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South Beach, Port Washington © Flavio Martín Morante_2012
"The sea has never been friendly to man.
At most it has been accomplice of human restlessness"
_ Joseph Conrad from the "Mirror to the Sea".
Sadly, last Saturday the above quote made itself visible in several and ironic ways. The sea (or in this case the lake) is not friendly to man, as the man many times is neither friendly to sea. After a conversation about the pictures I been taking on South Beach (and how much I LIKE the place itself), I was invited by Kit Walters to join the program "Adopt a Beach", one of the many efforts by the "Alliance for the Great Lakes" to do volunteer beach clean-up and data collection, an effort that Kit herself in this case coordinates and to which I am really glad to become part of.
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Plastic bottled picked during beach cleaning © Flavio Martín Morante_2012
Dawn joined me, as 6 or 7 seven volunteers got together on the beach around 10 AM and armed with plastic bags, a clipboard and some gloves, we spent a nice time picking up as much as we could. In a very short distance, we found ourselves running out of space to write on the clipboard due to the vast amount of objects (or partial objects) we were finding. (Take in account that was the first date of beach cleaning.) Cigarette lighters, tennis balls, the infamous aluminum foil balloons, styrofoam scraps, plastic bottles, etc, etc. This last ones are the ones that impressed me the most. We picked so many plastic bottles (the ones on the above picture are just one of the filled bags), that It makes you ask how we can litter so much and so irresponsibly?.
I swim there, I go for walks, I sit and watch the water for long periods of time, but I am not the only one, there is a lot of people that do so, as also many of the creatures that inhabit the lake do. Not long ago I found a beautiful and huge seagull dead on the beach (not the bird on the below picture) all tangled on a fishing net, and the lure and hook right at her mouth. It did not die of natural causes for sure. That is one of the reasons why I think we should try to do our small part to make it better. It is a effort that should be collective, as we ALL benefit from it. If you are interested on participate on this effort, please visit the Alliance for the Great Lakes website or shot me an e-mail and I gladly will pass it on or simply pick couple of things you find when you go for a walk.
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Casualty? © Flavio Martín Morante_2012
Sadly, added to the semi-wake up call due to all the above described, the day was somehow stained by tragedy. As we were on the beach, I saw how someone got in a kayak into the lake, when the waves and the wind were not the most appropriate to do so I thought. Sadly I came to find out that day late in the afternoon that rescue teams have pulled out a 24 year old man out of the Port Washington waters who got separated from his kayak, just 1 hour after I saw him. Yesterday I came to find out that the guy died despite the efforts to save him.
A sad lost that maybe could have been prevented and for which I feel sorry for the guy and his family.
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