Day 3 - Beach Clean

Today we started with a talk about conservation and the potential risks that we could encounter on our beach clean. We identified different types of litter which were: Industrial, Recreational, Sewage and Other. Lucy prepared us for a pretty grim prospect on the beach and told us about the harm that litter causes to animals including: death, strangulation and starvation. After hearing this we took a bus journey down to Lamlash where we took a short walk to the beginning of the stretch of beach that we would be cleaning. Along the way we spotted a seal bobbing in the sea, and a range of invasive species of plants including Himalayan Balsam.

When we got there we were kitted out with gloves, litter pickers and bin bags. We walked down to where we would begin and briefly stopped for lunch. Then we began climbing over rocks and grass, discovering all sorts of litter, and throwing them away. There were lots of bottles and fishing line and some stranger items including a door mat and a buoy.

Andy, who was a member of COAST,  explained about the 'No Take Zone' which stretches between Holy Isle and Lamlash Bay. This is a space where no one is allowed to fish, thus encouraging marine biodiversity. During its 6 years of existence, there has been an marked increase in both size and numbers of Scallops and Lobsters in particular. He also explained the problems of enforcing this law in the zone, and to reinforce this we even saw a dredger on the edge of the border collecting the spill over of Scallops and Lobsters, many of which would have been tagged by the COAST conservationists.

Today we spotted Shags, Oyster catchers and Cormorants, finally completing our goal of spotting 25 species of birds on the island.  To reward us, Lucy went to get us marshmallows which we could hopefully toast tomorrow.

We all came back tired but satisfied with our good day's work and how we had given back to the planet.