Rakiura Stewart Island has some amazing remote beaches, places that feel so far away from anything else you wouldn’t believe that non-natural material could wash up on the shores. But it does.
That’s why twice a year Southern Coastal Charitable Trust organise a Stewart Island beach cleanup made up of 16 volunteers. This year, one of our teammates got the chance to go down there, roll up their sleeves and clean up rubbish.
This year’s coastal clean-up crew met at the Bluff RealNZ ferry terminal on a mid-July blustery and grey morning. To the locals just a breeze. Another year and 16 very eager volunteers with most meeting for the first time.
16 hardy volunteers, 5 days of full on, out on the beaches picking up the non natural beach rubbish.
Since their first clean-up project more than 20 years ago, the South Coast Charitable Trust have have rid our shores of over 72 tonnes of rubbish.
The seventh annual Talley’s sponsored beach cleanup of Stewart Island is under way from July 12 to 17, with Mike Black calling for more volunteers for the sorting facility.
Seeing mollymawk carcasses containing plastic beads lying on the remote coastline of Stewart Island is motivation for Southern Coastal Charitable Trust volunteers to keep clearing rubbish from such areas.
All the volunteer’s arrived at the Wairaurahiri jet base at Clifden. From there people were sorted into helicopter or boat groups.