Thanks to dozens of volunteers one particular beach has had a cleanup!  The organisers of the Green Gym on the Isle of Wight responded to an appeal by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (IW) for litter picking volunteer groups. 

The Green Gym group were to be found earlier this month at St Catherine’s Point working along a stretch of the Tennyson Heritage Coast called Watershoot Bay.  The Isle of Wight Green Gym are a group of volunteers who meet each Wednesday to improve both their health and that of the environment through practical conservation tasks.  So this type of task fitted the bill.

As a pure beach cleaning task it was a first for the group in its five years of existence.  Untypically it involved not one but five different organisations in the planning.  Thanks should go to the Isle of Wight branch of CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) for the funding and to the National Trust Wardens and the IOW Council for their assistance. 

Green Gym volunteers collected data on the type of debris found on the beach which will be passed on to the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) who research the extent of the damage caused to marine life by such debris floating and drifting around our coasts.

The information collected by volunteers is vital in MCS’s campaign to raise awareness of the issues and to tackle the problem at source.   

Over 170 species of marine wildlife including seabirds, turtles and whales have been recorded mistaking marine litter for food resulting in starvation, poisoning and fatal stomach blockages. In addition, plastic packaging and discarded fishing nets can either injure or entangle and drown some of Britain’s favourite marine wildlife, including seals and dolphins.

On the day the IOW Green Gym collected a total of 33 bags of rubbish plus some larger items, all of which had been washed ashore. 

Mark Russell Chairman of the Green Gym said

“21 volunteers took part in this beach clean and I’d like to thank every one of them as this type of activity really does make a difference. 

The items recorded were varied, but by far the majority were the hundreds of plastic items ranging from drink bottles to fragments of plastic boxes and small pieces of nylon rope possibly from the fishing industry.”

For details of the Green Gym Summer 2008 programme  click here: or telephone 866459.
For further information about MCS beach cleans and surveys click here: or call the litter team on 01989 567807