Sea Shepherd UK organised a beach clean-up on Sunday, 1st of March at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. I attended the midday clean and talked to Wayne Mitchell who is a 40-year-old senior volunteer and education coordinator of Sea Shepherd from North Shields. At the clean, participants found car wheels, golf balls and plastic litter from industrial cables.
“We’re lucky here in the North East to be really active on beach cleans,” says Wayne. “I think last year there were over 30 that we organised from as far down as Sunderland right up to Newbiggin and this year we’re looking into going beyond and go up to the likes of Druridge.”
The number of participants ranges. Sometimes there are as few as five people showing up. On other days there are as many as 30 to 40 people attending. “Part of it comes down to the local support and generating awareness and sometimes the weather plays an effect”, adds Wayne. During the clean in Newbiggin, it’s rather windy, but nevertheless, over 30 people have come to help clean up the beach.
“Today we’ve got a football team here that is assisting us which is fantastic to get them involved because it raises awareness for them and it’s a good way for everyone to do something”, says Wayne. The football youth team of Newcastle East End FC U8 came to give something back to the community, explains one of the adult supervisors.
In general, all kind of people participate in beach cleans. “All sorts of people come and help from young kids right through to older generations”, says Wayne. He followed Sea Shepherd for a long time before he decided to become part of the Sea Shepherd team that operates in Taiji, Japan, where dolphins are killed every year. Now he is an onshore volunteer in the UK.
All the litter that the participants collect during the clean has one thing in common: it’s human-made. “What was really sad seeing in the North East last year was during the summer when we had some really hot weather,” adds Wayne. “We went down to Cullercoats beach at the end of the day and between three of us we filled over 30 bin bags. And all of that was stuff that had been left there on that day. Things like barbecue kits and bottles and sandcastle buckets.”
Wayne urges people to be mindful of the rubbish that they have. “Recycle it when you can and if not make sure it goes in a bin, not on the beach. Just be more mindful of marine life in general. It’s a beautiful coastline we have up here. We have seals, we have dolphins and some of this rubbish will make its way out and harm them. And we wouldn’t want to lose them from our coastline.”
backyard explorer 