BY TED SHOCKLEY, Eastern Shore Post —
Hal Miller walked Assateague beach near the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in the wind and rain on Tuesday, Sept. 17, and saw the medical waste for himself.
“Occasionally you’ll see a little man-made cylinder,” said Miller, a Georgia resident, standing at the counter in the Tom’s Cove Visitors Center at the Assateague Island National Seashore.
“There’s waste out there,” he said.
The Virginia section of Assateague Island’s beach remained closed this week, along with beaches in Delaware and Maryland, after the ocean disgorged medical trash, including syringes and needles.
The source remains unidentified, said Hugh Hawthorne, superintendent of the Assateague Island National Seashore.
“At this point, we don’t know,” he said. “We’re trying to find out.”
The Virginia section of Assateague beach — a hotspot for beachgoers and a favorite amenity for Chincoteague vacationers — closed at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15, after the trash was found.
It is, said Hawthorne, “a weird collection of stuff,” including insulin needles, feminine hygiene products, and plastic cigar tips.
On a stretch of beach near the visitors center, a translucent, plastic male hand urinal sat in the sand, right-side up.
The grotesque mystery piqued the interest of national news, with The New York Times, Washington Post, CBS News, and more reaching out to Hawthorne.
“I’ve done 15 media interviews in the last two days,” he said, standing on the deck of the visitors center.
“Everybody’s interested. When I get back to my office, there will probably be more phone calls waiting for me.”
Hawthorne said he was hoping that the Virginia section of Assateague beach would remain open, but the volume of plastics and sharp objects left the National Park Service no choice.
“It ended up down here,” he said. “We’re still getting it.”
The Eastern Shore Health District, along with the Town of Chincoteague, organized a beach cleanup on Sept. 19 with the help of volunteers.
Assateague’s Virginia and Maryland portions received 2.4 million visitors in 2023 alone, according to the National Park Service.
Electronic signs at the park’s entrance warned of beach closures and sharp objects.
Posters around the visitor center also forbade swimming due to “sharp biohazard waste.”
Miller said it isn’t hard to find.
“If you’re looking for it, you’ll see it eventually,” he said.
