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A project to clean plastic and other rubbish out of the sea off the Mahurangi and Hibiscus coasts is making headway.
Sea Cleaners NZ plans to extend the operation it currently runs in Auckland and Northland to the local coastline and waterways, as soon as sufficient funding can be secured.
Founding trustee Hayden Smith says a clean up done in the Orewa Estuary a month ago demonstrated the need for the service.
“We only covered 300m of the estuary, but we took out 1200 litres of rubbish – almost a full trailer-load,” he says. “Some of it had obviously been there for a long time.”
Among the material removed from the estuary was a plastic chair, a rusted computer, lots of plastic bottles and bags, a large amount of polystrene, road cones and tyres.
“Orewa Estuary is in a similar state to most of the urban estuaries we clean up,” Hayden says. “It’s important that Sea Cleaners target those areas close to population centres.”
Hayden started Sea Cleaners NZ in 2002 and since then volunteers have removed more than 5.1 million litres of rubbish from the Waitemata Harbour and surrounding waterways. He also coordinated an expedition to the North Pacific Ocean to raise awareness of litter in the North Pacific Gyre, and has promoted the positive effects of working locally within communities to solve global issues. He has more than 15 years experience on the water as a contractor to the Watercare Harbour Clean-Up Trust.
Last year Hayden was named Local Hero of the Year, in the NZ of the Year awards for his work in the community.
Based at Westhaven, Sea Cleaners provides a boat and skipper, and works with local volunteers on the clean ups. Using the boat gives them access to areas that can not normally be reached.
The rubbish removed from the water is recycled whenever possible, but Hayden says so much is contaminated by sand and debris that it has to be sent to landfill. The team’s priority is to get it out of the water, where it can have a devastating effect on marine life.
Hayden says their operation on the Mahurangi and Hibiscus coasts will be fulltime, with daily clean-ups led by a paid skipper and access to the network that includes staff, and an administrative team.
Rodney MP Mark Mitchell, who first met Hayden in March, has pledged his support and is actively seeking funders to make it possible to bring the service north. He says around $300,000 a year is needed to cover the operation of the boat, wages for a fulltime skipper and associated costs.
He says the project could be part of a local plastic awareness campaign.
“The amount of plastic may not be immediately noticeable when you’re on the water or at the beach, but once you focus on it, it becomes apparent that we do have a problem,” he says. “People feel powerless in the face of what is a gigantic and worldwide problem, but there is a lot we can do in our own backyard. We can pick up a piece of plastic, say ‘no’ to plastic packaging and bags, and try to get single use plastic out of the ecosystem. With the help of Sea Cleaners we can actually do something that makes a real difference.”
