Rubbish

Here at the centre we are keen to try and make a difference and Educate our visitors.  Often this difference is small but important. This week all our groups will visit Cable Bay to go Sea Level Traversing on Angelsey and as a result will have a rewarding day. However, we will also do some beach combing. 

However, not for treasure but for rubbish. 

Cable Bay is actually a clean beach to most people, but if you look closer and deeper you will find all kinds of rubbish with rope and small pieces of plastic being the main culprits. Being a bank holiday this week we also found normal rubbish ;  crisps packets, BBQ rubbish, sweet wrappers and drink bottles. 

But we are really interested in the rope and small plastic pieces as these have a effect on the Eco system of the coastline. 

Strolling through the average supermarket, shoppers find literally hundreds (if not thousands) of items to make their lives easier. Individually wrapped snack cakes, plastic baggies to store sandwiches for lunch, unbreakable soda bottles, and disposable razors, diapers, and shampoo bottles. Unless specifically requested, even the bags we use to carry home our goods are often plastic. To humans, these are items of comfort, if not necessity. But to marine animals, they can be a floating minefield.

When plastic reaches our waters, whether it be plastic bags or drifting fish nets, it poses a threat to the animals that depend on the oceans for food. To a sea turtle, a floating plastic bag looks like a jellyfish. And plastic pellets--the small hard pieces of plastic from which plastic products are made--look like fish eggs to seabirds. Drifting nets entangle birds, fish and mammals, making it difficult, if not impossible to move or eat. As our consumption of plastic mounts, so too does the danger to marine life.

Plastic pellets are often mistaken by sea turtles as authentic food. Clogging their intestines, and missing out on vital nutrients, the turtles starve to death. Seabirds undergo a similar ordeal, mistaking the pellets for fish eggs, small crab and other prey, sometimes even feeding the pellets to their young.  These small plastic particles have been found in the stomachs of 63 of the world's approximately 250 species of seabirds.

Plastic remains floating on the surface of the sea, the same place where many genuine food sources lie--and can remain so for 400 years.

The pictures show what we managed to clear  with 4 groups ( on different days ) in 15 minutes each day.  It may not look like a lot but by doing this every time we go to the beach we are ensuring this beach becomes pristine and giving something back.

Of course once a storm comes in then the beach will have other new items deposited, then it will be out job to clear up again. Its a constant process but a very important process.

Cable Bay rubbish collection by Blue Peris Outdoor Education pupils

Cable Bay rubbish collection by Blue Peris Outdoor Education pupils

80% of marine litter is plastic. Litter ends up in the oceans when

• People go to the beach, have a picnic or bbq and litter blows into the water.
• Litter dropped on the ground is washed into storm drains eventually ending up in the oceans.
• Winds blow garbage from landfills into the oceans.
• People throw garbage (like old tires) into the sea (illegal dumping).
• Accidental container ship spills during storms (hurricanes, typhoons).
• Visitors do not clear their litter from the beach

Cable Bay rubbish collection by Blue Peris Outdoor Education pupils