Volunteers answer Clean Coasts’ call to action to protect the ocean
Last Wednesday, June 8th, was World Ocean Day, an initiative that highlights the important role the ocean has for our life and the planet.
For the second year running, the Irish environmental charity Clean Coasts joined forces with National Spring Clean to provide volunteers and communities in Louth with free clean up kits to host a clean-up.
Statistics have shown that the number one cause of marine litter is litter dropped in towns and cities and getting involved in World Ocean Day was a great way for residents of non-coastal counties to help prevent litter entering our waterways by tackling the problem at the source.
Over 300 volunteers collected 1.3 tonnes of litter at the 10 clean-up events held throughout Louth and along the coast to prevent litter pollution at the source to ensure it does not end up in the ocean.
Meanwhile, at Least 100 volunteers collected around 500kg of litter at the Meath clean-up events.
A few key events that took place during World Ocean Day included Gormanstown Community Association who collected ten bags of rubbish from the roads and the beach, Slane National School and Bettystown Tidy Towns who did a classroom talk and beach trip and Alpha Dive S.A.C who hosted an event with Clean Coasts in Bettystown.
Events in Louth included Carlingford Tidy Town’s clean-up with St. Oliver’s National School, BIM, Keenan Oysters LTD and Carlingford Oyster Company where they did a clean up to mark World Ocean’s Day.
The World Ocean Day organisation supports collaborative conservation, working with its global network of youth and organizational leaders in more than 140 countries. In 2021, the initiative changed its name from “World Oceans Day” to “World Ocean Day”. By dropping the “s”, its organisers wanted to highlight the fact that we are all connected by a large ocean. This shared ocean supports all life on the planet, by producing most of the oxygen we breathe and regulating climate. No matter where we live, we all depend on the ocean to survive.
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The organisation had stated that the focus of 2022 would be once again on the 30×30 campaign: to create a healthy ocean with abundant wildlife and to stabilize the climate, it is critical that 30% of our planet’s lands, waters, and ocean are protected by 2030.
Sinead McCoy, Coastal Communities Manager said:
“World Ocean Day is a great opportunity for individuals, groups and communities to take action for Ocean Health and lend their voice of support to actions that call for more protection of our Ocean. Clean Coasts were incredibly excited to have over 200 activities happening across Ireland this month so far to mark and support World Ocean Day. The amazing efforts shown on and around World Ocean Day, as well as the work of Clean Coasts volunteers all year round, are incredibly inspiring and provide a great deal of hope for the future of the worlds Ocean.”
Clean Coasts also celebrated World Ocean Day with the release of a fourth Enjoy and Protect guide about wildlife photography for people wishing to enter the Clean Coasts Love Your Coast Amateur Photography competition as well as the general public who wish to capture the beauty of our coastline while taking action to protect it.
Last month two Marine Biodiversity guides were also issued that included a zones and habitats directory as well as a species directory to specify the area that certain wildlife (both marine and otherwise) exist in and a breakdown of the various marine and coastal life categories.
For more information on these events head to our website at www.cleancoasts.org to stay up to date on what’s happening.
