BeachCare Blog...

Dear Beachcarer,

Apologies for delay in this report and hope you enjoy the read and topical cartoon.

Over this month with the return of big seas and high winds has shown a big increase of heavy marine and plastic litter, and 2 dead seals reported to strandings.

Joined by Andy, welcome Andy, and 3 Biffa reps we had an excellent turn out of around 20, very necessary as 17 bags were collected (a record?). A lot of litter clearance and bags collected at other places were reported by a fair few (sorry no mention of names this time), totalling some 7 bags, here, Greenaways and Baby Bay and heavy ghost gear/timbers/pallets also washed up.

To date this year we've collected 137 bags on Beachcare dates and 199 in total, this is frightening now with extent of marine litter/plastic and public awareness is growing.

Other news,

A national marine charity beach survey advised this had shown a significant increase of discarded filled dog poo bags this year compared to last. This is consistent with our experiences here, sadly this might be another statistic to record next year.

Do please read Abby Crosby's (Marine Conservation Officer with Cornwall Wildlife Trust) excellent article on ReFILL, a KBT initiative to reduce plastic bottles in circulation; likewise attempts are being made to reduce disposable plastic straws. More needs doing.

Atb Nick