The beach cleaning volunteer group Beach Buddies has discovered an area of coastline which it describes as being polluted by ‘the worst amount of rubbish found on the Isle of Man by far’.
Beach Buddies co-ordinator Bill Dale said: ‘I have to admit that we have felt recently that we had made a significant difference to the cleanliness of the Isle of Man’s beaches, and I still think that this is the case, but the amount of rubbish we discovered at Sartfield beach was simply overwhelming,
‘Our volunteers discovered an absolutely huge amount of rubbish which has collected over what appears to be many, many years. We had a good number of volunteers, and they collected a lot of rubbish, but there is still a mountain of plastic bottles, fishing gear, canisters, ropes and all sorts of rubbish still to be cleared.
‘This will take many, many weeks to clear. It’s frightening to think of the damage that this sort of pollution has caused the wildlife along the coast over the last 10 or 20 years. This part of the coast is now been chosen as the number one priority, and we will be diverting all our attention to this area in the next few weeks.’
Beach Buddies has now issued an appeal for its northern volunteers to do their best to attend this coming Sunday morning’s second visit to Sartfield beach at Jurby, to tackle the massive amount of rubbish on the coastline.
Mr Dale added: ‘The key to this is that once we have gathered the rubbish we need to get it all off the beach, because both the Beach Buddies 4x4 and trailer have now been scrapped and we have no vehicle to go onto the beach. If anyone in the Ballaugh, Jurby or Lhen area can help then we would be most grateful.
‘It also raises the question as to whether we create a new ‘collection point’ for bags of rubbish half way between the access points at Jurby and The Lhen, so that members of the public can gather rubbish and deposit bags to be collected afterwards.’
Tim Cross and Jaynee Major, who are keen supporters of the regular Beach Buddies’s sessions, and who organised the first cleaning sessions at Sartfield last Sunday, said: ‘We would like to thank everyone who was able to attend the beach clean that took place on Sunday at Sartfield beach at Jurby.
‘Although the army was smaller than some of our previous cleans, the amount of rubbish was as grand as usual. We hope that everyone who was able to attend enjoyed the day and left feeling as pleased and as proud as we felt. Thanks once again.’
The Beach Buddies team will meet at Sartfield at 10.30am on Sunday. Litterpickers, gloves and bin bags (sponsored by WDS Ltd) will be supplied and Beach Buddies will dispose of all the rubbish collected afterwards. The Northern Amenity Site has been informed to expect ‘exceptional’ quantities of rubbish!
Email: beachbuddies@manx.net. Phone 496560