New Year’s Day beach clean

Sea life Great Yarmouth's New Year’s resolution is to help turn the tide on plastic pollution with a monthly beach/river clean.

Sea Life Great Yarmouth care deeply about the oceans and what can be done to protect the creatures that live above and beneath the surface. As an award winning centre for education Sea Life Great Yarmouth continue to raise awareness of plastic litter and how to reduce it.

The first shore-line tidy-up was set for 1 January 2019; Sea Life staff supervised the central beach collection team, with every item of debris carefully logged before being bagged for correct disposal.

“We requested as many volunteers as possible for an hour-long scour of the shoreline to pick up everything that shouldn’t be there,” said Sea Life representative Maxine Culleton. “Normally we have 40-50 volunteers so we were blown away by the support with over 200 volunteers turning up!

“Debris on our beaches is a problem, much of it ends up in the sea where it can become a serious hazard for marine life

“We collected 76 rubbish bags, weighing in at a total 289.43 kg of rubbish! Amongst the items found were fireworks, keys, a porcelain doll, a knife and general litter, not as many plastic straws that have been found in the past which is fantastic!”

The set of house keys were reunited with a very grateful local resident. The challenge now is to get as many people as possible to continue joining in throughout 2019. The next beach clean is set for 11am on Sunday 24 February 2019, contact the centre to register on 01493 330631 or email [email protected].