“I woke up last Thursday morning and was disgusted by all the rubbish on the beach”, Megan from the Sorted Surf Shop lives in the centre of town. Last week, when 500,000 people descended on Bournemouth Beach, the entire town was gridlocked with visitors. The next day, over 41 tonnes of litter was found on the sand. “I decided that I has to do something about it, so with the help of a well-known local surfer and his megaphone, a great big banner, and our social media platforms, I amassed over a hundred volunteers”. Megan’s volunteers cleaned up plastic for an hour or two on the Thursday evening and made a huge difference.

This week, Megan was “blown away” when over 200 people showed up to help. After doing our bit to help, she explained to us that “one devoted climate activist can dedicate their life to cleaning up the oceans and that is great, but if a million people just took a little time to take part, that’s what makes the real difference”. It was inspiring to see how many showed up this week, but despite everyone already diligently combing the beach, plastic, bottle caps and cigarette butts were not hard to find.

“At least 800 species worldwide are affected by marine debris, and it is estimated that up to 13 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year. That’s the equivalent of a rubbish truck load’s worth EVERY MINUTE.

 

Fish, seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals can become entangled in or ingest plastic debris causing suffocation, starvation and drowning. While plastics take up to hundreds of years to fully decompose, some of them break down into tiny particles which ultimately end up in the seafood that we eat. Unless action is taken soon, scientists predict that the weight of ocean plastics will exceed the combined weight of all of the fish in the seas by 2050.” @SortedSurfShop

This summer, it looks like we will have a season of domestic holidays and another record breaking year of heat. We need to be careful though, top scientists say by 2050 there will be more plastics than fish in our oceans. See our reasons to to look after the oceans and the ways you can help here. Join our campaign for Plastic Free July, take part in our challenges and get down to your local beauty spot for a fun day of volunteering!