Beach Clean?

‘A grey mist on the sea’s face
And a grey dawn breaking.’  (Sea Fever, Masefield)
Or
A plastic waste on the sea’s face
And on the shore, breaking.
 
Every winter Cumbria Wildlife Trust organises beach cleans along the coast. Today it was the turn of Crosscannonby; the stretch running beside the old salt pans and the Roman Fort.  It was the first time I had volunteered for this particular task and I parked up by the Nature Reserve, although after the strong winds of the past few days and the rain that hissed on the windscreen, I was not sure if anyone else would be there. 
 
The curve of the wet beach was a study in sepia and grey and away in the distance there were tiny marks like scuffed charcoal where mackintoshed figures were moving slowly along the tide lines.  It was difficult walking towards them as the storms had swept up banks of sand against the low dunes and it had not settled properly. My boots sank up to the ankles and partially buried flotsam and jetsam stuck out from under the surface at odd angles, mixed with spikes of marram grass.
John and his dog were the leaders, but there was no particular plan, just litter pick into your bin bag until full and then trudge back with it to base. Some people were already starting on their second bags and John was wrestling with a long length of rope hopelessly buried under mats of seaweed and more sand.

 It’s always fun walking the tide marks to find treasures the sea has cast up. One keen gardener salvaged a couple of big fish boxes to grow salad greens in, come Spring. But on the whole it was shredded and mangled single-use plastics that made up the bulk of our collection; filmy plastic shopping bags, ripped fertiliser sacks, pieces of tarpaulin, as well as more recognisable cups, fast-food trays, bottles and cans and hundreds of chocolate-bar wrappers. On woman noted that she had never seen so much stuff before in an hour’s haul. This meant we were slower to cover the ground and we did not clear even half of the section. About 10 bags of litter and 2 big piles of miscellaneous large objects were left by the litter bins for the council to collect.
Wolsty Banks Beach next Tuesday. (CWT Events Page)