Shelter Cove Beach Clean Up – A Kid's Perspective

Written by Kids for Kids Shelter Cove Beach Clean Up

WORDS: CLIVE WONG, AGE 13

In early November, once again we organized our annual beach clean-up day at Shelter Cove for members of our sailing and rowing community. We had the fortune of gathering two dozen youngsters and adults this year to help conserve our marine ecosystem.

This year we chose to clean up the strip of beach right outside the Scout Association Leadership Training Centre at the tip of Hebe Haven (the first beach you sail by after passing Trio Beach, as you return to the mooring zone). Due to the confluence of tidal current and the constant boat traffic in this area, a large number of debris, both natural or man-made, had made its way onto this short stretch of shoreline. While the younger members of our team helped with picking up smaller pieces of rubbish scattered across the beach, the older members got to work and tried to remove the larger pieces of trash strewn haphazardly in the rocky zone. We collected many usual suspects on this visit (i.e., plastic bottles, beer cans, ropes, tarp coverings, fishing gear, plastic barrels and decaying car tires), as well as unusual ones - we managed to dislodge several broken dinghy trolley parts buried deep in the sand! One young team member yelled incredulously, “How did they even get here?” The children also picked up many sharp glass and ceramic fragments along the shore. It was unsettling to witness the amount of damage human activities have affected the Hebe Haven marine area. This served as a reminder to those of you who moor your boats nearby, to always secure our on-board equipment tightly, in order to avoid gears accidentally being blown or swept off-board. During cruising, if you unfortunately dropped any gear overboard, please give your best effort and return your boat to retrieve the fallen gear from the ocean, in order to decrease the environmental impact of your sailing.

On this trip, we have successfully collected around 15 large bags of rubbish. Special thank goes to the sampan operator who assisted us in removing these colossal bags off the beach. We can all become stakeholders in the well-being of our beaches. For a beach clean-up all you need is some protective gloves and a container to collect your litter. Do give it a try, please sign up and join our team next time!