Sea Champion Jane helps give Inner Hebridean Isle the coastal clean up of a lifetime

50 miles of Colonsay is now free from decades of debris!

Sea Champion Jane Rose has helped clean almost every inch of the island's coastline, clearing away litter left on the beaches by centuries of incoming and outgoing tides.

Jane has lived on the island for seven years was a regular beach cleaner during the project which began in March on the island's west coast and finished in mid-August at the same point.

The five and half month initiative, which cleaned 50 miles of the islands coast and filled 1,130 bags of rubbish, was supported by the Colonsay Community Council and co-ordinated by islander, Kevin Byrne.

Jane was one of a number of islanders who attended almost every cleaning session which took place for a couple of hours every Saturday of Sunday and says she was delighted to be involved.

"To think we cleaned about 98% of the island, only failing to get to a few steep gullies that were inaccessible, is pretty amazing. Now that we've got rid a lot of the of the very old rubbish, including bottles from the 1920's, massive tyres, drums of burned oil, TVs, beer barrels and fridges, we can concentrate on the litter that is either dropped or washed up now."

Jane, a beach litter artist, also found a number of bottles with messages in "one from as far away as Roddickton on the north east tip of Newfoundland from a four year old boy on summer camp there. A reply was sent and there was great excitement from the little boy and his family who we kept in contact with for a while." All the bottles and messages can be seen at www.janerose.co.uk. 

Jane's passion for the sea is what drove her to become a MCS Sea Champion: "I'm fascinated by the variety of objects I collect from Colonsay beaches everyday but horrified that so much litter ends up in the sea causing harm to wildlife, polluting the oceans, not to mention spoiling our beautiful beaches. I hope my work encourages people to reflect upon these issues and at the same time, hopefully, raise an awareness of this problem."

Jane and her fellow beach cleaners intend to keep the coastline clear of new deposits of rubbish on a regular basis - and repeat the full coastal clean-up in 2014. Fortunately it will be much easier then, because this year they had to deal with an accumulation since the dawn of time!

Some of the ways Jane and Kevin cleared litter from Colonsay

Loads of litter cleared from Luing!

Beach cleaning volunteer Jane Law tells us about ridding Luing of litter:

 "Last year we decided we were fed up with walking through litter on the rocky shores of the Scottish island of Luing. Very little, if any, rubbish is being dropped from the island - it all washes up mainly on south west facing shores. A lot of it has been there for at least 10 years, so over the last year we've cleared almost all the western side of the island - several miles! Although more litter washes up, it is much easier to do a follow up clean. 

Getting the stuff back to our car has involved long walks and an open canoe! In some places, there were lots of rope and net which were impossible to shift and was holding the soil together, so we cut the loose bits away. However, the star find so far has been an adult toy!!!!"

Loading up a canoe to remove several miles worth of litter from Luing

"Hang on to your tackle!" in Swansea

Anglers love the Swansea coast which has some of the most popular places for recreational fishing in Wales.

However, underwater clean-ups of popular angling spots by volunteer diver group, Neptune's Army of Rubbish Cleaners, have revealed that some anglers are leaving behind snagged lines, fishing weights and hooks.

Crabs and fish can get entangled in discarded fishing line and become tethered to the seabed. Protected species like the pink sea fan can get covered in line which can take up to 600 years to break down. Rocks, ledges and beaches are left littered with food wrappers and rubbish from some irresponsible anglers.

Keen angler and Sea Champion, Stan Szajda, has been helping us keep the Swansea coast clean by installing and emptying specially designed bins for fishing line and tackle at angling hotspots in and around Swansea.

Stan has encouraged local angling shops to get on board the "Hang on to your tackle" programme by sponsoring bins and distributing our "Top Tackle Tips" to local anglers.

Anyone can take part in "Hang on to your tackle!" Is angling litter a problem in your area? If so, take a look at our support pack to help tackle the problem.

 

Sea Champion Stan with his newly installed angling litter bin at West Pier in Swansea. Look out for other angling bins along the coast!

 

Sea Champion Vicky completes the Big Sea Swim!

Congratulations to Vicky Saunders from Rayleigh in Essex who completed the MCS Big Sea Swim 1km event and raised £325 to help save our seas, shores and wildlife!

