me. My grandchildren and I enjoy picking them up and deciding each time which one is our favorite!

cworegon — Fri Sept. 19th 12:37p.m.

I was recently at a fairly remote cove on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua which is frequented mostly by surfers. I was stunned to see the amount of garbage on the beach - not driftwood, but plastic bottles and the like. My first inclination was to blame the surfers, but I later realized that this debris could be the deposits from the ocean due to prevailing currents. In either case, there was no indication of any attempt to clean it up, quite a contrast to Oregon. I hope to participate with SOLV at Rockaway Beach tomorrow.

bobras — Fri Sept. 19th 12:51p.m.

Having an altimeter on a seagoing boat is an old marine joke, because it is always at sea level.

If you have only one compass on a boat that one could be off, if you have two compasses you can't tell which one is off, so a boat has to have three compasses, so if one is off you can check it against the other two. And adding another instrument, an altimeter, draws attention to have fun with.

So that altimeter could have been from a boat.

Tom D Ford — Fri Sept. 19th 12:56p.m.

We have a house that overlooks the coast and one day my husband called from our balacony "Oh, No!" From where we looked we were sure there was a beached dead Seal or Sea Lion on "our beach". Luckily, when we got down to it we could tell it was a wonderful large piece of driftwood that looked exactly like a Seal or Sea Lion. Not long after it was gone; swept to some other beach by the sea. We use to have a ladder that went from our property to the beach. One night a storm turned it to shreds. An outcropping on our beach regularly gets buried or becomes a 15 foot high rock. These are the changes that fascinate me.

How do you become a Coaster or part of the Coast Watch? I would love to participate. Could someone email me at edie@together-for-children.org. Thanks.

Edie Jones — Fri Sept. 19th 1:08p.m.

Under the "Guests" section above is the word "COASST". It's in a different color, which suggests it's a hyperlink. Yup, moving my mouse over it indicated it points to
http://www.coasst.org/
Clicking on that gets you to their website.

bobras — Fri Sept. 19th 1:42p.m.

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