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Image: Strandliners

Image: Strandliners

Strandliner: cleaner beaches, cleaner seas

Andy Dinsdale, initiator of Strandliner, would like to say a huge thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who have been able to give their time and energy for the clean ups and recordings.

Andy is a committed, dedicated beach cleaner, passionate about keeping our planet’s seas, rivers and local beaches clean, catalysing him to start up Strandliner.

The Marine Conservation Society, Surfers Against Sewage and FIDRA (nurdle hunt) have benefitted from the recording of beach litter, plastic bottle sizes, brand polluters, nurdles and bio-beads, helping their campaigns to lobby the government for appropriate changes in our waste pollution problem.

The clean-ups also give the river and coastal habitats a great spring clean for wildlife and us humans. And they are also great fun and hugely satisfying when the rubbish has been removed!

“Don’t worry if you’re not able to get out to these clean up and recording events..  there will always be more, unfortunately”, says Andy. “They’re a very important part of the growing global movement in reducing waste and pollution is spreading the word.

“So please check out the Strandliner website and forward our newsletter to anyone you think may benefit or be interested.

“And you don’t all have to live by the sea or river to be able to support this change, as our purchasing power can help change manufacturer’s changes in improving sourcing, packaging, material use, etc.”

Beach cleaning surveys

Beach cleaning surveys

Surfers Against Sewage Brand Audits

Local events At Winchelsea Beach and River Rother were part of the national Big Spring Beach Clean, Summit to Sea organised by Surfers Against Sewage.

Strandliners CIC arranged – with help from Rother District Council, Rye Golf Club and the Rye Harbour Master and of course many wonderful volunteers – to clean from Monk Bretton Bridge (New Road) to the Rye Golf Club (in two goes!) and at Winchelsea Beach.

A whopping 311kg of rubbish has been removed!

Strandliners included the brand audit to find out which brands are the worst packaging polluters which could be compared to the last brand audit in 2014.

Here’s the national report from the SAS. And the results locally show these below are the highest polluting brands:

1.  Coca Cola
2. Walkers
3. Cadbury
4. Heritage
5. Red Bull
6. Lucozade
7. Coop

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Marine Debris MOOC

This MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) has been developed by the UN Environment Programme and Open University of Netherlands and it’s free and requires around 4 hours a week to complete.

The first two weeks focus on Leadership in understanding the marine litter problem and the next 6 weeks focus on an Expert level. It visits many projects, has experts on video, looks at the legal issues and helps develop ideas.

Anyone can join up to see how it goes and investigate the marine debris world without getting too involved in the early stages. And even though it started at the beginning of May, there is still plenty of time to sign up. This questionnaire is the first step (which can be thought provoking too!). And here is the course information.

Volunteers's time and energy is muchly appreciated

Volunteers’s time and energy is muchly appreciated

Shoresearch with Sussex Wildlife Trust

Next one: Monday 8 July at 09:00 at Pett Level

These are free and have been running for a number of years, organised by Sussex Wildlife Trust. Both events are open to all knowledge levels, but participants should be aware that Shoresearch is a data collection exercise to collect data on species and habitats, rather than a guided rock-pooling session.

If interested, please email sarahward@sussexwt.org.uk to book a place.
And visit here for further information.

Call to action for everyone walking river paths

If you walk along the River Rother catchment, tributaries and watercourses, your help is needed. If you come across any pollution, please:

1    Take a photo of the rubbish with some background.
2    Make a note of where it is.
3    Send photo and brief report to strandlinersCIC@gmail.com with title: River Rother Rubbish Report

Much of the pollution in the sea and on beaches comes from inland sources (between 75% and 80%, although this varies around the world), so finding the sources of the rubbish is the first step to stopping the rubbish get into the environment.

Native American wisdom

Native American wisdom

Future events

Rye Bay Beachcombing (led by Strandliners CIC)

The Fairlight Berm:

This site will be cleaned and surveyed later this year when the area should be safer to access. Stay tuned for further developments! Due to access there may only be a 1 or 2 weeks notice, but it should be on a weekend.

Dungeness, Lydd Ranges:

Marine Conservation Society survey. The date will be short notice due to the MOD timetable. It will involve a 30 minute each way walk on shingle from the car park and back, and approx a 2 hour litter survey.

If interested please email Strandliners, as this event will not be advertised due to the nature of the environment and has 16 participants as a maximum. A list of everyone interested will be kept and when the date is known an email will be sent. Thank you to those who have already replied.

Please email if you may be able to help out at any of these events. Anyone can take part and aid the data collection, and clean the beach for humans and animals for today and tomorrow.

Other organised beach cleans locally

Wild Blue Sea
Marine Conservation Society
Surfers Against Sewage
The Great Nurdle Hunt
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve
Bexhill Environmental Group
Plastic Free Hastings
Eastbourne Mucky Mermaids
Hastings Beach Cleans
Local Independent Sea Anglers
Litter Picking Watch Romney Marsh
Rother Environmental Group
Transition Town Hastings

“Once again,” writes Andy, “thank you to everyone who is part of this movement towards protecting and saving our environment. I look forward to meeting old and new members, catching up with seasoned or first time beach cleaners and surveyors, whether on the beach or by email. Any questions or thoughts send to: StrandlinersCIC@gmail.com).”

If you’re enjoying HOT and would like us to continue providing fair and balanced reporting on local matters please consider making a donation. Click here to open our PayPal donation link. Thank you for your continued support!

Posted 20:50 Thursday, Jun 20, 2019 In: Campaigns

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