Beachwatch Big Weekend 2010

On 19 September 2010 about 34 members and friends gathered at Fisherman’s Gap, Seaton, where bags, recording sheets and pencils were handed out. Pairs (one picking, one scribing) spread out along Seaton Beach as far as the Yacht Club to the east and to Seaton Hole on the west. Every piece of litter was recorded by category and the bags weighed before collection by E D D.C.

In total we collected 2,157 pieces of assorted rubbish, weighing 65 kilograms (just under 150 lbs). This included 1,194 pieces of plastic, 356 pieces of paper, 167 of polystyrene and 162 of metal. The Marine Conservation Society, the organisation behind this annual beach clean, attributes the litter to source; they reckoned that 39% of the litter we collected came from the public, and 13% from fishing sources; 45% could not, however, be attributed to any particular source.

We collected 1,438 pieces of litter per kilometre; this is a bit lower than the British average, which is 1,969 pieces per km. Sadly, this represents a 6% increase over the 2009 average.

Many thanks are due to Ian Waite who co-ordinated and organised the whole event in conjunction with the Marine Conservation Society.
On a cold and windy day in January 2011 the Society organised an Estuary clean-up. When we arrived, the river was still too high, so we moved to the beach and collected at least ten large black bags of assorted litter, including a good number of plastic bits of BMW cars from MSC Napoli containers. Julian Langworthy of Axe Marine Services kindly made his truck available to carry all this to the collection point at Coronation Corner. Meanwhile, Ian Waite and a few others had been following the tide down on the Estuary, after clearing litter from along the road. So, in the end, the Estuary got its clean-up after all, and the beach got a bonus clean!