A Day with the Matanzas Riverkeepers
and what in the world is a Nurdle?
It’s officially Earth Month, and while it’s literally always about the Earth and the environment around here, I want to make sure and put a lil extra emphasis on that this month!
A few weekends ago I had the wonderful opportunity to go out with the Matanzas Riverkeepers on their Litter Gitter and do some cleaning up of our local waterways!
Now before we get into the adventure, here is a little background! Also if you are normally here for the art, don’t worry my sketchbook will be making an appearance.😉
If you are reading this via Email be sure to “continue in Web” there is a lot to share and this will most likely max out the limited email space.
Who/What are the Matanzas Riverkeepers?
The Matanzas Riverkeeper are a non-profit organization in my region of Florida. They are dedicated to protecting the health of the Guana, Tolomato, Matanzas rivers and their watershed through advocacy, education, and community engagement.
Their work has made a difference in our community be it advocating for stronger water quality protections, helping the community reach out to officials to make change (there is power in numbers), to hosting waterway cleanups, and teaching all of us how to help our environment!
Is there something like this in my area?
It's very possible! So in Florida specifically different areas have different Waterkeepers and the name can change as you move through the state. For Florida specifically you can visit the Waterkeepers Florida website and see if there is one in your area. If you are not in Florida, but live in an area with a lot of water ways I would suggest you search “Your State Waterkeepers” and see if there is something similar.
What is the Litter Gitter?
The Litter Gitter is a boat that the Matanzas Riverkeepers use to go remove litter from our waterways. It’s bright yellow and set up for trash removal. They often host community outings, where locals can sign up to go out with them and grab trash from the waterways, and from little islands within the waterways.
Now let me take you along for the adventure via photos and sketches and of course info!
My mom and I are avid beach cleaner uppers, totally not a real title, and we are always participating in clean ups, initiating our own, or just simply at the beach and see something that we can’t not pick up.
So when a friend reached out and asked if I wanted to join, we changed up the days plans and joined the Matanzas Riverkeepers for 2 hours out on the Matanzas cleaning up pollution, trash, or whatever you want to call it.
It was our first ever clean up via boat, and it was quite a fun experience despite the fact most may turn up their noses at the fact it was all based around trash.
We all met up at the boat launch and chatted for a bit before getting on. While some of us had worked together before via community issues we’ve had in the past this was our first time all meeting up in person! Truthfully it was so nice to be around like minded individuals who just want a healthy environment.
Once we got going the Captain told us all about the Matanzas Riverkeepers, and our mission for the day.
We were supposed to watch for anything that looked like trash in the water, or on the surrounding islands as we made our way South to our actual destination.
We stopped a few times, once for a plastic bag stuck in a Mangrove, and another time for a chip bag and can on the shore.
On the ride we spotted so many pelicans, a loon, and various gulls which was an added bonus.
Now once we reached our destination, we were focusing on finding of course any and all types of trash with an emphasis on microplastics, and specifically Nurdles.
Now are you familiar with Nurdles? While I knew what they were I’d never actually come across any before! I’d only read about them.
Nurdles
Nurdles are lil pellet sized pieces of plastic. I actually saw Earth Justice describe them as lentil sized pieces of plastic and that is actually a great description!
Nurdles are what are molded into plastic things. From the grocery store bag, to the water bottles, to plastic containers, and so on!
The ocean is unfortunately full of them, and it’s a BIG problem. Especially for wildlife.
Polluters are dumping an estimated 1 billion pounds of plastic pellets called nurdles into the ocean every year. - Earth Justice
Due to the way the plastic supply chain works, these Nurdles are often made in one place and transported to another to be turned into something. During that process it’s not always smooth sailing. They are usually stored in shipping containers and unfortunately those containers do fall into the sea and the nurdles are then part of a big ole nurdle Spill.
Once I got home of course I got to digging into the topic even more and I found this great site/resource to learn more about Nurdles!
Massive spills of nurdles are often not talked about in “mainstream” news which is super frustrating as they impact everything, and we all need to know these things if we want a healthy Planet, and therefore a healthy life.
Unfortunately once these Nurdles are in the waterway they are officially harming all forms of life, from birds to fish and that has a ripple effect in food chains, and there isn’t much we can do but try to pick them up, which is a near impossible task. Which ultimately means we need to hold Oil/Plastic companies accountable, and change our relationship with plastic. (Easier said than done I know!)
Now while I’m going to show you what I found, the Ocean Agency has a great horrible photo of what a beach looked like as nurdles washed in from a really bad spill in Sri Lanka a few years ago that I thought I would share. Sometimes I think seeing things truly helps one understand, especially if its not something you experience yourself.
Could you imagine walking on the beach and witnessing this? 💔
Ok now back to the trip!
So once we got to the destination we were all given the necessary supplies. Gloves, a trash grabber, and of course a bucket. We all spread out around the space and got to picking up things.
Looking out at this you are probably thinking eh, it doesn’t look that bad, and wow, that looks dry!
Well, I can tell you there was a lot of to be picked up, and lots I’m sure still there to this day, and yes it’s very dry! We are currently experience a very bad drought.
Now below is lil list of just some of the items found throughout the full group.
Sunglasses Lense
Shoe Sole
Lighters
bottles
lids
candy wrappers
toothbrush
Rusted our Fire Ring (like to contain a campfire)
Treated Wood
And much more including TONS of microplastics and nurdles.
This was one lil section that I ended up spending a lot of time with because this was filled with both microplastics and nurdles. I’m sure you can all see the pops of blue, red, yellow, and green as the traditional microplastics, well they are so hard to pick up because soon as you get a grasp on one it seems to crumble into a 100 more lil pieces. It’s crazy, and soooo easy to see how birds and fish are eating them without knowing it. Plus how they can be in OUR drinking water as well.
Now as I mentioned earlier this was actually my first time finding nurdles but as I looked I kept noticing more and more. Go ahead and take a look at the photo above and see how many you can spot, and then take a closer look at the photo below! I circled as many as I could spot in yellow but I’m sure I missed some.
Crazy right?
Anywhooo, we picked up things for about 2 hours, and then met up at the boat and they recorded everything that the group found and hauled it into the boat so it could all be properly disposed of.
We all got back in the boat and headed back. On the way back a dolphin made an appearance too which anytime I see a dolphin it just makes my day! So it was a great way to end the adventure. The water was beautiful, being on the water was wonderful, and I’m so happy we got to go out and do some good with the Matanzas Waterkeepers!
A few days later I did do some quick sketchbook panels inspired by the day! I always enjoy documenting days like this one in my sketchbook even if it is done sloppily and or with limited supplies with zero pressure to be realistic.
It’s the type of page that won’t look like much to anyone else but instantly as I look at it I’m transported back to the day. The scents, the sea spray, the things we talked about, learned about, and just a nice time. Which in my opinion is one of the neatest things keeping a sketchbook does.
In a way, depending on how you use it, it can become this sort of memory book. Kinda like a scrap book, but it truly may only speak to your because its how YOU experienced it. Its about what you noticed and that’s really neat!
Well I hope you enjoyed this very different installment for Seashells and Sketchbooks in honor of Earth Month! These are personally some of my favorite, because it's mixing all of my passions.
Don’t forget to check out if your areas has something similar, just search Your State + Waterkeepers! It's such a good experience and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone, and if you don’t. Check out local parks or beaches and participate in a clean up, or just set aside some time to do one yourself! They may feel small and insignificant with so much going on in the world, but I it helps, and the more of us that take action the more it will help!
Sea ya Soon, and typos prove humanity at this point, so I’m sure you found some! 🙂
~Sarah