Sealife Centre Manchester Beach Clean Projects
An estimated 26 million tons of plastic pollution ends up in the oceans each year where it chokes, entangles and poisons marine life.
Did you know that plastic pollution kills millions of marine creatures each year? That is why Sealife Centre Manchester has teamed up with The National Trust to get stuck in the mud and help clear out the litter from the beaches of Formby.
Plastic bags, disposable cutlery, old phone covers, drink bottles, batteries… you name it, they have found it! And unfortunately it all poses a big threat to our marine creatures, whether it stays in our rivers or gets washed into the ocean.
Alex Wright, a diver at SEA LIFE Manchester, who currently organises the events has said;
"We have been running monthly cleans at Formby since 2014 and have collected a total of 1.55 tonnes of harmful waste in that time to protect the native sea life
.
155kg of that total is from the two cleans we've carried out so far this year, as we've been getting more and more amazing volunteers helping.
The next one is on the 29th March, however, we're planning a big "Sea Life Trust Big Spring Beach Clean" on the 15th April during the school holidays."
He continues to say "The 15th April event is set to run from 10:30 - 2:30 including both a beach clean and an informative Tideline Treasure Hunt.
This event on the 15th April will involve our usual beach clean and a Tideline Treasure Hunt in which we'll be identifying different egg cases, shells, seaweeds etc. to show people the kind of creatures they're helping us to protect.
The number of specific shark/skate/ray eggcases that we identify during the Tideline Tresure Hunt will also be added to the Sharks Trust Great Eggcase Hunt project which aims to help gain a better understanding of species abundance and distribution.
Going through the tideline/strandline in search of signs of the aquatic creatures we are protecting also has the added benefit of allowing us to remove small particles of plastic found in this area which are often consumed by wildlife as the strandline in particular is a common foraging area for birds etc."
"We provide any equipment neccessary but recommend our volunteers bring their own protective gloves if they have them.
As thanks we are able to offer all our volunteers a complimentary day ticket to our centre (valid for at least 1 month) and enter our volunteers into a monthly prize draw to win either a free SeaTREK experience or a Turtle Feeding Experience with Ernie our Green Sea Turtle."
If you would like to attend or get any more information please don't hesitate to contact us".
We ask people to sign up by emailing ConservationSLM@merlinentertainments.biz so we can gauge numbers and the equipment we need."
FUN FACT:
In March 2015, on one of the previous Beach Cleans, a Bovril glass was found which was made way back in the 1920's! That would make it 95 years old. Things that get littered on the beach take decades to degrade. The Bovril glass shows that even littler from our dim and distant past still hasn't gone away. The Beach Cleans are vital in providing future generations with better environments.
