Episode #26 Three Generations of Coastal Custodians: Trash Talk, Part 1(featuring Bill Irey, Tim Irey, and Grant Irey)

Show notes:

Holy Sea Cucumbers! This week I caught up with three generations of coastal custodians, Bill Irey, 84, Tim Irey, 53, and Grant Irey, 18, to talk trash! We didn’t trash talk, we literally talked trash, on our coast lines, and about a tradition of a yearly beach clean up in the making. 

I share the story of an encounter I had with these three gentleman last August, at a remote beach in the Olympic National Park, Coastal Trail, called Norwegian memorial beach, the site of  a historic shipwreck a few hundred years ago. Centuries since the debris from its wreckage cleared, new debris finds its way to this beach, and every coastline around the world. We’ve asked a lot of our oceans over the millennia, and especially over the last 100 years. As the global population grows, so too does our impact on oceans as both provider of sustenance, and as receptacle for our wastes.

In this episode, Bill, Tim, and Grant share their love for the outdoors and all of its beauty, and their shared effort of taking care of it, one plastic bottle at a time, all while sharing time together. The interaction I had with the Irey’s at this magical stretch of Washington Coastline sprinkled with fairy dust, moved me to develop this specific podcasting project about people making a difference. The Irey’s simple gesture of deciding to take personal responsibility for a global problem, one beach at a time, and one plastic bottle at a time inspires a small movement that becomes a bigger movement of people coming forward to lend a hand. 

I’m climbing sea stacks to welcome Bill, Tim, and Grant Irey to A Hat Tip For Hands.

Post Show Notes: Thanks for joining this conversation Bill, Tim, and Grant! Your stewardship of the coast inspires others to do the same!

Resources:

https://oceanconservancy.org/trash-free-seas/international-coastal-cleanup/annual-data-release/

https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/