Sea Cleaners

Sea Cleaners is a charity organisation that was started by Hayden Smith in Auckland 20 years ago, with the goal of removing rubbish and plastics from our waterways and marine environment.

We now have five boats operating throughout New Zealand – in Northland, three crews in Auckland, and the newest addition being the Canterbury crew.

A normal day for our crew of two in the south (when the weather is good), is out on the boat in Lyttleton Harbour and the bays throughout Banks Peninsula, gathering muscle buoys and rubbish that has washed up from offshore and, of course, saying hello to our friendly hector dolphin family on the way.

On the days when the weather isn’t great, we jump in the ute with the bright green kayak on top and choose which river or coastline to clean for the day, ranging from Kaikoura down to Timaru.

Each of the five crews aim to remove 2,000 litres of rubbish from our waterways every day.

Since the inception of the Canterbury crew in January 2023, we have removed 200,000 litres.

If you’re keen to get involved and want to help our beautiful marine environment, we take volunteers out on the boat with us whenever we can and also help run land-based clean-ups for large groups.

But remember, you can help out the cause by taking a bag with you any time you go to a river or beach, picking up rubbish along your walk.

Contact: www.seacleaners.com