St Valentine’s Day Beach Clean Up
18 February 2012
Whilst others were celebrating St Valentine's Day, approximately 30 people assembled at 11.00am at the Beach Office, including about a dozen MVS members and family.
There have been Beach Cleans around the Coast for many years but it is only recently that the Poole unit has become involved, last year at Holes Bay and a few days ago at Sandbanks. The day dawned cold, but bright and we were fortunate as the wind was from the West so Sandbanks Beach was lovely and sunny and sheltered from the coolish wind.
We were issued with “long arm” litter collectors, plastic bags, with cunning hoops at the top to keep them open while you held them with one hand, and asked to walk to Shore Road and back collecting as we went. Working in twos and threes we set off along the beach collecting as we went, mainly small bits and pieces, not such a wonderful collection as we had last year at Holes Bay, but sufficient to make it worthwhile. At one point we found some very solid chains and ropes but as they were well buried in the sand we decided to leave them. They were obviously the mooring chains for the Hobie Cats which are rented out in the summer by the local Watersports Centre!
After a patrol there and back we had a welcome cuppa in the café and then went off towards the chain ferry, finding much booty amongst the dunes which are off limits to the public. Someone had been up there though, barbecue remains, plastic bottles, drinks cans and more. Our sacks were well and truly filled by the end of the session and we returned to have a picture taken.
A big thank you from Poole Council and reminder that the next session will be on 15th April in the Holes Bay area again. Lots of rubbish there! Let’s hope some of us can make it to that event as well and keep the Volunteering spirit alive in the MVS.
During the morning, Melinda Fisher of the RSPB gave us a short talk on an initiative they are starting called “Strandlines”, which is the line of flotsam along the tideline, an important habitat for wildlife and source of food. Hopefully we will be able to ask Melinda along to one of our meetings and tell us more about it and see if we can help at all.
Peter Lockwood, Poole Unit