News

The Trash Trout installed on Jack’s Creek in Washington got its first clean-out and auditing last Thursday. Led by Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Jill Howell, volunteers Carl Crozier, Sound Rivers’ board member Betsy Hester, Bill and Sara Hanafin, Mike Sagaser, Christina Marshen and Dawn Dolson, three bags of trash and three glass bottles were retrieved from the litter-trapping device.
Part of a two-year-long microplastics research study being conducted by 14 Riverkeepers across the state, the Trash Trout is the first of three to be installed in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds. The goal is to get a better understanding of how macroplastics, such as single-use bags and plastic soda bottles, end up in our waterways, as well as how they break down into microplastics, pieces of plastic less than 5mm long that can impact aquatic life (fish eat the microplastics; we eat the fish…)
The final tally of trash pulled from the Trash Trout after a two-week period:
- Plastic Film — 11 plastic bags; seven food wrappers; 129 fragments.
- Hard Plastics — 40 bottles; 10 lids/caps; three straws; six medicine vials; 12 cigar filters; 501 cigarette butts.
- Styrofoam — 113 pieces, including cups and take-out containers from Sheetz, Waffle House, Zaxby’s, Speedway and Cookout; two pieces of packing material; four miscellaneous pieces (plates/egg); and 65 Styrofoam fragments.
- Metal — 19 drink cans and one metal fragment.
- Glass — 3 beer bottles.
A second Trash Trout will be installed on Jack Smith Creek in New Bern on May 31 (original location was Lawson Creek, but has since been switched).
If you’d like to help out with the Jack Smith Creek installation, email samantha@soundrivers.org.
Related News

We're launching our 6th year of Swim Guide!
May 25th 2023

Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper heads for higher ground
May 25th 2023

Supreme Court devastates federal wetlands protection
May 25th 2023

One year later: Riverkeepers continue to track spill
May 24th 2023

Swim Guide season launches next week!
May 17th 2023

Riverkeeper meets high school environmental club
May 17th 2023

Water Quality Specialist gets aerial view of watershed issue
May 17th 2023

Riverkeeper Report: Live from Lick Creek
May 17th 2023
