Cleaning up Gulfport Beach One Bag at a Time

When Tropical Storm Debby roared through the Gulf of Mexico, high winds, rough waves and rain flooded downtown Gulfport and the Gulfport Beach, twice. The bay pushed seagrass, seaweed and trash, loads and loads of trash, onto the beach.

Members of the Gulfport Parks and Recreation Department are out this morning, with heavy duty equipment, clearing the beach. But, one resident, Jane Ogilvie, only needed one bag to make a difference.

Ogilvie headed to the beach for a morning walk when she spotted debris and trash all along the shoreline.

"It looks like a huge recycle big or dumpster tipped over," Ogilvie said.

"As big as this boat," I said.

"No, bigger," Ogilvie said.

In one hour's time, Ogilvie filled and emptied her plastic bag 10 times in the black trash bins on the beach. She found trash bags, carpet material, plastic bottles, bottle caps and flip flops. But the most interesting item she's located so far . . . "an egg," she said.

She found a blue egg in the bushes at Veteran's Park. It's not broken. She says it may be survived the storm, as a result she may take it to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary to see if they can help the egg eventually hatch.