A walk on the Oyster River trail turned into a beach cleanup for a couple of area residents Oct. 4.
Kate Elhorn and Darlene Bentley planned a morning walk at the Oyster River trail with their dogs.
“A few minutes into the walk, Kate informed me that she brought us each a pair of gardening gloves and a big garbage bag,” Bentley said. “I asked her why, and she told me that the day after our first storm of the year, last week, she came down to the beach – as she does daily – and was horrified at the amount of cans which were scattered along the beach. So, we were not only going for a walk, but we were cleaning up the beach as well!
“What I saw when we both arrived at the beach was surreal. Next to the mouth of the river, there were cans littered everywhere along the shoreline.
“Some were near the water’s edge, others were buried in the seaweed, some were on top of the seaweed.
“I would walk towards a can to pick it up, and realize that I had just stepped on a can which had been buried.
We thought we would have to go home and get another bag, but we compressed each can so that more would fit into the bag. Each time we thought we were done picking up cans, we saw more cans.”
Most of the cans were beer cans. A lot of them had been ripped apart by the journey in the sea. All of the cans either had seaweed or sand in them, which also made the garbage bag heavy to carry out to the trail head.
When the bag was full, Elhorn, tossed the heavy bag over her shoulders to take the kilometre walk back to the car.
“Thankfully, part way, a daily dog walker came by and offered his help and carried the bag to the parking lot. We left the bag at the garbage can for pick up.”
The incident got Bentley thinking about where the cans came from.
“And more importantly – perhaps I’m judging here – but why are people tossing these cans into the river or the ocean?”
