Beach cleanup!

The older I get, the less I understand people!

We live in a tiny village on the coast, and of course, we get a lot of fishermen (and ladies and children) who regularly come here and spend a few hours, or longer, fishing for whatever happens to be around at the time! They obviously spend some time before they set off, packing their cooler box with bait, cool drinks or beer, packets of chips or sandwiches, biltong and whatever else helps the time to pass and take their minds off the fact that there is not a lot happening on the end of the line. By the time they leave, they are far too tired to make sure that whatever came with them, goes home with them and our beaches become littered with empty bottles, packets, bait boxes and plastic wrapping. And if that is not bad enough, they leave tangles of fishing line, it wraps itself round bushes, gets knotted round whatever it can find, and is simply abandoned. Instead of sorting the line out, they just cut it lose and forget about it.

Every time we walk, we pick up enough fishing line to knit socks and hats and fishing nets. Some of it with hooks and sinkers still attached.

So I did some research on pollution left on our beaches and it is horrifying!
According to John Kieser (see below), 80% of all marine litter, mainly plastic, originates from land. A great deal of this then becomes entangled around sea birds or seals, causing restriction of movement, strangulation, severing of carotid arteries, infection, and eventually, death. Apart from that, turtles and seals often ingest plastic bags, as the clear ones floating in the sea, look like jelly fish. This of course causes other problems, often resulting in death.

John Kieser is passionate about sustainability. 

I thought you may be interested in the ‘Top Ten’ rubbish finds:
Heading the list is plastic bottle tops, followed by plastic beverage bottles, plastic bags, food wrappers/containers, rope, cigarette filters, straws, stirrers, fishing line, glass beverage bottles, and beverage cans! Another interesting fact is there is also a large number of condoms found, 90% unused and still in their wrappers!