Yorkshire Coast residents urged to take part in beach cleans

There is one of a series of beach cleans on the Yorkshire coast this weekend.

The 'Waves of Waste' events are run by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust with the aim of keeping the environment safe for marine animals.

Ana Cowie, Marine Pollution Officer at YWT, said:

"We basically recruit and support local volunteers to take ownership of their beach and run regular beach cleans open to the public, so we run them throughout the year at a variety of beaches along the Yorkshire Coast.

"Unfortunately marine litter is a huge, huge problem and since the Covid-19 pandemic, we've seen a surge in single use items and face masks. We often seen animals entangled in litter so it's a real issue at the moment.

"Every bit of litter that we can remove from the environment is helping but it's also a fantastic way to get out and about, to safely meet people at the moment and to appreciate our local environment. It's really important we protect it.

"We know of an organisation that are currently monitoring the seals in the area and I think they said that in the last week, they're currently monitoring five seals that have severe fishing line and rope tangled round their necks."

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust says the volunteers record litter collected, feed it the information to Keep Britain Tidy and locally analyse the information to determine trends occurring.

The following Waves of Waste beach cleans are scheduled to take place but may be cancelled or postponed because of Covid restrictions.

People are asked to follow Covid government guidelines and check Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s website in advance to find out if the events will be going ahead:

For more information or to volunteer to take part in a beach clean visit: https://www.ywt.org.uk/events

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust are also urging people to do the following:

Follow The Countryside Code

Whenever you visit the countryside you should follow The Countryside Code. This shortened version for visiting the countryside during the coronavirus pandemic, from www.gov.uk, should be followed together with Covid restriction requirements.

Respect other people

Enjoy the outdoors

The full Countryside Code provides advice for the general public and land managers in normal circumstances and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-countryside-code/countryside-code-full-online-version

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