By The Green Parent
21st August 2017
A beach holiday in the UK is one of life’s pleasures. A sandy shore, rock pools brimming with interesting sea creatures, and azure waves lapping at your toes. However, pollution, aggressive fishing and corporate irresponsibility is putting our nation’s sparkling seas at risk. This summer, why not give a little back, and do your bit to help keep our beaches beautiful.
The Marine Conservation Society (mcsuk.org) run Beachwatch, the UK’s biggest beach clean-up and survey. There are cleans nationwide throughout the year, but the flagship event is on the third weekend in September (this year the 16th–19th). Not only are beaches spruced and tidies, but all the litter found is categorised, recorded and analysed in order to help come up with solutions for preventing more rubbish appearing, and to tackle the sources of marine trash. Each event is about an hour long, so there’s no chance to get bored.
Lauren Eyles, the Society’s Beachwatch Manager, says ‘We get families who come down to join in. It’s fun for kids, they enjoy the litter pickers, and it’s a great chance to meet other children and like-minded families. It’s good to chat and find out why other people are doing it. It’s also a way to come together and do something for the local community, although some people travel some distance to attend a beach clean. Some people do it because they want to ensure their local beach is free of litter, some people just love to be out on the coast, others have a real passion for tackling the problem of marine litter.’
Last year, the event recorded over 2,556 bags of rubbish on 340 beaches across the country. Cleaners of all ages got involved, with schools and families lending a hand. It’s a great starter activist activity for kids – the beautiful locations means they won’t get bored, and litter-picking is easy for even toddlers to take on (be sure they follow the very simple safety guidelines). It’s a good lesson in responsibility and environmental awareness as well as being a fun day out.
Find your nearest event on the MCS website, or set up your own and add it to their database.
MAKING WAVES
More sea-based action with which you can get involved
SURFERS AGAINST SEWAGE
Decidedly unchilled surfers, SAS target marine litter, sewage pollution, climate change and coastal development. Get involved in their beach cleans, report pollution and any sicknesses you have after swimming in dirty waters. sas.org.uk
SEA SHEPHERD
A more radical, direct action group that campaigns worldwide for ocean conservation. They confront illegal fishing boats directly, document evidence of law-breaking, and have a super-cool logo. You’ll spot it on surfer hoodies, seaside skateboarder beanies and punk stickers this summer. seashepherduk.org
GREENPEACE
The daddy of environmental charities, this summer Greenpeace is running campaigns to ban microbeads in cosmetics (they’re very damaging to the fragile ocean ecosystem), and for Sainsbury’s to drop John West tuna (caught using destructive fishing methods). greenpeace.org.uk
THE BLACK FISH
The Black Fish runs 28 projects in 12 European countries, using modern technology and citizen inspectors to enforce environmental regulations. Sign up to become one of their eyes on the sands and make an immediate difference to your patch of coastline. theblackfish.org
