April 9, 2022

Report Details

Jesse Jones our contact and coordinator for Coast Watch, Jon French, Dawn Pavitt-Ryan and myself met at the Sandpiper Shores Entrance and walked to Buckley Creek to train for a new NOAA Marine Debris Program. We learned how to set up our selected 100 meter survey area near the Buckley Creek outlet to the Pacific Ocean. We learned how to measure our survey area and collect the marine debris per the procedures required by the NOAA MDMAP. This area is considered Mile 203 on the Oregon Coast. I monitor this mile as my Coast Watch Mile. Jesse felt that the site that we chose was a good site for the NOAA project. Most of the debris seems to come from the fishing boats. There is a lot of fishing in this area of the ocean for Dungeonous Crab and shrimp. It will be interesting to see what is collected over time. The survey will be done monthly and as close as possible to the same date each month. The Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project, or MDMAP, engages NOAA partners and volunteers around the world to survey and record the amount and types of marine debris on shorelines. How big is the marine debris problem, and how is it changing over time? What types of debris are most common in your region? MDMAP survey data can help to answer these questions and can be used to guide marine debris policy development, provide education and outreach, and address important research questions.

Conditions

Temperature: 50 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: NW. Tide Level: 2.1 feet.

Report Images

Nancy Thomas

CoastWatcher

All Mile 203 Reports

Date

Showing 8 of 79 reports

Mile 203

Driftwood Beach south, Hidden Lake

January 23, 2024

The beach has had substantial washing away of old dunes and washing up of beach grass into the dunes. There were 45 bird carcasses of we believe are Cassin's auklets.

Jeff Hildreth

Mile 203

Driftwood Beach south, Hidden Lake

January 19, 2024

Today I and my two CoastWatch partners conducted a NOAA Marine Debris survey on our 100 meter survey site at Sandpiper Beach, Mile 203. On reaching our marine debris survey site, we saw a lot of Cassin's Auklet carcasses, which COASST calls CAAU, all high up on the beach among the beach vegetation and washed-in sea grass, many carcasses partially covered by sand or vegetation. After we completed our debris survey, I returned to our survey site and began collecting CAAU carcasses in groups of 9, as COASST recommends, ultimately collecting 40 carcasses in 4 full and 1 partial grouping. Below is a link to our Sandpiper Beach NOAA debris survey site where most CAAUs were found, reached by a boardwalk that enters the beach midway in the debris survey site. COASST defines a "wreck" as more than 20 beached individuals of one species per kilometer, and a "MME" (Massive Mortality Event) as a spike of up to hundreds of carcasses per kilometer. We also found a beached Northern Fulmar and what is I believe was either a female Gadwall or White-winged Scoter, which I took note of but didn't measure or report on to COASST. I submitted documentation with photos of the CAAU beaching event to COASST, and COASST responded that they had received reports of CAAU beachings from Southern Oregon sites like Coquille Point and Cape Blanco but also as far north as Manzanita. All this sounds very dry, but it was really sad to see and handle all these beautiful little dead birds and wonder if this is completely natural or if climate change, and perhaps a decline of prey species making these birds more vulnerable, factors into these mortality events. https://mdmap.

Jon French

Mile 203

Driftwood Beach south, Hidden Lake

September 30, 2023

The storms and rain caused some beach washout from the ocean and from the land.

JLcoasties

Mile 203

Driftwood Beach south, Hidden Lake

June 21, 2023

The dunes have reappeared due to the spring winds.

JLcoasties

Mile 203

Driftwood Beach south, Hidden Lake

April 12, 2023

Last year at this time, Jesse Jones helped us set up a 100 meter NOAA marine debris survey site on Mile 204, which we later moved to Sandpiper Beach on Mile 203.

Jon French