KZN BEACHES

THE DIRTIEST

WHAT THE COASTAL CLEAN-UP REVEALS

THE South African Association for Marine Biological Research (Saambr) has released which type of items were most commonly found at beaches along the KwaZulu-Natal coast on International Coastal Clean-up Day on September 15.

Among the items collected were fishing gear, pieces of plastic, cigarette butts, styrofoam, plastic bottles, metal and plastic bottlecaps, nappies, sweet wrappers and plastic straws.

The dirtiest place was between the Cabana Beach Resort and uShaka Beach – plastic, cigarette butts, styrofoam, metal bottle-caps and sweet wrappers.

Areas covered were from Maputaland Marine Reserve, down to Dassie Rocks.

From Maputaland Marine Reserve to St Lucia, fishing gear was collected.

Then, from Richards Bay down to Casuarina Beach, fishing gear, plastic bottles, cigarette butts, straws and plastic pieces were collected. Umbogintwini Beach to Dassie Rocks was littered with plastic pieces, cigarette butts, diapers, straws and plastic bottle caps.

“Beach clean-ups help inform us about problematic litter items in various locations and can help inform future clean-up projects and retailers, as well as legislation and municipal by-laws, when the data is collected and presented to the correct decision-making bodies,” Saambr said in a Facebook post.

Saambr also said they hoped to see more data from clean-ups, as more and more people got involved in caring for the oceans.