June was such a busy month and lots of exciting things have been taking place. We started the month with Coca-Cola Clean Coasts Week, that saw 189 registered groups and 3,591 volunteers all over the country remove approximately 21.5 tonnes of marine litter. We also celebrated World Oceans Day with plenty of events happening all across Ireland. Finally, we took part in Sea Sessions 2019, Ireland’s biggest surf and music festival.
What’s happening next? Keep reading to find out more about all that has been going on in the past few weeks and what we have planned for the coming months.
Also just a quick reminder on the benefits that you can avail of as a Clean Coasts group:
#LoveYourCoast is back!
We are delighted to invite you to our ‘Love Your Coast Photography Workshop‘ on Tuesday, 2nd July 2019, at 6:30 pm, to mark the launch of our Love Your Coast competition and to celebrate its 10th Anniversary.
About the Workshop
Clean Coasts are hosting an outdoor/wildlife photography workshop which will be presented by Mark Carmody, a keen birdwatcher since his early school days, who has combined his knowledge of birds with photography.
The workshop will last for about 30 minutes with Mark giving his learnings and thoughts on photography, this will be followed by questions and answers session. On the night we will also be displaying shortlisted entries from previous years. Refreshments will be provided on the night.
About the #LoveYourCoast Competition
Ireland has some of the most spectacular and diverse coastlines in the world. Now in its 10th year, Clean Coasts’ Love Your Coast Photography Competition is all about capturing the essence of the Irish coast – its extensive beauty and diverse character. Clean Coasts works with communities on the ground to help foster pride in our coastline and we look forward to seeing this reflected in the entries.
Sea Sessions is Ireland’s biggest surf and music festival and this year it took place on June 21st-23rd. Clean Coasts were excited to be there again this year, supporting the festival’s main event – the Sea Session Surf Expression Session. As well as this, we were also delighted to have a Clean Coasts Green Zone inside the festival, as we worked on a great project with students from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin.
Gearoid McDaid won Sea Sessions Expression Sessions 2019
Last Friday, 21st June, the Surf Expression Session kicked off at 11:30 am on the sunny Tullan Strand, with the final of the heat in the competition being held at 3pm. Surfers from all over the world, including Ireland, UK, Portugal and Australia competed against each other for the €1,500 top prize. Local surfer Gearoid McDaid won the competition for the second year in a row.
At Sea Session Expression Session we promoted the #2minutebeachclean campaign. For those not familiar with the initiative, it is a simple as it sounds: pick up litter for just 2 minutes, take a picture of it and tag your snaps with #2minutebeachclean and @cleancoasts.
Coca-Cola Clean Coasts Week – What we have achieved
Between June 1st-9th, 189 registered clean-ups took place in Ireland, with 3,591 volunteers taking part in the initiative, up from 2,908 in 2018. Moreover, approximately 22 tonnes of marine litter was removed from Irish shores by volunteers over the week, 4 tonnes more than the previous year.
Coca-Cola Clean Coasts Week encourages communities to celebrate and enjoy the beautiful Irish coastline with fun activities along the coast, including free beach yoga classes, kayaking, poc fada,volleyball and plogging to name a few.
Happy stories from June
For Sea Sessions 2019, we joined forces with NCAD students to come up with a design for the Clean Coasts Green Zone. You can follow all the steps of the project by clicking on the button below.
At the start of June a huge beach clean took place in Brandon Bay, co. Kerry. Over 120 people took part in the clean-up in multiple locations in the area.
Amazing news come from the other side of the world as 633 divers from all over the world, including Europe, joined a clean-up initiative and set a Guinness World Record retrieving at least 1,626 pounds of trash and 60 pounds of fishing line at the Deerfield Beach International Fishing Pier in Florida!
On 8th June we celebrated World Oceans Day. On this occasion, Clean Coasts joined he Irish Ocean Literacy Network’s campaign ‘We Are Islanders’ . Volunteers from all across Ireland were out celebrating the day with a beach clean. We met them and they told us why they love the ocean! Watch the video below.
In May, the International Blue Flag and Green Coast Award recipients for 2019 were announced.
The Blue Flag is one of the world’s most recognised eco-labels, it seeks to raise environmental awareness and promote sound environmental management of beaches, marinas and eco-tourism boats around the world. The Green Coasts Award recognises beaches for their clean environment, excellent water quality and natural beauty. It is necessary for awarded sites to be managed by Local Authorities in partnership with local Clean Coasts groups.
Click below to see the list of sites that received these prestigious awards.
Clean Coasts works with businesses throughout Ireland on corporate volunteering days. These businesses support our Clean Coasts grant by ways of a donation for the day. We are hoping to work more closely with Clean Coasts groups in 2019 to support any much needed coastal work that could be completed by our corporate volunteers. The groups vary in size from 10 to 30 and would be delighted to help with any projects that there may be at your adopted beach. Please contact us at cleancoasts@eeu.antaisce.org if you have any suitable projects in mind.
Do you have a coastal story?
The Clean Coasts Blog is a collection of stories that touches on the experience of Clean Coasts staff and the coast. There stories vary from finding fossils on Sligo beaches to their experience of cold water swimming. We would love to hear your stories which will be showcased on our social media platforms and website. If you have a story to share or would like to write a piece on becoming a Clean Coasts group or any other experience you would like to share. please let us know. We are looking for short pieces using your own voice.
