•  

 

 

WAPSAC at Crosby Beach

21st September 2019

 

As a group of keen scuba divers, we see first hand the effects of plastic pollution in the marine environment. We love our sea diving and wanted to take the next step to protect that habitat. So we decided to organise our own local beach clean linking into the Great British Beach Clean, promoted annually by the Marine Conservation Society (MSC). https://www.mcsuk.org/  The nationwide event ran across the weekend of Friday 20th to Monday 23rd September 2019 and Whiston and Prescot Sub Aqua Club (WAPSAC) https://www.wapsac.org.uk/ members chose to clean Crosby beach, Sefton, Merseyside on the sunny but blowy Saturday afternoon.

The beach was crowded with families, couples, dog walkers, groups of friends all enjoying a bright and warm day. We started from Crosby Leisure centre, heading north west to the Coastguard station, the tide being out towards the farthest figures of Antony Gormley’s Another Place. Though we did fill 5 rubbish bags, I’m pleased to say the beach condition was not as bad as predicted, the most common item being bird feathers. We collected plastic confectionery wrappers, most having been there some time rather than discarded that day; bottle tops; plastic bags, smaller flimsy ones rather than shopping bags; pvc rope from ships, cotton bud sticks; unidentified bits of hard plastic. We left the bunch of roses entwined in seaweed and the coconuts, imagining their journey from distant shores.

We spoke to other beach users to tell them who we were, especially as one asked how much we were getting paid to do this and for the man who gave us his bag of dog mess - well I guess he was already on Planet B! Then there was the lady who ran across the beach to deposit a bag she’d picked up and the blogger who took a photo to add to her story.

We spent 2 hours collecting, not a big portion out of the day but came away feeling that most people are starting to get the message and thinking about what they do with their plastic and the need to look after the places they visit.

Our big thanks go to Barbara at Friends of Crosby Beach (FOCB) http://www.focb.org.uk/ for the loan of the litter pickers and bag hoops and their continuing work on the beach.

WAPSAC is now planning its next underwater plastic waste clean-up for early November 2019 as part of a scuba dive in Dukes Dock Liverpool. For more information please visit our web site.

  

#Beachclean #CrosbyBeach #GBBC

#AP50THC