Beach Clean 2009 Oct

Many thanks to Emma from the National Trust for organising another highly successful beach clean at Gwithian/Godrevy. Cornwall Seal Group volunteers taking part were provided with gloves, litter pickers and black sacks before heading off to clean their designated stretch of beach. Despite being an overcast day, the beach clean was well attended with each cleaning team filling their black sack with a surprising number of items.

Gill searching for litter all over the beach from the above high water mark to low down in the intertidal zone (Below)

Items collected ranged from a rather large hand fishing net to the tiniest pieces of plastic. Notable items included:-

Lighters - take 200 years to break down
Orange peel - takes up to 2 weeks to break down
Cigarette butts - take up to 5 years to breakdown
Plastic bottles, tops, handles, cotton buds and pens - take up to 450 years to breakdown
Shoe insoles - rubber ones take up to 80 years to breakdown
Glass bottles - take an amazing 1 million years to break down
Polystyrene - takes 50 years to breakdown
Fishing net - takes at least 600 years to breakdown, depending on the thickness of the net

Perhaps the most satisfying action of the day was removing a large amount of unsightly blue monofilament fishing line from around muscle covered rocks on the shoreline.

Rather than the one off annual beach cleaning event run by the Marine Conservation Society, Emma has organised a number of beach cleans this year and perhaps this increased level of effort in beginning to pay off? Having taken part in beach cleans for several years in this area, Sue thought that the amount of beach debris was less than previously encountered. Perhaps our more regular effort has reduced the back log of items faster than the sea is able to replenish it? Alternatively, it could just be that the action of the sea has removed litter from this beach and dumped it elsewhere? Only time will tell!

Cornwall Seal Group are extremely grateful to all their members who volunteer hundreds of hours of their time to watch over the seals around the Cornish coast, as well as doing regular beach cleans! If you would like to support the work of Cornwall Seal Group, you can email sue@cornwallsealgroup.co.uk , to arrange to send a cheque or a contribution via paypal.