Posts Tagged ‘fistral’

19th Fistral Beach clean

Posted on April 22nd, 2012 in inkydeep by inkydeep

On Saturday 28 April 2012, the 19th Keep Britain Tidy Fistral Beach clean takes place.

From Andy Heald the beach clean coordinator;  “Thanks very much for the 20+ volunteers who attended the March clean. Seven full bags of litter, with the reappearance of seasonal litter (bbq’s, beer cans etc) a feature.

For the April clean I am happy to announce a revisit by the Mayor, Andy Hannan and the Newquay Lions. In addition to this, we are privileged to be part of Pirate FM’s Green Month. The Pirate FM radio crew and radio truck will be present on the day, joining us at South Fistral – Bodhi’s for the start, and welcoming us at the finish – North Fistral car park. Bodhi’s have kindly offered half price breakfast and drinks to all volunteers.

And the last piece of news, is the great reviews ‘Fistral Wreck’ is receiving at Galerie 17 in Fontainebleau, Paris. It is currently been exhibited alongside other work by the artist Davy Surier http://www.galerie17pointarts.com/Artistes/Pages/Davy_Surier.html . The art piece has used different materials from two cleans made in 2011. It is expected to go on show in Newquay later this year.

I look forward to seeing you all on the 28th at 10am for a 10.15am start.”

Protecting what we love – please consider when on the beach or after surfing collecting a handful of rubbish and ditching it in the nearest bin.  As surfers let’s take the lead in caring for the ocean and our beaches.

Beach Care

Posted on January 21st, 2012 in inkydeep by inkydeep

On the last Saturday of every month a small group of willing volunteers carry out a beach clean at Fistral Beach in Newquay.  At times the task at hand can be daunting due to the high volume of rubbish and because it is just not possible to remove the thousands and thousands of tiny pieces of plastic from the beach by hand.

However we are aware that the marine rubbish that we do remove will hopefully not go back into the ocean and the food chain.  As a surfer and beach goer it is always good karma to give a little something back.

The Fistral beach clean is run under Keep Britain Tidy’s BeachCare programme.  BeachCare organiser Neil Hembrow has compiled some stats from the first fourteen beach cleans and it is interesting to see what has been collected and the comparisons between Fistral and other beach cleans.

More on the BeachCare programme can be found here.  The next Fistral Beach clean is Saturday 28 January, details below;

February’s Fistral Beach Clean

Posted on February 27th, 2011 in inkydeep by inkydeep

Yesterday saw the fifth Fistral Beach clean organised by Keep Britain Tidy.  After the initial look over the beach there didn’t appear to be much litter for the twenty odd volunteers to pick up.  The past week has seen very high tides combined with big surf and the beach and sand dunes were given a bit a beating so much of the litter was taken out to sea.

A closer inspection of the beach revealed insidious plastic (particularly at the high tide line); thousands of very small pieces.  So much so that it is almost an overwhelming task to remove.  Picking up the bigger pieces of litter is obvious but the benefit of removing the small plastic items is that they are prevented from entering the food chain.

The bulk of the tiny plastic pieces were polystyrene and other types of plastic foam, difficult to effectively remove from the beach without the use of something like a sieve.

I could not help but think ‘how do we stop plastic such as foam ending up on the beaches in the first place’?  I was asked by some people out walking what we were doing.  They acknowledged that the beach cleaning was a good idea but it was their thoughts on where did the litter come from that made me make take notice.  Ships out at sea, seagulls and beach visitors were given as the main culprits for beach litter.

Ships and gulls?  I’m not too sure about that.  There is no doubt that visitors to the beach are responsible for a lot of the litter found on beaches.  The wind carries litter down to the shore and daily tides deposit the remainder.  So how does litter enter the ocean?

Evidence shows that ocean plastic is entering the food chain. As much as there is a need for people to pick up and remove beach litter we all need to think of and be aware of the consequences of our actions with all that we buy and ultimately dispose of.  Thankfully there are people and organisations like Harry (from Saco, Maine), Surfers Against Sewage, Keep Britain Tidy and The Surfrider Foundation who care and are taking action.  More on Harry and his sterling efforts can be read about on his blog http://theflotsamdiaries.blogspot.com/.

