Its been a dreary day with a dogged northerly so I decided to stay and charge the battery with the solar panel. I usually love spending time alone on a small island but today I've been missing my family. It's just about the only downside to these expeditions, but I can't really complain, no one forced me into it! And on the bright side it makes seeing them again in a week and a half something to look forward to. I did a search of the island and found some debris that has washed up from a human source- a rope. It reminded me of the Coast Watchers expedition in 2012 and all the wonderful beach clean ups I did with students. Boy'o'boy they picked up a lot of junk that year! There's actually not that much marine debris around this island but any westerly facing shore gets some washing up from the Southern Ocean. When it's plastic the big problem is that it doesn't biodegrade, it just mechanically breaks down into smaller and smaller bits. This is proving to be an issue for many seabirds and marine creatures- plus its super ugly seeing rubbish on the beach. By the way, the students comments and research have been fantastic so far and I always look forward to reading through them.
