5 Gyres - Understanding Plastic Pollution Through Exploration, Education, and Action

Gaviota State Beach is a small cove beach and was completely empty when I visited, late in the afternoon, threatening rain and sopping from the last storm earlier that day. A good deal of drift wood and seaweed, both of which act as a net for marine debris, made for easy collection of 39 bottle caps, remnants and ribbon from two balloons, two lighters, two shotgun shells, two small plastic bottles, one mayonnaise packet, several cap rings, a disposable plastic flosser, a rubber ball, part of a Tupperware lid, leaves from a plastic rose, a brush handle, a wing from a plastic bat, a mold for making Oreo cookies out of Playdoh, the top of a bleach bottle, a wedge of a Styrofoam plate, a red straw, a toy hippo, several plastic bottle cap rings, a lid from a plastic tub, two pieces of a Styrofoam 7-11 coffee cup and a good deal of miscellaneous plastic bits and pieces.