Gary pitches in by scooping up litter

SEASONED sailor Gary Kepper has spent countless hours cleaning up rubbish on Admiralty Island, which is literally in his backyard.

Mr Kepper (right) lives aboard a yacht in Trinity Inlet with his young son, Nara, and travels the dozen-or-so metres across to Admiralty Island daily.

For a long time the island was too dangerous for his young son with scores of broken glass and plastics littering the sand. But Mr Kepper took it upon himself to make a difference, spending hours each week cleaning the island.

He has also bought two derelict boats – one of which is now floating metres away from his live-aboard, the other he has docked on the now-cleared beach on Admiralty Island.

Bit by bit, he’s bringing that old sailing boat back to life as he cleans up more and more of the island.

“There’s 50 to 60 years worth of rubbish on that island,” he said.

“People don’t worry about things they can’t see, but plastic pollution is killing everything.”

Mr Kepper said it was “really great” to see the progress that had been made in clean- ing up large amounts of nautical rubbish.

But he said there was plenty more work to be done. “I love this island,” he said. “I love the environment, I love using it, so I wanted to give something back.

“That’s why I spend so much time picking up rubbish.

“But it really would be good to see more of the big wrecks cleaned up.”