Not only has Vicky been swimming for our seas, she regularly helps out at Beachwatch events at Jubilee Beach in Southend and she's organised a Big Blue Day at her work place where they had a dress down day and cake sale raising a further £200 for MCS.

Thank you Vicky!

Sea Champions across the UK are busy planning Blue Mile events. Fancy having a go at kayaking or stand-up paddleboarding? Or perhaps you’d prefer swimming, or surfing, or even walking beside a river? Or what about a “blue” cake sale? Interested? Then check out www.thebluemile.org and help us raise a target of £50,000 to help protect our seas, shores and wildlife.

The Big Sea Swimmers getting ready to take on the challenge!

 

 

Scottish Sea Champions get their running shoes on!

Seven runners, representing seven species of turtle complete the Together for Turtles challenge

Seven Edinburgh based Sea Champions have each ran a marathon between North Berwick and the Tay - a total of 183 miles! All in order to raise funds for our work with turtles through the MCS Turk and Caicos Islands (TCI) Turtle Project.

Each team member of the “Together for Turtles” team ran for one of the seven species of marine turtle worldwide, of which leatherback, green, hawksbill, Kemp’s ridley and loggerhead are endangered and visit UK waters. 

The "Together for Turtles" route started in North Berwick, passed Edinburgh, up the entire Fife coastal path to the Tay, and back again to Leith. Each participant ran a 26.2 mile section of this and the next runner carried on from that point on the following day.

Matt Barnes, who represented the Green turtle, and ran from Leith to Kinghorn talks about the highs and lows: 

“After training throughout a heatwave, I set off remembering the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion as I gained pace. However, just after I began, the skies darkened, the thunder roared and the lightening brought torrential rain. This was to be the theme of the week with our biggest team skill being how to run forward while not drowning in the horizontal water hitting our faces!"

"The team were great and brought enthusiasm for the cause but most of all a sense of humour as the conditions were ridiculous. Some highs were team members running past hauled out seals on route and even our trial angling bins on the beach being used by someone as we ran by. Lows were realising the coastal path had eroded onto the beach in some areas meaning we were running on sand! Forget images of Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff prancing on sun kissed shores these were rain soaked runners stumbling on beaches ridden with Sewage Related Debris".

It’s not over yet, Sea Champion Neil Madigan, our very own Chris Hoy, will be cycling the entire route back on the 17th August to cement the challenge in history. So if you haven’t shared, shouted on donated it’s not too late!

If you want to be involved in something similar next year, get in touch with Matt Barnes matt.barnes@mcsuk.org

The Together for Turtles team are still collecting sponsors at www.mcsuk.org/url/togetherforturtles

 

40 tyres collected from Scottish beach clean!

Sea Champions Sarah Conner and Al Reeve, with the help of volunteers, collected a whopping 40 tyres from a summer beach clean at South Queensferry.

The team conducted a 100m Beachwatch survey, recording the types and amounts of litter.

"Looking at the types and sources of litter washing up on our beaches, we can run targeted litter campaigns to influence policy makers and change people's behaviours to try to stop it getting there in the first place" says Matt Barnes, Sea Champions Volunteer Coordinator for Scotland.

Twelve bags of litter were also collected, weighing 11 kilos, and also a plastic patio chair and car exhaust.

More of our beaches need to be cleaned and surveyed! If you'd like to get involved and survey your local beach, sign up here, or get in touch with your Volunteer Coordinator.

40 tyres, a plastic patio chair and car exhaust amongst the litter collected at the South Queensferry summer beach clean!

Surfing Sea Champion writes for MCS

Sea Champion Charlie Johnson from Chippenham has just published the first of several articles for UK surf magazines to inspire sea lovers to take action to look after their surf spots.

"I've been surfing for 4 years, I love the sea and hate the abuse it gets. I especially hate smoking on the beach and littering of course." says Charlie.

Writing for surf magazines is a great way to highlight the fact that surfers can do all sorts of things to look after their waves.

Read Charlie's first article here!

Are you a writer? Are you passionate about saving our seas? If so, get in touch with your Volunteer Coordinator and we can help you get your articles published.