Caring for our beaches

Today I joined some of the local community in their regular monthly beach cleanup of Lyall Bay beach (it’s always the first Sunday of the month, meet at the Lyall Bay Beach playground playground at 10.00 am if you are interested!)

We spent around an hour, and collected seven bags of plastic bits and pieces, cans and other rubbish. Interestingly, the plastic this time was mainly smaller bits which might indicate it has washed down through stormwater drains rather than being blown directly onto the beach. Or perhaps larger bits have been there long enough to break down.

We also found quite a lot of polypropylene matting loose on the beach- this was used beneath the rock reinforcing installed along the sides of the bay two years ago. It is a  concern that this has broken loose and I’ll make sure Council staff know.

Looking through the clumps of seaweed, I realised just how many different types there are. Apparently,  Cook Strait is one of New Zealand’s seaweed hotspots, with around 370 species, or 30% of the New Zealand total. It is one of the reasons the South Coast is such a rich ecosystem and a taonga we can all be proud of.  Its worth looking after!