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This comment links to this collectspace.com post:

Three business executives vacationing (?) in the Bahamas came across part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 fairing that washed ashore. They shared their find with Elon Musk via Twitter.

We found part of your @SpaceX washed ashore in the Bahamas.

Musk replied:

Cool, thanks for letting us know. This is helpful for figuring out fairing reusability.

The men said they will be returning the GoPro camera and sim cards mounted inside the fairing back to SpaceX. No word on the disposition of the fairing itself.

Once or twice is, as Musk says, "cool", but there is an escalation of launches, and recovery of various bits will never be 100%.

Overall, as world-wide launch cadences increase, will space junk become as common on the high seas as it is in orbit?

Question: Is there a mitigation plan for future ocean space junk in place, or one being considered or at least discussed?

The question What makes 21st century fairings so valuable that they'd potentially be recovered and re-used? begs the question "should launch providers have to pay a "bottle deposit" to encourage them, or subcontractors to collect and return the stuff that washes up on shore?

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vzvobzwhwdz6mdd/AADl7VIEFMrPaGMS2r3rR-XAa?dl=0

They believe that the video below is what was on the SD card in the camera shown

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From this comment is linked Found on the beach on Cape Hatteras, NC. Looks to me like part of a spacecraft, or perhaps a high-tech yacht or racing boat. which links to this collection of photos: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Fq5Rp.jpg

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above: caption "Put shoes next to it for scale although it's a little misleading because they're size 14"

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From Sciencealert.com's SpaceX Asked to Clean Up Its Trash as Giant Piece of Falcon 9 Found on a Beach

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uhoh
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    Really excellent pictures. But there will be much more non floating space junk at the submarine ground. – Uwe Oct 18 '18 at 15:01
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    Agree. Thousands of containers wash overboard, and whole ships sink every year. Debris from the space sector is a tiny amount compared to that. – Hobbes Oct 18 '18 at 15:09
  • @Uwe indeed, but this question isn't about that. However, there could be an interesting question there somehow, considering that the answer to How many rockets have been launched into space? (roughly, of course) is about 35,000 to 40,000 and that doesn't count suborbital sounding rockets. – uhoh Oct 18 '18 at 15:09
  • @Hobbes still, that's not a reason not to ask this question, nor a reason not to try to avoid adding to the problem. – uhoh Oct 18 '18 at 15:10
  • 8 million metric tons of plastic flow into the oceans from rivers every year. 90% of that from just 10 rivers. If you're worried about ocean trash, there are much bigger concerns than rocket parts. The metal from the Falcon 9 fairing will degrade rapidly and disappear. The carbon fiber at a much slower rate. – gwally Oct 18 '18 at 21:11
  • @Uwe yes, please do! – uhoh Oct 18 '18 at 21:11
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    @gwally I've currently only asked one question about ocean trash What is Boomy McBoomFace? but I'm certainly incredibly worried about it, overfishing, trawling damage, rogue fishing nets, mercury accumulation in whales, etc. This question is not a "wakeup call" about environmental awareness. It's simply a narrowly focused question exploring the future rate of rocket parts collecting on beaches and other places in the ocean, and if this will increase exponentially or if there plans to lower the rate of per-launch flotsam generation. – uhoh Oct 18 '18 at 21:20
  • @gwally By volume or weight this is a tiny fraction of waste, but public perception is chaotic in the same way that three body orbits can be chaotic and have bifurcations; small differences can lead to large effects, and so accumulation of identifiable space junk on beaches around the world may experience public perception not based solely on cumulative mass. (also, in general is "everybody does it, so..." really the ideal way to think about one's corporate pollution footprint in 2020?) – uhoh Oct 18 '18 at 21:33
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    I have upvoted, but I do think the recovery plans are the remediation... – Rory Alsop Oct 18 '18 at 22:02
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    I just asked another question about the last picture. – Uwe Oct 19 '18 at 13:10
  • @RoryAlsop I think you are right. – uhoh Oct 20 '18 at 03:55

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