While I LOVE the beach, it is always a bitter-sweet experience for me. The ocean, the sand, the dunes- it is all so beautiful. Yet, despite its beauty, it is heavily abused by people, which is always hard to see.
We stay at the Gulf Shores Plantation, where my parents own a condo. It is located on Fort Morgan Peninsula- which, up until very recently, was not part of the city of Gulf Shores, and thus not very developed at all, as opposed to the rest of Gulf Shores which is an absolute madhouse and CRAWLING with tourists. This is what attracted my parents to this property. However, with its recent annexation by the city, they fear it is only a matter of time before it's eaten up with high rise condos and mega-souvenir shops as well. The endangered Alabama Beach Mouse (Peromyscus polionotus ammobates) resides here, and has halted some development projects, which some suspect spurred angry developers to release feral cats into the area in an attempt to destroy the last remaining populations of these critters. These cats are now commonplace among the condos and dunes on Fort Morgan pensinsula.
Trash is another issue. Many mornings Mom and I get up and walk the beach, often carrying trash sacks with us and picking up trash as we go. We often fill our bags before returning. Walking to the beach is reminiscent of walking through a tailgate at an Auburn University football game. People stake-out their little patch of sand upon arrival, driving tent poles and umbrellas into the ground to "mark their territory", hauling loads of chairs, coolers, kids' toys, etc. down and dumping them on their patch, then simply leave them there for the duration of their trip, so that each day when they trek to the beach they do not have to haul their STUFF back and forth, but rather there it awaits them each day, ready to be used. OR, doesn't await them, because frequently in the night the wind blows the tent away, and the high tide washes their plastic shovels and flip-flops and cheap plastic chairs and blow-up rafts into the sea. No worries, though, they're on vacation! They'll run down to Surf City and buy more!
Ah, Surf City, Alvin's Island, Souvenir Emporium, yada yada yada... my Mammaw was shocked and appalled (or maybe just shocked- I was appalled) when we walked into one of these giant Wal-Mart-esque tourist traps. I avoid these at all costs, but hey, when the cousins want henna tattoos, what's a girl to do? I was quickly reminded of why I'm so disgusted by them. Shelves upon shelves upon shelves displayed thousands of shells and starfish and coral pieces, raped from the ocean (in often extremely destructive fashion) to be strung on a necklace that an adolescent teen will wear for a week after they return home from the beach before getting lost in the back of their closet and later ending up in a yard sale or the garbage, or purchased for a ridiculously low price only to be displayed on someone's coffee table in a midwest ranch-style home. A bin full of dried seahorses, a shelf full of lacquered alligator heads, a modified table-top aquarium full of hermit crabs in gaudy shellacked hot pink and neon orange shells, "free with purchase of a hermit crab kit" - what are we doing? How does a society become so completely removed from their environment and the natural world that living beings become "stuff", simply adornments to be pillaged and killed for our own enjoyment? Why should seahorses and alligators and crabs have to suffer for our sick obsession for stuff?
Sigh- back to the beach. As Mom, Mammaw and I walked one morning in the surf, watching for dolphins and birds offshore, our attention was drawn to the end of a fisherman's line as a rather large cownose ray struggled to free itself. I inquired of the fisherman whether he was going to release the animal, as he patronizingly replied "Oooh, I don't know, it's a big, dangerous animal, do you really think I should let it go?". Give me a break moron, I'm a biologist, I mean, really? Fortunately his friendly companion took a hiatus from his own fishing, and quickly came over and broke the line, informing us that the salt-water hooks were designed to dissolve in a short amount of time, and that the ray would be fine. After engaging this gentleman from New Orleans in conversation, he said he didn't see the need to kill anything he couldn't eat. "But if that was a big redfish on the end of that line" he replied... Good for him. Not 20 yards down the beach and another fisherman had caught an equally big ray. Approaching him, I quickly learned that this redneck bubba was a different cookie entirely, and knew I had a battle. He informed me that all he cared about was retrieving his fishing tackle and didn't care what became of the animal. Trying to restrain myself, I said something not exactly friendly, but didn't say too much as he was wielding a knife near the poor ray's head. I feel confident that ray would have met his demise without our presence, but instead he huffingly sawed through his precious fishing hook (and sawed off a thin layer of the ray's lip, then flinging it from his knife onto Mom's foot), and I thanked him, patronizingly, as he pushed the ray back into the water.
Before our walk was over, I witnessed a dog furiously dig up a rather large ghost crab from deep in the recesses of its sandy burrow, shake it to death in his mouth, then drop it dead on the beach before trotting to catch up with its owners who were oblivious to the carnage their dog just wreaked on the wildlife (or more likely knew and didn't care, as this was probably a routine form of "play" for the dog).
As we returned to the boardwalk for our building, I was disappointed to see 3+ days of garbage spilling out of the garbage can and piled in several sacks around it. I knew for a fact that it had not been emptied in the three days we'd been there. So, even people who actually were bothering to clean up after themselves efforts' were thwarted, since the condo management seemed to busy to do such a miniscule task as empty the garbage regularly so as to keep it from blowing into the ocean. It took Mom calling the front desk to finally get someone to empty it.
And our effect on sea turtles?!? Well, that's another story for another day... stay tuned for my thoughts (and experiences!) on that.
If only we could see the beauty around us, the wonderful world we've been given, and protect instead of ravage it.
