RSA Insurance Beach Cleanup at Lepe Beach, Southampton

Overview

On September 9, 2024, The International Seakeepers Society’s UK Office held their first beach cleanup at Lepe Country Park with 20 volunteers from SeaKeepers’ 2024 Corporate Citizen Science Programme Partner, RSA Insurance. By beginning the session with an educational talk about marine debris and its impact on the environment, RSA’s volunteers were encouraged to become better ocean stewards, switching single use products for more sustainable alternatives in their daily lives. Before hitting the beach, the group were briefed on how to safely collect litter and use the clean up gear supplied by Waterhaul, a UK based organisation that recycles ghost fishing gear and sails to create sustainable equipment. SeaKeepers’ UK Sustainability Kit partner CanO Water supported the event by supplying plastic-free cans, ensuring the group remained hydrated throughout while further emphasising the importance of using sustainable alternatives when available. Although the coastal area appeared “clean” at first glance, the volunteers removed 25.82 kg of ocean-bound plastic from the beach and surrounding parkland, improving the health of local marine ecosystems. On their return, the volunteers were excited to share their most interesting finds from the day. These included part of a traffic barrier, broken machinery and an old bouquet of flowers. As land-based items account for approximately 80% of marine debris, everyone can make positive lifestyle changes to become better ocean stewards and protect both their local and global marine environment. We thank RSA for attending SeaKeepers UK’s first beach cleanup and look forward to continuing our programming partnership into the future.

Marine Debris Tracker is a data collection app that allows the general public to contribute to an open-date platform and scientific research by recording the different types of litter, specifically plastic pollution, that they find in either inland or marine environments. Marine Debris Tracker was developed by the University of Georgia’s Jambeck Research Group, which SeaKeepers worked with in 2021 when the Jambeck Research Group collaborated with Ocean Conservancy to assess Miami’s plastic waste management, known as a Circularity Assessment Protocol. SeaKeepers again assisted the Jambeck Research Group’s Circularity Informatics Lab in 2022 with another Circularity Assessment Protocol in the Florida Keys. The researchers of the Jambeck Lab use the Marine Debris Tracker app to record their data, and with citizen scientists also using the app, more data can be collected in different areas. Using Marine Debris Tracker at our cleanups involves community members in creating a bigger picture of plastic pollution, and provides the means for new scientific findings to be generated as well as for effective local legislation to be informed. SeaKeepers is excited to be incorporating this app at our cleanups and continue our mission of coastal education, protection, and restoration. In this clean up, 100% of volunteers participated in using the app to record data.