Katja Rockstoch is the PA to the Two Oceans Aquarium Environmental Education Centre Head of Education Russell Stevens. She, along with Aquarium staff, volunteers, more than 100 members of the public, and 30 Sappi volunteers, headed to the Zanvlei estuary in Muizenberg on Saturday 17 September for International Coastal Cleanup Day. Katja is a great photographer and a great blogger, too.
On 17 September this year, the 26th International Coastal Cleanup Day took place around the world. Over 9-million volunteers in 152 different countries took to beaches, rivers and lakes in what is probably one of the biggest, independent, volunteering efforts on this planet. What started with one woman on a Hawaiian beach in 1986 has grown into an amazing showcase of people with various backgrounds and ages, doing something together for the good of the planet.
The Two Oceans Aquarium’s staff, with the help of John Kieser from Plastic Federation South Africa, showed its support for this day by dedicating some energy towards cleaning the Zandvlei estuary in Muizenberg. Our reason for not choosing an actual beach was that the bulk of the litter that ends up on beaches and in oceans usually comes from further inland, either carried by wind or via rivers and estuaries.
By choosing Zandvlei, we managed to clean up the estuary, as well as hopefully prevent more litter from ending up in False Bay.
Even though it was a Saturday and the Springboks were playing, there was a great turnout and we thank everyone very much for coming out and taking part!
Besides Two Oceans Aquarium staff and volunteers, over 100 members of the public joined in. One of our big sponsors, Sappi, succeeded in encouraging a team of 30 to come and clean up. We also had a team of 10 from Enviroserv, which does the Two Oceans Aquarium’s recycling. The Zandvlei Trust also managed to gather a team of 240 navy cadets to clean up a separate part of Zandvlei.
Equipped with gloves, bags and a data collection sheet, the volunteers set off on a mission to find debris strewn around the vlei. There were even two volunteers in kayaks surveying the areas that those on land could not get to.
While picking up the litter, the volunteers also meticulously recorded what they were collecting. Ocean Conservancy has come up with a standardised data collection sheet, which allows the collector to tally up items as they are picked up. All this information is then collated by the Ocean Conservancy and published. These reports give us an indication of what is most often thrown away and should hopefully convey the message to all of us to be more careful in the future. This year the clear message should be to reduce buying one-use plastic bags! They were by far the most items found, with cigarette butts coming a close second. It is sad to see that the majority of litter found in our water bodies comprises things that can easily be disposed of in a more responsible manner.
By noon there was a pile of trash that filled three bakkie loads. A special thank you to SANParks staff for collecting the litter! The bags were then taken to a recycling depot to be sorted. With a happy heart and a feeling of accomplishment, we left Zandvlei looking clean and wonderful. One only hopes that the efforts and results from the International Coastal Cleanup Day encourage people to treat every day as a clean-up day!
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