MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Trash in the ocean doesn't fall from the sky - it falls from people's hands.
The International Coastal Clean-up is the world's oldest and largest volunteer effort to clean up the marine environment.
Annually, volunteers remove and record data on the trash and debris collected from their local beaches, rivers and river mouths, lakes, streams and estuaries, along shorelines and underwater.
Since 1986, more than six million volunteers in 127 countries have participated in this global event involving every major body of water on the planet.
South Africa is also part of this global event, with Mossel Bay and surrounding areas joining in the war on waste.
Plastics SA, as the South African plastics industry body, provides materials to volunteers during the various beach clean-ups. The Mossel Bay Municipality and some local businesses is also contributing to the local clean-up. The main aim is to provide support to the volunteers involved.
S.M.A.R.T.
This year S.M.A.R.T. (Stranded Marine Animal Rescue Team), with the support of Plastics SA, is the main coordinator of the event in Mossel Bay and surrounding areas. The area of focus during this year's clean-up is from Gouritsmond all the way to Wilderness, including the three conservancy areas, the Mossel Bay harbour area, as well as an underwater area. "We again, as in the previous year, want to aim for an audited clean-up and intend to assign a S.M.A.R.T. volunteer to each of the areas to be cleaned.
The assigned S.M.A.R.T. volunteer will be responsible for, among other things, the distribution of the necesarry and the collection of completed volunteer data forms and so forth on the day of the clean-up," says a S.M.A.R.T. spokesperson.
Various local organisations, NPOs, institutions, schools and businesses have already come on board for this year's event taking place on 21 September.
More details on how to volunteer for the clean-up will follow. "Diarise this important date to come and do your part."
A previous beach clean-up that clearly proves many hands make light work.
Microplastics were found in a two- to three-week-old loggerhead turtle hatchling that washed up in Mossel Bay.
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