Oregon Coast Cleanup Oddities Include Vampire Blood, Mattress, Dock

Published 03/28/2015

(Oregon Coast) – Some near records were made on the Oregon coast today with SOLVE's annual Spring Oregon Beach Cleanup, as over 5,000 volunteers flooded the beaches and yanked some 63,000 pounds of trash off the sands and shorelines.

Highlights were really the funky finds, like a vial of vampire blood, an entire mooring, money, a dock, a mattress and a baby stroller, among other oddities.

SOLVE's Joy Irby said the most common items were tiny chunks of plastic, cigarette butts, fishing rope, tires, and bottles both plastic and of glass.

A lucky few even collected prized glass blown floats.

Among the real oddities she knew of were a large dock that had washed up at Battle Rock on the south coast, 200 feet of fishing rope in Cannon Beach, a broken mailbox near Cape Lookout State Park, and a bayonet at Sunset Beach.

She added there was also a barnacle-covered cooler lid at Ophir on the southern Oregon coast, while an entire 100-foot mooring was found at Alsea Bay in Waldport.

The zone captains had some really wild tales.

Sage DeLuna was in charge of an area from Newport up to the Devil's Punchbowl. She said there were a lot of tires – although this time of a different nature. Usually, tires found on the beaches come from beneath docks, where they are stuffed with Styrofoam to keep them afloat. Not these.

“A lot of tires that came from cars,” DeLuna said.

Another really unusual find was a garbage can that had washed ashore, but it had somehow been stuck in an upright position just below a railing and had been inadvertently catching trash on its own.

DeLuna also noted a rather heartwarming instance of some kids going the extra mile. There is a tree growing sideways out of Otter Rock on which people had been putting stuff on purpose – mostly garbage. A group of young beach cleaners actually climbed up and got that stuff out of there.

Up in the Oceanside and Netarts area were some of the more outrageous and hilarious finds. Zone captain John Anderson said a bottle was found that – get this – said it contained vampire blood. He said there was actually some liquid in it, though he couldn't tell what it was.

A pregnancy test kit was also found in his area.

“So maybe it means the vampires are breeding up there,” he quipped.

Two young girls made a major score when they found a ten dollar bill and 30 cents, he said.

Seaside had not one but two baby strollers found, not always in whole condition. Zone captain Coral Cook said another wacky find was a mattress. Lots of tires were found in her area, but mostly tons and tons of cigarette butts.

Cook said this and the larger objects were evidence that people sadly use the beaches as personal dumping grounds.

The non-profit Washed Ashore took debris from several check-in sites. Due to their efforts, over 1,000 pounds of debris will be re-purposed and turned into educational art sculptures at their Bandon facility.

There were 45 check-in sites, which were aided by some of the sponsors, including Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Local transfer stations and coastal counties donated their services up and down the coast. Major Sponsor, Fred Meyer, brought over 100 volunteers out to the Seaside cleanup and joined Media Sponsors K103fm and KOIN 6. Over 50 volunteers from The Standard, the event's Supporting Sponsor, joined the Pelican Pub cleanup in Pacific City.

Two images from the SOLVE cleanup below:

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