Today was International Coastal Cleanup Day.  Once again we helped out and chose the same location as last year.  I remember 20 people spending a solid 4 hours cleaning the shoreline, the jetty and the parking lot at the marina.

Well, this year was different.  It took 5 of us 30 minutes to complete the same task. 

I’m not sure people in general were neater this year but we did have our shoreline surrounded by boom because of the oil spilling into the Gulf this summer.  The whole coast line  from Orange Beach up into the Mobile Bay, then around and down the other side to the Mississippi/Alabama state line was protected from oil and trash floating in the water.  There wasn’t much boating activity either and hardly a storm to push the trash inland.  What a difference from last year.

I’m always happy to help on this day but the oil spill caused a bunch of things to change.  No one was cleaning on the beachs, I’m told, and the opportunities to clean in Fairhope included city parks and playgrounds which have no coast, and street walkways which have no coast.