Casting Off:

What were they thinking?

Lowcountry boaters have always packed coolers, lathered on sunscreen, launched their boats and headed out to the area’s barrier islands for a day of fun. It’s been a long-standing tradition, going back generations.

In 2009, the trash hit the fan.

Fourth of July revelers left hundreds of pounds of garbage on Morris Island this year, sparking a media firestorm and a swift law enforcement backlash. The utter lack of respect shown for the ecologically and historically significant island shocked the local maritime crowd.

Alex Toline, a volunteer with the Charleston Explorer eco-tour company, has visited Morris Island hundreds of times over the years. The Fourth of July debacle left him shell-shocked.

“I’ve seen four or five bags (of trash) in the past, but this was a whole new animal,” he said.

Out of control

Morris Island gained historical significance as the site where the all-black 54th Massachusetts Regiment fought a bloody battle against Confederate forces during the Civil War.

The uninhabited island also hosts numerous migratory birds and several endangered species.

Once considered a family place, in recent years Morris Island has gained the reputation as a massive party spot.

On Independence Day 2009, an estimated 400 boats pulled up to the northern end of Morris Island, most carrying a full load of partiers … and untold amounts of beer. Boats filled the beach at Cummings Point and rafted up thick in the nearby shallows.

As the day wore on, the party grew wilder.

DJs spun thumping beats. Someone set up a generator-operated slip-and-slide on the beach. Beer. Liquor. Who knows what else. Throw in a boat with a stripper pole, and Morris Island had one hot mess on its hands.

When dawn broke the next day, the beaches were trashed.

Elizabeth Wenner, a marine scientist with the state Department of Natural Resources, was one of the first responders at the Morris Island trash massacre.

Wenner had witnessed some of the partying on July 4 and headed out to the island first thing the next morning to start bagging trash. She called Toline for backup, who brought the 54-foot Explorer to help haul trash.

Toline estimated they filled 30 to 35 large trash bags with beer cans, food boxes, discarded clothing, towels and abandoned beach chairs. And that’s just trash they got to in time.

Wenner regretted that the tide probably carried some trash away before she and her crew could bag it.

“It makes me think about that whale who died with that garbage bag in her stomach,” Wenner said, referring to the mother pygmy sperm whale that washed up near Fort Moultrie in June with her baby. Both animals had to be euthanized.

A local problem?

Fourth of July partiers generated a similar mess on Folly Beach. “Tourists” seemed to take the brunt of the blame for that mess, and within days town officials began debating a ban on alcohol on the beach.

But many doubt tourists are to blame for the scene on Morris Island, which is only accessible by boat. Most tourists don’t own boats in Charleston and very few even know about the island.

“I think it’s a shame,” said Capt. Steve Little of TowBoat U.S. Charleston, who witnessed the scene July 4. “Anybody that calls themselves a local and treats their local barrier islands like that should really think twice.”

Wenner said she cannot understand what those who littered were thinking. She suspects local, college-educated men and women made up a large portion of the crowd and was surprised such a group would act that way. Having witnessed the scene, she suspects heavy drinking played the biggest part.

Many boating fans of Morris are torn about the solution. Some, like David Weaver, who likes visitingMorris for the combination of boat and beach time,

said he wouldn’t mind some sort of inc-reased enforcement, if that keeps “the riff-raff” off of the island.

Most Morris visitors, like 26-year-old Bruce Jenkins, probably just hope the actions of a few don’t lead to an extreme crackdown.

“It would suck to lose our privileges because of those idiots,” Jenkins said.

Laying down the law

Backlash to the Fourth of July mess on Morris came quickly. Newspaper articles, TV newscasts and online discussion threads told and retold tales of debauchery at the beach.

By mid-July, the Charleston Parks Department had placed three signs on Morris Island that lay down the law.

Rules include no drinking, drugs or dogs running loose. Littering, metal detecting, fireworks, golfing, camping and profanity are also prohibited.

Lt. Chip Searson of Charleston Police Harbor Patrol said he was surprised by the severity of the littering on Morris Island.

Now well aware of the problem, he said police will not turn a blind eye toward the goings-on at Morris. Searson hopes people start to pick up after themselves; but if necessary, he foresees more restrictions.

“We have limited resources to put people on foot and more or less babysit these folks … But if it keeps becoming a problem, something could happen.

“I can see where they may put no trespassing (laws into affect).”

Searson said putting Morris off-limits entirely would provide the simplest solution, as littering is difficult to enforce unless officers witness it. But he hopes it doesn’t have to come to that.

Preston Merriman was one of the first targets of the crackdown. On July 18, a Charleston police officer gave the 24-year-old a written warning for possessing an open container on Morris Island. Merriman said the officer rode up to the island on a personal watercraft and zeroed in on him because he was standing near the dunes on Cummings Point. Merriman said the officer told him that it’s lawful to drink as long as he stands in the water by the beach.

Charles Francis, public information officer with the Charleston Police Department, said officers have been meeting to discuss enforcement options on Morris Island. They will inform the public on how and where rules will be enforced once a comprehensive plan is made, he said. His hope is that the island’s visitors will comply on their own, but officers will issue tickets as a last resort.

If ticketed, the fine for drinking in public can run up to $179, according to the Charleston Municipal Court.

In addition to curbing unruly activity on the island, officials must contend with businesses cashing in on the crowds.

Witnesses have reported a variety of business activities, from vendors selling burritos off Jet Skis to “energy drink” companies setting up promotional tents on Cummings Point.

Searson said vendors on the island fall under the same scrutiny as if they were on city streets. To conduct business on Morris Island, a business must first apply for permits at the special event committee.

Complicated solutions

Enforcing the rules is complicated at barrier islands such as Morris, and not just because officers can only reach them by boat.

Some islands, like Morris, are public spaces governed by municipalities. Others are private property altogether. And on all islands, issues of jurisdiction and private property rights become muddier at the water’s edge.

And because there are so many boat-friendly islands along the Lowcountry coast, cracking down on bad behavior in a party spot like Morris may just send the problem elsewhere.

Capt. Chisolm Frampton of the Department of Natural Resources’ Law Enforcement Division said that in order to keep order on barrier islands, state officers must work with other law enforcement agencies as well as property owners. Because of the vastness of the area open to Lowcountry boaters, one agency simply cannot do it alone.

DNR officers can write tickets for littering, with penalties up to $465 and eight hours of community service. But the department usually focuses on boating and fishing issues on the water, rather than what happens after boaters hit the beach.

Searson agreed that patrolling the waterways and barrier islands is a collaborative effort. Trying to crack down on island revelers would tax any one department, he said.

“Anytime you annex more area (to patrol), it would burden the manpower … Are you gong to hire more people? Require one or two full-timers? Again, I don’t know, but that would be a pretty big expense.”

Schuyler Kropf of The Post and Courier contributed to this report.