In the early days of island living, abundant lobsters washed up on the beaches of the Cranberry Islands. Twenty years ago, beer cans washed ashore. Today, the beaches are cleaner than they have been in years.
“When we were kids, we took the beaches for granted,” said Eileen Richards, a year-round resident and officer in charge of the Great Cranberry Island Post Office.
Today’s Great Cranberry Island community is trying to change this. Island residents have started an annual town beach cleanup, and they are happy with the results. “The beach looks good and people are cleaning it up,” said Karin Whitney, another year-round resident and manager of the Cranberry House Cafe. “During the first cleanup, we used trucks to carry away trash,” Whitney said. “Now we can skip a year and it still looks great.”
But keeping the town beach clean still requires constant effort. Most of the island’s commercial activities happen near the beach; the town dock, a private dock, a barge landing, the island post office, the Cranberry General store, the Beal and Bunker mail boat office, and the public restrooms are all located near the beach.
Some simple solutions have helped make the cleanup effort easier. Well-placed trash cans in front of the general store and a recycling bin on the town dock have made the disposal of garbage more convenient. This has helped to reduce the amount of cans and bottles that might otherwise migrate to the beach.
A clean town beach is now vital to the island, especially in the summer, as tourism has become important to the island’s economy. The beach is one of the first impressions visitors and residents alike have of the island. “If people see a trashy beach, they will think it is a trashy island,” Whitney said.
Walking along the Great Cranberry Island town beach is one of the great pleasures of summer. Beachcombers can find sea glass, sand dollars and sea urchin shells. They also can find evidence of the local lobster industry, including buoys, worn ropes and tangled traps. To some, this is life on a Maine beach, a natural part of the environment around them. Richards thinks the washed-up lobster traps “add character.”
To others, the errant lobster equipment is trash, something that should be disposed of. “The traps are bad,” Whitney said. “They don’t fit in.”
While the town beach is cleaner, other shores along the island still need help. On a recent walk along the shore of Spurling Point, empty motor oil jugs, blue rubber gloves and other unnatural items were trapped in the rocky ledges. Islanders, however, show understanding of the problem. Some say the lobstermen are aware of the impact they have on the environment, and that some littering is inevitable. Whitney hopes for even cleaner shores: “It can always be better.”
Luke Encarnation is a summer resident on Great Cranberry Island and a participant in The Working Waterfront’s Student Journalism Program.