International Coastal Cleanup day is almost upon us… this coming weekend it’s time once more to go out to the coast, back to one or two beaches that the Ikkatsu Project has been monitoring since 2012, first a counting exercise and then the more physical task of hauling out the debris. Taking out the garbage, it’s something we’ve been doing since the start.

And there are other options for getting involved. All along the Washington shoreline, from the coast to the straits to the sound, there will be groups of folks out picking the beaches, taking a few hours out of their weekend to do something good in the salt air.

I’m going to be trying out a couple of different apps while I’m out there, and hopefully will be able to select the one that volunteers will be using for the Tacoma Shoreline Survey in November. I’m also kind of on the lookout for tsunami-related items… I seem to remember something Ebbesmeyer talked about years ago, that the cycle of the North Pacific Gyre is about 6.5 years. Which would mean, if he was correct in his calculations, that it’s possible that tsunami items might be a little more common this year.

The thing is, it’s the wild Northwest coast in autumn. There are a thousand reasons for going and you never really know what you’ll find.