Project Aware Blog – Results and International Coastal Clean-up Week

Here are new results from “This Project is Rubbish!” and an update on our plans for International Coastal Clean-up Week.

Macro and micro debris study of the sediment surface using a selective sampling technique

Forty one sampling sessions have been conducted to date. Twenty five have been completed at site one and sixteen at site two. The imbalance in numbers is due to bad weather over the winter season. The bad weather (high rainfall) has opened the river which makes reaching site two challenging (the river needs to be crossed on foot to reach site 2- there are no roads crossing the river to allow easy access). The results from here on represent the first thirty five sampling sessions, twenty one from site one and fourteen from site two.

Overall for both sites 5602 debris items have been sampled in terms of count. Overall in terms of weight 4280.7 grams of debris has been sampled. 3159 debris items (56.39% of total debris) came from site one and 2443 from site two (43.61% of total debris). For site one the weight for the sampled debris was 2218.8 grams (51.84% of total debris) and for site two 2061.27 grams (48.16% of total debris). Site one had an average of 150 items per sample session whilst site two had an average of 175 items per sample session. The top three debris groups in terms of count were plastic, cigarette butts and rubber. Plastic had a count of 5431 items (96.95% of total debris); cigarette butts had a count of 104 and rubber, 23. In terms of weight the top three debris groups were plastic, metal and wood. The sampled plastic weighed 3027.26 grams (70.73% of total debris), metal weighed 512.9 grams and wood 327.8 grams. The top three plastic functional groups in terms of count were unidentified plastic fragments, lids/ pull tabs and sweet wrappers. Unidentified plastic fragments had a count of 3901 items (71.83% of total plastic); lids/pull tabs had a count of 264 items and sweet wrappers, 212. The debris distribution for both sites was 78% for the upper shore (closest to vegetation), 19% for the middle shore and 3% for the lower shore (closest to ocean). The same trend was present for individual sites.

Micro debris study of the sediment using bulk sampling (cores)

Four sampling sessions have been conducted; two at site one and two at site two. Therefore thirty six core samples have been taken, eighteen from site one and eighteen from site two. The results from here on come from the first two sampling sessions. The results for the third and fourth sampling sessions will be available shortly.

For both sites overall, 873 debris items were found. Site one had 403 items (46% of total debris) whilst site two had 472 items (54% of total debris). The debris distribution for both sites was as follows. The upper shore (closest to vegetation) showed 149 debris items (17% of total items); the middle shore had 222 items (25% of total items) and the lower shore (closest to ocean) 502 items (58% of total items). This is interesting as it is the exact opposite in comparison with the sediment surface study where the most amount of debris was found on the upper shore and the least on the lower shore.

Community awareness/education- International Coastal Clean-up Week:

International coastal clean-up week is only one week away. The South African Shark Conservancy (SASC) in partnership with Whale Coast Conservation (WCC) is going to be running clean ups in Hermanus and surrounding areas with local schools, businesses and organisations. This will happen between the 12th and the 19th of September 2014. Schools including Okkie Smuts, Bosko School, Waldorf Hermanus, Hermanus Private, Pringle Bay Primary and Northcliff House College will be involved in the clean ups. Participants will not only collect rubbish but will also be involved with the sorting, counting and weighing of the collected debris. After all the rubbish has been collected and the data recorded, a scientific write up will then be completed based on this data.

On the 20th of September which is International Coastal Clean-up Day SASC again in partnership with Whale Coast Conservation will be conducting a cigarette butt clean up around the town of Hermanus. We will be walking to specific spots picking up as many cigarette butts as we can. At the end of the clean up all the litter will be counted and weighed and the results will form part of the scientific write up mentioned earlier. We hope to get as many members of the community involved, young and old. We are marketing the event through social media, radio and newspaper.