Big Beach Clean Up reaps an unfortunate harvest

November 20th

Old drink cans, plastic bottles and fishing rope were the main items of rubbish harvested from the Motueka Sandspit and river estuary during today's Nelson-Tasman Big Beach Clean Up, which was supported by 50 participating groups.

One group of us, led by Pauline Samways and supported with refreshments by Beth and Tony Bryant, took on the task of taking rubbish from this section of Motueka's foreshore, as part of an effort by environmental and community groups, schools and businesses to clean up 290km of beaches and estuaries from the Abel Tasman National Park to Cable Bay (north of Nelson).

Thirteen of us (10 pictured below) split into three groups to work on the sandspit, the regenerating Raumanukas peninsular, and the area between the sewage ponds and the mouth of the Motueka River. Some rowed over to the end of the sandspit and picked up from there, including a dad and his 2 children.

Disgarded or broken fishing gear seemed to predominate on the lower sandspit, while the litter along the rest of the shoreline was mainly old drink bottles and cans left around the high tide mark, indicating they had come from the bay rather than directly from locals.

Thirteen large black plastic bags of rubbish, weighing in total 70kg, was retrieved from the area.

The event is an annual one, coordinated by DOC. Unfortunately is was timed at near high tide, so most of the tidal estuary areas could not be searched. But at least the day was cool and cloudy.

[Added Monday Nov 22nd] The official tally announced today and reported by Voxy news feed said that around 10.46 tonnes of debris was collected by about 800 people.

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