Trashing our oceans and waterways – Bar and Middle Beach Survey

To see Mrs. Watson and K/1/2/3's original post...

Clear the Coast Presentation

Hello Mrs. Watson and K/1/2/3,

After sending a reply to your comment, I had some time this afternoon so I visited two small beaches. They aren't the three mentioned in the comment but I thought they'd be a good start to a garbage survey.

Bar Beach

The first is known as Bar Beach. It lies at the entrance to the main lake in town. It is where tidal flow from the lake meets the sea. Below is a photo taken today...

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Bar Beach is the smallest seaside beach around town. It is only about 100m (about 325ft) long and can be very busy but today was cool so only a few were there. Below is a photo of what I found on this beach. As I was about to leave the beach, I also saw a cigarette butt.

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

As you can see, there was a plastic bottle, spoon, bottle top and piece of pipe. The other two items are lolly (candy) wrappers and, yes, they were also plastic. The only thing I picked up that wasn't plastic was a cigarette butt.

Middle Beach

Middle Beach is our second smallest beach. It was late afternoon when I took the photo below. The photo was taken from the northern end looking south. Remember, where I am in Australia, it's along the east coast. We see the sun rise over the ocean. The first time I saw the sun set over the ocean was when I visited New Zealand's South Island west coast. I wasn't a very long way from B4's town in New Zealand. I was in Greymouth about 80km (50 mi) from them.

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Middle Beach is about 1100m (about 1200 yards) long. I was alone on the beach while there. Below is a photo of what I found...

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Again, I mostly found plastic. Being a larger beach, I found more than on Bar Beach. Here is what I found...

A foam cup and two pieces of foam, three lolly (candy) wrappers, two plastic bottle tops, two pieces of yellow plastic and one piece of blue plastic, a plastic cigarette lighter, part of a fishing float with a hook still attached, a small plastic cup, fishing line, a small piece of nylon rope, a plastic gold ball, a larger fishing float (the plain white thing), a tissue, a fruit juice container I think dropped on the beach, and a plastic straw.

I have some filming to do at a music camp over the next few days but I hope to give you a report on other beaches before June 7, Ocean Day. All items I found were removed from the beaches and placed in rubbish bins.

Other beaches I can access from town are...

Main/Pambula Beach - 5.9km (3.3 mi)

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Short Point (Tura Beach) - 3.6km (2.2 mi)

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

North Tura Beach - 2.9km (1.8 mi)

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Another beach I can access a little out of town is in Bournda National Park

Bournda Beach - 4.2km (2.6 mi)

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

Schools and students have permission to use this graphic for non-commercial, educational purposes.

2 thoughts on “Trashing our oceans and waterways – Bar and Middle Beach Survey

  1. Mrs Watson and the K/1/2/3s

    Dear Mr. Mannell,
    That was awesome! Thank you so much for taking the time to go and take pictures for us. We think it is great that while you were helping us to learn, you were also helping the ocean by picking up the garbage you found.

    We find garbage like that on our beaches too. Many of the students in our class are going to try and take some pictures at the beach clean-up this weekend and we will post them on our blog.

    Thank you again for every thing you do!

    Your friends,
    Mrs. W and the K/1/2/3s

    Reply
    1. rossmannell

      Post author

      Dear Mrs. W and the K/1/2/3s,

      When I was a child starting school, plastics weren’t a problem. We had plastics but they were usually hard and heavy. There weren’t plastic bags at grocery stores. We had paper bags. Food came from the corner store because we didn’t have supermarkets or shopping centres (malls). Biscuits (cookies) and a number of other foods were kept in large tins. The shopkeeper would use a scoop to take what we wanted out of the tins and put them in the paper bags. Bottles were only glass and had metal bottle tops. Ropes were made of hemp not plastics like nylon. Clothing was made from wool and cotton and not polyester or other man made fibres.

      Our modern world has very many advantages but plastics have become a large part of our lives. They are easy to use. Stores don’t need as many staff to serve people and plastic bags are used instead of paper. Clothing is easier to clean and make.

      The price for this is the need to deal with plastic waste. Paper breaks down quickly, plastics don’t. Of course, paper is made from trees so we would need to make sure we planted trees but I haven’t found paper on our beaches thus far.

      I hope to visit Tura Beach today. In summertime, it can have many people there because there are lifeguards on duty as in the picture of the beach. Being winter now, there are usually only people walking or jogging the beach or surfers with wet suits in the water. It will probably be the last I can visit before your big clean up day this weekend. I will wait to see if you post any photos of what you find. 🙂

      Ross Mannell

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *