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Autumn Beach Clean Series calling for community volunteers

Surfers Against Sewage is calling for community volunteers to get involved with the Autumn Beach Clean Series at some of the UK’s most treasured surf spots and beaches.

We are delighted to be working with The Crown Estate to deliver an ambitious nationwide series of community beach clean events this autumn. The Autumn Beach Clean Series will include events in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, taking place from September to November. SAS beach clean and education events are a fun and proactive way of mobilising coastal communities, surfers, water sports enthusiasts and environmentalists to tackle the dramatically escalating problem of marine litter impacting UK beaches & surf spots. They are also a very effective platform to help individuals understand how they can best help protect our precious beaches and coastlines on a day-to-day basis.

The Autumn Beach Clean Series will be visiting the following locations:

  • Sept 8th – Llantwit Major
  • Sept 9th – Tenby
  • Sept 9th – Hells Mouth
  • Sept 22nd – Boscombe – On the eastern side of the pier under the SAS flags
  • Sept 23rd – Brighton – On the western side of West Pier under the SAS flags
  • Sept 23rd – Grange Chine, IoW – At the entrance to the beach
  • Oct 5th – Castlerock
  • Oct 6th – Portballintrae
  • Oct 7th – Portstewart Strand
  • Oct 20th – Pease Bay
  • Oct 20th – Coldingham Bay
  • Oct 21st – Thurso
  • Oct 27th – Machrihanish
  • Nov 10th – Whitburn
  • Nov 11th – Saltburn (South)
  • Nov 11th – Lowestoft
  • Nov 17th – Saunton – 10.30 – 12.30
  • Nov 17th – Woolacombe – 13.00 – 15.00
  • Nov 18th – Sidmouth (East)

Events will run from 11am – 1pm unless otherwise stated. To register for an event please email dom [at] sas [dot] org [dot] uk or call 01872 555953.

The Crown Estate combine the commercial imperative with an equally firm commitment to integrity and stewardship, part of which involves facilitating the development of marine renewables on their marine estate, providing funds for scientific research and backing community projects that promote responsible management of the marine estate.

The marine litter crisis has seen an alarming 100% increase in the amount of man-made items washing upon our coastline over the last 20 years*. The majority of marine litter consists of plastic items such as drinks bottles, carrier bags, fishing line and sewage-related debris. Plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade in the marine environment, causing significant harm to marine life, ecosystems and compromising the enjoyment and experiences of coastal visitors everywhere. SAS believes that with almost 40% of litter found along our coastlines coming directly from public sources, the power to reduce the tide of trash is very much in our own hands.

SAS’s rapidly expanding programme of beach clean events help remove marine litter directly from the environment, raise public awareness, and complement longer term initiatives that aim to tackle marine litter at source including Return To Offender, Break the Bag Habit, Think Before You Flush and No Butts on the Beach.

The Crown Estate

  • The Crown Estate manages a highly diverse property business valued at more than £8 billion.
  • We pay our surplus revenue (profit) to the Treasury for the benefit of the nation every year: in 2011/12 this was £240.2 million. Over the past ten years The Crown Estate has paid £2 billion to the Treasury.
  • The Crown Estate’s portfolio includes around half the UK’s foreshore, tidal river beds and estuaries and almost the entire seabed out to the 12 nautical mile (nm) territorial limit around the UK. It also includes the rights to the natural resources in the UK Continental Shelf, with the exception of oil, coal and gas.
  • Our objectives, which are laid down by Parliament under the Crown Estate Act 1961, include enhancing the value of the estate and the revenue it produces.
  • The responsibilities of The Crown Estate are to maintain and enhance the value of the estate and its income over the long term and to do this having regard to good management. In summary, The Crown Estate is a successful business organisation guided by our core values – commercialism, integrity and stewardship.
  • The Crown Estate portfolio includes office, retail and industrial premises; housing; farmland; forestry and minerals; parkland; and around half the foreshore and almost all the seabed around the UK.
  • The Crown Estate’s property comprises four portfolios: Urban, Energy and Infrastructure, Rural and Coastal, and Windsor.

Marine litter

Plastic makes up the vast majority of marine litter and never truly breaks down. Experts suggest plastic left in the environment will be with us in some microscopic form for many thousands of years. When in the sea, plastics can adsorb toxic chemicals, becoming increasingly harmful over time, and often entering the food chain when mistaken for food items by marine organisms. Over 100,000 marine mammals and turtles, and over 1 million seabirds die every year from ingestion of and entanglement in marine litter. Sources of marine litter:

  • 39.9% from the public
  • 5.4% Sewage related Debris
  • 11.3% fishing litter
  • 1.2% fly tipping
  • 3.6% shipping
  • 0.2% medical waste
  • 38.3% non-source

*2011 MCS Beach Watch Survey