Last summer, we did not have enough time to collect additional samples, so our best estimate is a pollution footprint of a couple of metres from the shore.
Our back bays are where most plastic pollution ends up (see the photo showing where most of the spring Shoreline Cleanup is collected). Scientists call them “sinks”. Ice rips polystyrene foam from docks into chunks that float across the lake into our back bays. Once trapped in the back bay, grains erode off the polystyrene chunks and sink into the sediment. Back bays are also where other garbage (toys, water bottles, etc.) collects and gets shredded because the wind pushes it there. Fortunately, the pollution footprint in a back bay is much smaller than the footprint around a dock. The wind pushes most of the garbage up beyond the high-water mark, so the grains sink into the soil. Or they sink very close to shore.
