Surfers Against Sewage’s (SAS) beach clean crew is joining forces with Barefoot Wine again this summer for the 4th annual Barefoot Friendly Beach Rescue Tour. This year the tour will be visiting 14 beaches across the UK between May and September to make sure they are as clean and safe as possible for all to enjoy.
The amount of marine litter found on UK beaches has almost doubled in the last fifteen years, with at least 1 piece being found on average every 30cm. Alarmingly, 70% of the litter entering our oceans sinks to the seabed, with 15% floating on the surface and the remaining 15% being washed onto our beaches. Since 1994, plastic items washing items washing up on our shores have increased by 135%. Plastic debris can take hundreds of years to break down and can be lethal to marine wildlife. Over 95% of birds recently examined in the North Sea had ingested plastic items and over 100,000 marine mammals and turtles die each year from ingestion and entanglement.
With 80% of this debris arriving from land-based sources, including the general public, the power is in our hands to make a positive difference to stop this tide of trash. Beach cleans are a great way to remove marine litter, inspire community action and reinforce key SAS anti-litter campaign messages such as Return To Offender and No Butts on the Beach.
SAS and Barefoot Wine are calling on community volunteers to help clean beaches at locations around the country as part of the growing wave of grassroots activism protecting some of the UK’s finest beaches. To date, the Barefoot Friendly Beach Rescue Tour has welcomed thousands of volunteers who together removed many tonnes of marine litter from the coastline. This year, with the growing public awareness of marine litter issues, we hope to attract a greater number of volunteers than ever before to help remove this unsightly and hazardous litter from our nation’s beautiful beaches.
Dates & Locations
South East
28th May, London, Greenwich Pier
29th May, Kent. Broadstairs
30th May, West Sussex, East Witterings
Cornwall
25th June, Widemouth
26th June, Porthtowan
Scotland
9th July, Kingsbarn, Fife
10th July, Bellhaven, Edinburgh
North East
26th August, Whitley Bay, Tyneside
27th August, Saltburn, Cleveland
28th August, Scarborough, Yorkshire
29th August, Mablethorpes, Lincolnshire
Wales & Northern Ireland
3rd September, Newgale Beach, Pembrokeshire
4th September, Llangland Beach, W. Glamorgan
10th September, Portrush, East Strand Northern Ireland
Full details @ www.sas.org.uk
Barefoot Friendly beach cleans take approximately 3 hours from 2pm – 5pm. Volunteers receive a free organic Barefoot/SAS volunteer t-shirt, and the SAS team and Barefooters host a free team BBQ on the beach, washed down with samples of the Barefoot Wines.
During the tour, rising music star Ben Howard will be playing some exclusive thank-you gigs for lucky volunteers. These will take place after the beach cleans at Porthtowan, Cornwall, Kingsbarn Scotland and Whitley Bay, North Tyneside. For full details and how to get tickets please check www.sas.org.uk
This is the fourth year that Barefoot has partnered with the SAS’s beach cleaning campaign. Barefoot supports hundreds of local and community events, charity fundraisers, music festivals and sporting events throughout the year and the SAS partnership is an integral part of the community project work.
We ask all volunteers to come dressed in appropriate clothing, including footwear, for the weather on the day of their beach clean. Make sure you protect yourself from the sun, rain or wind!
So, join us at one of the destinations where you will be welcomed to the team for a fulfilling, fun and educational event.
SAS Director Hugo Tagholm, says: ‘We have a growing community of volunteers helping remove the tide of marine litter from our beaches, and getting more directly involved in our anti marine litter campaigns. The Barefoot Beach Rescue Tour is a great way for people to take positive, direct action to tackle the problem. We are delighted to be organising an increasing number of events with Barefoot, who are very supportive of our campaigns. Please join us to help protect even more beaches this summer.’
Chief Barefooter, Ali Feest, says: “It’s great to be able to support such a worthwhile campaign and we are honoured to be working with the SAS again for the fourth year in a row. The tour is a fantastic opportunity for people of all ages to get together and show their support for British beaches. We are looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and getting stuck into the 2011 tour and of course, to raise a glass of delicious Barefoot wine at the end of each day.”
Check www.sas.org.uk for more details on all beach clean events. Please confirm that you are attending the beach clean by emailing Adam on volunteer@sas.org.uk with the date & location that you’d like to attend or by calling 01872 555 950 (We need to make sure we have enough t-shirts, food and drink!)
For more information about Barefoot wine and this year’s activities and events please visit www.barefootwine.co.uk.