The Plastic Problem

Posted on December 19th, 2010 in inkydeep by inkydeep

Yesterday was the third Fistral Beach clean organised by Keep Britain Tidy.  Before we begin the beach clean we collect and count the junk and litter found within a small sample area.  Once this is done the volunteers set off down the beach collecting the rubbish found along the beach and dunes.

For a casual walk down the beach yesterday you could have been forgiven for thinking Fistral Beach was clean with very little litter along its length.  However when you stop and look carefully at the sand, in particular amongst the seaweed at the high tide line, that the plastic problem reveals itself.  Sift through a clump of seaweed and you will find a lot of small plastic pieces, nylon string and rope, items from plastic bottles and other sundry waste items.

The litter found on the beach includes the usual suspects of foil packets, wood pieces, tins cans but the majority is plastic; from bottles to small broken down pieces of plastic, evidence of the plastic pollution problem.  Most of these waste items appear to have been brought in on the tide.

In an area as large as Fistral Beach it is a dilemma whether to go after the larger more obvious litter or is it more important to pick up the small stuff that could easily be swallowed by fish which in turn could end up in the food chain?

Staying in one small area of the beach and ‘deep cleaning’ it, requires you to get down on your haunches and pick up the waste items by hand because they are too small for the litter pick up tool to grab hold of.

Here’s some examples of the items picked up during the beach clean;

Hundreds of little plastic pieces (what they are from or used to form is not identifiable)
Polystyrene pieces
Plastic drinking bottles
A plastic broom head
Hard foam (polyurethane?) pieces
Plastic handles/sleeves of cotton buds/swabs
Plastic screw on bottle tops
Plastic caps and collars from drinking bottles
Nylon string and rope of various thickness and sizes
Tampon applicators
Plastic drinking straws
Cigarette filters
Cigarette lighters
Fishing net segments

As for solutions, well that is going to be a hard nut to crack.  Continuing to raise awareness of the problem, promoting and using alternatives and picking up litter are steps in the right direction.

http://www.mcsuk.org/
http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/
http://www.sas.org.uk/campaigns/marine-litter/mermaids-tears/

The hunting ground…

Part of the catch…

A good way to spend a Saturday morning…

Posted on October 31st, 2010 in inkydeep by inkydeep

Today we took part in Keep Britain Tidy’s first beach clean at Fistral Beach.  Thanks to Neil the Beachcare Co-ordinator and Andy the local organiser about 25 of us plucky volunteers collected about five black bags of rubbish.

Armed with grabbers and black bags we trooped up and down the beach – all amazed at what we found.  I had always had the impression that Fistral Beach was one of the cleaner Cornish beaches but once I started actually looking closely the amount of plastic around was unbelievable.

Neil explained that the plastic comes from a variety of sources.  Yes there is the stuff that senseless people leave behind, but a lot comes in from the sea either from sea vessels or rubbish that has lain on the sea bed from when the sewage outfalls were not so choosy.  This is churned up in the winter storms and makes its way onto the beach.

The biggest surprise was the sheer volume of plastic nurdles, also known as ‘mermaid’s tears’, or their industry name ‘Pre-Production Plastic Pellets’.  Measuring about 3mm in diameter the nurdles are very hard to pick out almost camouflaged against the sand.  Needless to say fish and other sea life often consume the plastic as it breaks up and does a good impersonation of food.

The beach clean will be a monthly event from now on.  If you are interested in coming along to a Newquay beach clean or one nearer home then further details can be found at the following link:  http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/Programmes/Beaches/Beachcare/Default.aspx.

Sarah

South rocks

Posted on October 2nd, 2010 in inkydeep by inkydeep

Today saw the first big swell of autumn arrive on the north coast of Cornwall. Predications for Fistral Beach were for a westerly swell with a near shore wave height of 8 foot at a period of 11 seconds.

This morning the occasional set looked a solid 6 to 8 foot with smaller in between sets. The paddle out from the beach looked like a lot of hard work so the best option to get out back was from off the rocks at south Fistral.

The photos below are of some of this morning’s rock hoppers…

Fistral colours

Posted on September 1st, 2010 in inkydeep by inkydeep

Tried out our new Canon D10 waterproof camera in the surf tonight at Fistral Beach. The home made camera ‘holster’ used to store the camera when I’m paddling needs some work but the photo results are interesting in particular the colours below the surface, the water texture detail and the reflections of the fins on the bottom of the surf board.  Andy.