We once again teamed up with the Marine Biology department from Bristol University, and The Shark Trust, to clean up Northam Burrows Beach. This was the third annual clean we have run with Bristol University in Devon, and every year we manage to beat the year before for the amount of litter collected.
We very narrowly missed the rain but the 204 volunteers still had to battle strong winds and cold temperatures on this beach clean. These first year students only began their studies three weeks previous, but were already fired up to head out and make a difference. Working in groups, they covered eight 100m transects along the beach. By dividing up the beach into these sections, it allowed us to more accurately record our data later on.
Working in teams hundreds of students worked together to move pebbles and uncovered trapped litter and plastic. We were blown away by their enthusiasm!
After two hours we gathered back in to record what we had collected. Using data sheets from the Marine Conversation Society, each group meticulously recorded what we had collected in each transect.
We were amazed by what we found. There was, of course, an overwhelming amount of plastic pieces and ghost gear, something we find on every clean. We also found some more unusual items such as toys, clothes, old packaging (some from years ago), flip flops, gun cartridges, and more.
We also teamed up with The Shark Trust, to record the egg-cases we found. This data will be added into the Great Eggcase Hunt, to help track shark and ray breeding patterns. We found 1 small-eyed ray, 1 thornback ray, 5 spotted rays and 6 small-spotted catshark egg-cases.
After a successful morning we collected 42.29 kilos of plastic waste, filling up 31 bags. A huge achievement. We want to say a massive thank you to Bristol University and their students for their time and effort. We can’t wait to head back out there together next year.
