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South Carolina Rubbish Bin Crosses Atlantic to Co Mayo Beach

9th November 2021
The rubbish bin from South Carolina that was found on the beach at Mulranny, Co Mayo at the weekend
The rubbish bin from South Carolina that was found on the beach at Mulranny, Co Mayo at the weekend Credit: Keith McGreal

A refuse barrel from South Carolina has been found washed up in an unexpected spot — on a beach more than 5,500km away in Co Mayo.

Myrtle Beach City Government shared their surprise email exchange with Keith McGreal, who discovered the blue barrel at the weekend while walking his local beach in Mulranny, between Clew Bay and Blacksod Bay.

McGreal contacted officials in Myrtle Beach — perhaps best known in this part of the world for its abundance of golf courses — going by the labels that were still fastened to the trash can despite its epic journey.

It’s suspected that following strong winds or a storm blew it into the North Atlantic, a favourable Gulf Stream current was responsible for taking the coastal rubbish receptacle so far off course.

“We typically remove trash containers from the beach before a hurricane, but this one apparently had a mind of its own,” the city said on social media, adding: “We’ve already had a city employee volunteer to come fetch it.”

Published in Coastal Notes
MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.