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Displaying items by tag: Litter Free Seas

#BigBeachClean - Clean Coasts Big Beach Clean returns this year when the event takes place next weekend (15-17 September). So there's still time to register your pariticpation to make a positive difference in helping the environment.

Clean Coasts engages communities in the protection of Ireland’s beaches, seas and marine life. The programme is operated by the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce which is funded by the Department of Environment. Once again the Clean Coasts Big Beach Clean  team have signed up with the International Ocean Conservancy for the International Coastal Cleanup event.

Nearly 800,000 volunteers from over 90 countries in 2016 removed 8,193 tonnes of marine litter from the world’s oceans. It is hoped that everyone will join the movement for litter free seas!

The stark reality is that around a staggering 10 million tonnes of litter end up in the world’s oceans annually which causes destruction that can be devestating to both plants and marine life.

So what is the problem of “marine litter” -firstly the term covers a wide range of materials which have been deliberately discarded, or accidentally lost on shore or at sea. In addition to materials carried out to sea from land, rivers, drainage and sewerage systems, or the wind (European Commission, 2013).

By getting involved in the Clean Coasts movement for litter free seas, you can be part of the world’s largest coastal cleanup event and marine litter survey. Help the coastline you love by taking part in Clean Coasts Big Beach Clean to protect our beaches, seas and marine life locally, nationally and internationally.

Free clean-up kits are available (while stocks last!) which include gloves, bags, data collection cards, posters and high-vis vests are available while stocks last. Sign up online below or call Clean Coasts on 01 400 2210.

It's so simple to take part in the Big Beach Clean be it individually, with friends and family in addition to groups. 

So get registering your group type now!... it's only a click away for your own beach cleaning event!

To register online click here and for information that includes links to some useful resources you will need for your clean-up:

 

Published in Marine Wildlife

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.