Beach Clean-up

Every year SWCC hosts a beach clean-up the day after Independence Day. The beaches are always littered with used fireworks and it's usually pretty messy. I have attended them in the past. This year I was an organizer assigned to Miramar Beach. The first thing I saw when I arrived at 7:45am was the the beach was pretty well covered with DH clean-up crew. Some in vehicles, some under tent shelters, some on foot. The ones on foot were cleaning the beaches, picking up trash and bagging it. I asked the supervisor if they were getting the firework debris and he assured me they were. They were told to clean the beach and they were doing just that. He did not report that there was much in the way of oil. I stayed at my station for awhile so if anyone came to help with the SWCC effort I could explain they really didn't need to help these guys. It was interesting to watch all the activity anyway. I could probably observe about a mile from where I was and guess that within a half mile area on the beach I saw approximately 60 contracted clean-up people and 9 or 10 vehicles (2 were trucks driving around with port-a-pottys), and a hand full of tourists. I met one person from Fish and Wildlife management who politely gave me a phone number card and asked that I call if I saw any dead animals. He told me about birds out in the gulf that are breeding and particularly vulnerable to the spill and that we should expect to find them washed up on shore occasionally. I met the head of one of the condo HOA's, also involved with an organized clean-up effort, that told me the beach has never been cleaner...not even any cigarette butts could be found right now. I also met a man who lives here part of the year who was visibly shaken as he asked about what I knew about the oil spill. All I could tell him was that the beaches were being cleaned and that is really all I know for sure. It's just surreal here right now. You are normal because life goes on, the sun is shining, the tide keeps coming in and going out and you have your routine but yet nothing is normal at all.