From the Chronicle- Halifax, Nova Scotia

McNabs cleanup nets kitchen sink
Birth certificate, Barbie also amongst trash collected by island friends

By Amy Pugsley

A cleanup of McNabs Island turned up garbage of all kinds Sunday.

"There was even a kitchen sink," Friends of McNabs Island Society president Cathy McCarthy said Sunday night.

It's the 12th year the group has organized a beach cleanup of the island, co-sponsored by Clean Nova Scotia and Parks Canada as part of National Environment Week.

Yesterday, about 90 volunteers turned up to gather more than 200 bags of garbage over six hours.

"It was a pretty good day," Ms. McCarthy said, noting that rain prevented the group from hosting the event in both 2002 and 2003.

In addition to the bags of garbage and recyclables, there was an added assortment of unusual junk.

There was a half-ton truck liner, fishing gear and rope, broken Styrofoam floats, dozens of tires and plenty of Barbie dolls.

"No one found Ken, though," Ms. McCarthy said of Barbie's muscled companion.

There was also a laminated birth certificate belonging to a woman born in Halifax in 1948.

"They are going to try to track her down," she said.

There was a lot more debris and garbage than usual, says Ms. McCarthy.

"Probably because of the hurricane," she said.

Visitors to the island Sunday witnessed the terrible devastation wrought by hurricane Juan on Sept. 29.

McNab's Island was the recipient of some of the highest-recorded winds during the midnight hours of the hurricane.

"It's a mess," she said of the 400-hectare island.

Crews from Natural Resources have been recruited to clean up the trails, she said.

Last week, more than 60 members of Maritime Forces Atlantic helped get things started by picking up trash and debris along the Ives Cove shore.

During the 12 years the society has hosted the event, volunteers have collected over 7,000 bags of garbage and recyclables.

Most of it drifts in with the tide, says Ms. McCarthy. Which makes the arrival of the stainless steel sink a bit of a puzzle.

"Who knows?" she says.

"Maybe the plug was still in it!"

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