We had a good turnout of about 50 volunteers for the ICC on 21 September, considering the other spring events, such as the Great Southern Biobltiz, and the horrendous winds on the day. The groups covered various stretches of about 7km of the Betty’s Bay coastline from Blokbaai in the west to Sunnyseas in the east. Thank you to the seven co-coordinators for their help, as well as the volunteers who have done clean-ups since the 21 September ICC event.
Our efforts show that we care for marine life and we realise there ALWAYS seems to be litter washed up or left by some beach goers and fishermen along the coast. Litter can be covered up or exposed depending on the strength and direction of the wind and tides. Large amounts of litter, floating with the currents from the Cape Town areas, are mainly dumped on western sides of the promontories (rocky headlands) along our coastline.
Some people collect at the water line, others on the middle of beach and others on the highest tidal line which results in different types of litter being picked up.
However the largest amount of items are small pieces of all sizes and types of plastic. The most distressing items could be the fishing tackle, ropes and single lightweight fishing lines as they are the main visible culprits for fish and bird entanglement which often results in the death of marine life. Poachers’ rubbish is normally found amongst the dunes in the places where they prepare to enter or sort out their booty
The clean-up figures and unusual items from each site are recorded on a card that is sent to Save our Seas in Cape Town. They in turn collate all the information from Clean-ups in South African and forward it to the ICC in Washington where it is used for research purposes.
Barbara Jenman
Photos supplied by the volunteers from Silversands, Stony Point, Main Beach, Jocks Bay and Sunny Seas. Thanks to Barbara, Caire (from CapeNature) and Tim, Colin, Viv, Louise and Anita for helping to supervise the above sites.