Coinciding with the celebration of World Environment Day (June 5) and World Oceans Day (June 8) this week, Campus do Mar organized a marine litter cleanup day on Alcabre beach this Sunday. This initiative responded to the request of the ANPA of the Emilia Pardo Bazán School in Vigo (O Chouzo) and resulted in the collection, in just one hour, of 17 kg of waste of all kinds on the beach.
In total, 50 people participated in this day, including schoolchildren and family members, along with volunteers and staff from Campus do Mar.
Even though the beach seemed clean…
The morning began with a brief training session and then they were divided into groups accompanied by a volunteer from Campus do Mar. Taking advantage of the low tide, each team focused on an area of the beach and, despite the fact that the beach seemed clean, in one hour they collected 17 kg of waste of all kinds, much of it in the intertidal zone, such as straws, pieces of mooring lines and fishing nets, plastic wrap, tampons, wipes, compresses, sticks, sticks from raft ropes, clothing labels or nylon remnants.
During the search, children and adults were also able to learn about the organisms that live on the beach, the tidal process, the types of algae or the origin of marine litter. With everything collected, the participants headed to the container island located in front of the AAVV de Alcabre, where they weighed and separated waste according to its type, trying to raise awareness among the little ones about the problem of plastics and microplastics in the oceans.
Collaboration with the Marine Research Center
To launch this activity, the collaboration of the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo was counted on, since its staff (Charo De la Huz and Alba Hernández) were in charge of giving a training session to the volunteers of Campus do Mar last Friday at the Ecimat facilities in Toralla. In addition, the City Council of Vigo collaborated with the provision of the bags that were delivered to the school to collect the trash from the beach.
Source:DUVI
