Please keep our beaches clean in Cornwall

Yesterday local charity surfers against sewage were proud to announce their recent and very successful beach cleans all over the UK. Over the winter the UK coastline was continuously battered with storm swells, giant waves and strong winds causing widespread damage and uncovering buried litter in the sand which left our beaches looking very sorry for themselves.

Surfers against sewage rallied over 3500 volunteers, cleaned 130 beaches and removed 25 tonnes of litter, this is all brilliant news and we should all be proud.

Here is some fascinating statistics from surfers against sewage on the work that they and the volunteers achieved.

• 130 – The number of beaches cleaned by Surfers Against Sewage volunteers.
• 3,500 – SAS Big Spring Beach Clean volunteers.
• 25,000 – Kilograms of marine litter removed by SAS volunteers.
• 260 - Volunteers at Perranporth in Cornwall. A Big Spring Beach Clean record!
• 3.5 - Tonnes of marine litter removed from Perranporth in Cornwall. An SAS record for one single beach clean!
• 100 - Or more volunteers at 10 of the SAS Big Spring Beach Cleans!
• 28 – The average number of volunteers per SAS Big Spring Beach Clean.
• 500 – Kilograms or more marine litter were removed at 6 SAS Big Spring Beach Cleans.
• 1000s - Of Sewage Related Debris items reported at all Big Spring Beach Cleans.

I didn't take part in a beach clean organised by surfers against sewage but took part in an earlier beach clean after one of the first storms. With a group from our local surf club we took to Fistral beach in the pouring rain with bin bags and rubber gloves and walked the length of the beach picking up litter. 

Recently with the nights getting lighter and the weather getting briefly better I have been getting in the sea more and am shocked by the amount of litter on the beaches and coast path. This litter hasn't been buried in sand dunes for years and uncovered by the recent storms this is new litter recently dropped. Walking along the coast path down into Watergate bay there were a large amount of beer cans and bottles all looking shiny and new and recently left. Then there was the horror of going for a surf at Fistral recently where I parked my car up at Pentire, got my board out the car and put it on the grass and to my horror had put my board straight on top of a used condom! I was with some of the girls from my surf club and we did have a laugh as I poked the condom off the fin of my surfboard with my toe and joked about 'for the love of surfing' but then thought who would leave litter like this on a public street! Where this week with the schools breaking up for Easter will have many families and children visiting the beach. 

I'm utterly disgusted, the storms were bad but they were natural and we have to deal with the damage caused and the 3500 volunteers just shows how many people really do love their coastline and prepared to give up their time to help clean them. But it is absolutely heart breaking that after all that hard work by so many people that people come down to enjoy the beach and leave fresh new litter for somebody else to pick up. 

With Easter upon us and the tourists on the way to Cornwall, Please enjoy the beaches we all love so much but 

PLEASE TAKE YOUR LITTER WITH YOU