Starfishing in Atlantic

Before CBD oil appeared beside the Baby Ruths in the CVS, marijuana harvesting and sales  were carried on very, very quietly. The good ol'boys I knew on the Gulf Coast referred to the occasional bale of floating marijuana that fell from the sky as "Square Groupers." The code phrase for a suspected harverster was, " He's got a brand new pickup truck and no job." On today's four mile bike trip, I netted lots of other green artifacts. True they are not Square Groupers, they are merely too much green plastic trash heading toward our beautiful, blue Atlantic. Sadness.

The fishing gurus say that some redfish spend an entire year in the same shallow pools. I wonder what the fish think if this plastic  detritus floats into their "home'? All of this was found on sidewalks in a four mile beach loop. Starfish folk, please grab plastic pieces.

I ate blue fish once. I did not ask for seconds. My  foodie friends tell me that blue fish are delicious if cleaned correctly and eaten within two hours of removal from the briny deep. This is information I might never have the opportunity to use.  Anyway, I was thinking of bluefish, all fish actually, when I removed a number of blue plastic items from the sidewalks stretching from St.Paul's to Selva. These pieces , possibly, would have made their way into the Atlantic to be converted into microplastics or poked up turtle's noses. Sadness.

According to NPR the average American will eventually ingest enough PLASTIC from fish and other food sources to equal a credit card. Microplastic is showing up every where. Lots of it from straws.The straws are all over the roads. They are stiff plastic ,bright red and blue.  Just read that 71% of seabirds and thirty percent of turtles have been found with plastic in their system.  This means they have a 50% chance of dying prematurely. Straws slip through recycling equipment too because of their size and shape. They feature in the Top 10 items found in coastal cleanups. I'm beginning to think of them as poison darts designed aimed at sea creatures.

Veterans Day and images of Papa, Popie, GRRIII, Robert R., Big George, all folks related to me who have served.WWII to Iraq. I think of them as I bike along the beach picking up red, white, and blue trash for the "Catch Collage." I know the water temperature is dropping and the Sheepshead have been biting from jetties to the Landing.  The Trout are nibbling on the shrimp and breeder Redfish are spawing. The ocean is rich and alive except to the plastic trash.

November 6, 2019 Sixteen mile bike ride but all debris removed from Atlantic Beach . The Halloween skeleton jettisoned his hands on Selva Marina Blvd. The straws are everywhere and the plastic water bottles are anywhere there is construction, which seems to be everywhere. Poor fish.

THE GAME is on again. Biking is a bit more dangerous as the SUV's zoom past flying their flags while their drivers text . One black Lexus went by with what appeared to be a poodle in the driver's seat. At least he wasn't texting. Trash does not seem to predict a victor although the big blue piece might hold out hope for the Gators. Today's ride was the 4 mile loop and the trash was from the sidewalks only.

I  have always loved hero tales. As I have become an elder, I've notice there aren't too many hero tales starring the geriatric set. Looks like Siri has taken over the ancient elder task of information sharing. Most of the additional info seems to go from child to elder because child knows how to make an actual call on the I-Phone and elder, who remembers using a party line, does not. Super heroes seem drawn from the pre-teen set. Not much hero turf left for us actual elders. That is why I LOVE the starfish story. Seems a beach was covered with starfish stranded by a rogue wave. A young man was walking down the beach and noticed an elder lifting one starfish at a time and throwing it back into the water. The young man waded through the piles of dying starfish and said, " You can't possible think you can make a difference here." The elder, picked up a starfish and heaved it back into the surf. He smiled and said, " Well, I made a difference to that one....