Beach clean and litter surveys
Why do we need beach cleans?
Litter on our beaches is a big problem - it is unsightly, harms wildlife through entanglement and ingestion, and can impact human health. There are two pieces of litter on the beach for every step you take on one. Plastic is a particular problem as it doesn't biodegrade. Plastic litter has increased by 135 % since 1994 and accounts for 64 % of all rubbish found on our beaches.
We've adopted Hurst Spit as part of the Marine Conservation Society's Adopt-A-Beach Project. We survey and clean up a section of this beautiful stretch of coast four times a year. The litter survey is essential in gathering important data on where the litter is coming from and how much of it there is. All the information gathered on the quantities and sources of beach litter is given to the Marine Conservation Society who use it to tackle the pollution at its source. Why not have a read one of our recent annual summaries to see who got involved and what we’ve been finding?
Beach clean and litter survey summary 2011
Beach Clean & Litter Survey Summary 2010
Beach Clean & Litter Survey Summary 2009.
Join us...
Why not come and join us on one of our clean and survey events? We're usually on the beach for about 1-2 hours (depending on how many people attend and the weather!). We meet at Cut Bridge at the base of the spit (Map Ref: SZ 299 908) and our event dates are listed below. It's not essential to book but we’d appreciate it if you did as it helps with our planning (like making sure we have enough litter pickers!). Booking also enables us to contact you if we need to cancel at short notice, for example, due to very bad weather. Everything you need to carry out the surveys such as gloves, litter pickers and survey forms will be provided but we advise you to bring warm, waterproof clothing and some sturdy footwear. For more information and to let us know you'd like to attend, please contact Amy Dale (marine officer) on 01489 774444 (during normal working hours) or AmyD@hwt.org.uk.
Beach clean and survey dates
Spring beach clean and litter survey: Saturday 17th March 2012. Meet at 10am.
Summer beach clean and litter survey: Tuesday 12th June 2012. Meet at 6pm.
Autumn beach clean and litter survey (Beachwatch 2012): Sunday 16th September 2012. Meet at 12noon.
NOTE: We sometimes need to change the dates of beach cleans and surveys at short notice due to unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, it is advisable to check the beach clean and survey you'd like to attend is running the week before the date to make sure no amendments to the above schedule have been made. If you book a place on the beach clean, we’ll try to contact you to let you know of any changes.
Recent results in detail...
Our annual summaries provide an overview of each year’s events. Links to our annual summaries are available at the top of this webpage.
For more detailed information on our most recent beach clean and litter survey events, please read on:-
Winter beach clean and litter survey (10th December 2011). We had a lovely large group of 14 people taking part in our winter clean and survey this year. It was a lovely day, with only very light winds and calm seas. The views from the Spit are constantly changing, and provide us with a different backdrop to each and every event - but on this day it was a particularly wonderful calm seascape. When not distracted by the view, we spent a very busy hour and a half working our way along a 150m section of the spit. Over 1500 items of litter were plucked from among the pebbles and vegetation and recorded on our record sheets. In all this amounted to 13kg of litter! As usual, plastic was the main culprit with 1170 items of this non-biodegradable material recorded, with paper (116 items), polystyrene (113 items), metal (79 items) and cloth (64 items) making up the next largest groups of items we collected. This data has been submitted to the Marine Conservation Society for their records. Their website www.mcsuk.org.uk is a good place to start if you’d like more information on their litter campaigns. Thank you to everyone who took part in this beach clean and survey, we hope you’ll join us again on our next event.
Beachwatch Big Weekend 2011. Thousands of volunteers helped to collect litter from hundreds of beaches across the UK on the 17th and 18th September during this year’s Beachwatch Big Weekend - the UK's largest beach clean and litter survey. We did our bit by organizing a Beachwatch event on our regular Adopt-A-Beach beach, Hurst Spit on Sunday 18th September. We had a record turn out of 23 volunteers (one up from last year!) who spent a very active hour and a half picking up and recording 1432 items of litter (weighing in total 17.45 kg), spread across a 250 x 40 m stretch of beach. This sounds like a lot, and indeed it is so well done to all involved. However, in comparison to this time last year when we collected 2238 items within an area measuring only 170 x 40m, this may be an indication that this beautiful beach gradually becoming cleaner. Never the less, as usual, the vast majority of litter picked up was made from plastic (1194 of the 1432 items), so it’s a sobering reminder that this material does not decompose nearly as quickly as we’re using it – if at all. This data has been submitted to the Marine Conservation Society for their records. Once data from all the Beachwatch events has been collated they'll be publishing a report so watch this space. We'd like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who participated in this and other beach clean events; we couldn't do it without you! This time round we’d like to also extend a huge thank you to Bob, Grace and Lucy, who very kindly jumped in and ran the event on the day when I could not attend.
