Shipwrecks, Sea Shells, and Whales

I've always liked the beach. Not for swimming or surfing so much, but for the intersting things I've seen at the beach.

As a young teen, we lived on the Right Coast and that was my first real exposure to a beach. I loved to play beneath the boardwalk at Coney Island while searching for lost things dropped by those above. I discovered surf fishing then, and actually swam in the warm water current during a winter snow.

I've visited my share of beaches. Beaches in Florida, beaches in Louisanna, beaches in Texas, Bahama beaches, California beaches, Hawaiian beaches, and now the beaches of the Pacific Northwest.

Oregon beaches are really different than the ones I've visited in the past. They are not much for swimming, although some do. They are mostly for walking, exploring, finding stuff, and appreciating nature. And you can drive a car right on most of the beaches here.

I've seen but a few that dare to wear a bikini, or a bathing suit of any kind. No, no one is nude, but more likely wearing Levis instead. And there is lots of stuff to discover, recover, or just let be. It's common to find intact shells, starfish, and unusual driftwood pieces. I've not seen a condom, or hypodermic needle, a dirty diaper, or many empty beer bottles.

Low tide, following a storm, is the best to beachcomb. Sand Dollars the size of your palm, colorfull dinner plate sized starfish cover the rocks, while crabs hide nearby from the birds lurking above. Driftwood pieces of all sizes, some apparently hundreds of years old, are waiting to be picked up and fashioned into artwork. I'll see people digging for clams, fishing the surf, or riding a sail buggy through the winds and for miles down the sand.

The bigger storms really stur things up. This year, at least two shipwrecks have appeared on the beach. Temporarily uncovered by the ocean's forces, they reveal themselves briefly only to be taken back to the depths with the next storm. Historians work fevorishly to identify the wrecks and preserve the artifacts before the wreck leaves, usually in the next storm. Recently, 4 cannons from the same ship were found on the beach, in three different places, across 60 miles of coastline. Amazing..

Oregon law declares all natural waterways are public domain up to the hide tide or high water shoreline. That means that you can walk the shoreline of any beach, lake, river, or stream without fear of tresspassing, including the shoreline of my front yard. And Oregon has a finder keepers law that allows you to keep anything you find along a shoreline providing it is not stolen, you register it, and have the means to recover it in it's entirety (ie: you can not cut pieces off a shipwreck, but you can take a cannon lying next to it in the sand, if you have the means).

Volunteers, organized by the State, watch and monitor the coast. Each volunteer is assigned a segment of beach and is required to monitor it regularily and report their findings to the State. It seems that there are beach clean up days every weekend. Therefore, you'll find little trash on the beach, and most of what you do find originates from other parts of the world.

A few weeks ago,coastal observers discovered a 55 foot whale lying dead on the beach in our town. Unlike in 1970, where a dead whale was blown up with dynamite by the town experts, it was quickly burried with a bulldozer. Check ou this old video clip to see that whale explosion, and the ensuing side effects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_t44siFyb4

Visit the Dock and I'll take you to the beach.