550
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in The Great Coromandel Coastal Clean-up. With your help we managed to remove over 58,000 litres of rubbish (nearly two full shipping containers!) from the beautiful Coromandel coastline over the three-day event.
On Saturday, 150 volunteers collected the mother-load of trash from beaches and islands all along the western side of the peninsula, while on Monday and Tuesday over 400 school students from around the region got together to scour the region for rubbish. These incredible results would not have been possible without you, nor without the help of the rest of our supporters. A huge thank you to you all.
We have a bunch of great photos from the event. See them by scrolling through the album at the top of this page or through our Facebook album here. Remember – if you’re a Facebook user – ‘Like’ us to stay in the loop. If you have your own shots from the event we’d love to see them – just read the section below about the photo competition and send them through!
The big effort made it through to a bunch of media. Below are a few of the stories that ran – check them out to see if you made an appearance!
On Wednesday 6th April we conducted an audit of all the rubbish collected at the Smart Environmental Thames Transfer Station with the help of local Community Workers through the Department of Corrections. We are using the data we collected during this audit to create educational resources, and will combine these results with those from the rest of our coastal clean-up events to gain a detailed understanding of how best to prevent pollution of our coastal areas.
We found that the rubbish came from a variety of sources. A flow from Auckland City and rubbish from the aquaculture industry were identified as major sources, alongside upstream land-based farming and recreational fishing. Download the event results at the link on the right to see for yourself exactly how much, and what, we collected.
We are holding a competition for the best shots from the event. To enter, all you need to do is send your favourite photos to us at photo@sustainablecoastlines.org by 5pm Friday 29 April, 2011. Check out some previous winners here and here. You can enter as many photos as you like. We’ve got a heap of awesome prizes, including a sweet digital camera from Sony, sunnies from Arnette, and an epic, massive canvas print (see below) donated by local photographer and photo comp judge Kevin Richards.
The legal stuff: By submitting photos into The Great Coromandel Coastal Clean-up Photo Comp you are agreeing to grant Sustainable Coastlines Incorporated, any media and partner organisations a license to use, distribute publish or exhibit these photos in any manner either now known or subsequently devised and without any restrictions, in perpetuity. If you request, your photo will be duly credited whenever used in this way.
We welcome your feedback and would very much appreciate any testimonials you may have from the day. You can provide these simply by emailing info@sustainablecoastlines.org. This will help us create better projects and give more to the community in the future.
We have already had a number of requests to run this event on an annual basis and so will be sure to keep in touch regarding plans for 2012.
The weather’s looking good and we’re all set for an epic time at The Great Coromandel Coastal Clean-up this weekend. Here’s some key info to make sure you know what to bring, where to be and what’s planned.
If you know anyone who wants to come but who hasn’t already registered, please ask them to fill in our registration form here. It’s not too long, we promise! Oh and if you’ve registered for someone else please pass this information on so they’re in the loop.
We’ll be sending volunteers out on foot, by car and by boat to remove trash from the stunning beaches and islands of the region. Boat providers: please refer to section below for specific instructions.
9.00am
All volunteers meet at Tucks Bay for welcome and event briefing as to where and how you will be picking up trash.
9.15am
Volunteers on boats: go to Long Bay Boat Ramp to board your vessel!
Volunteers in cars: collect clean-up gear and drive to an allocated location.
9.30am
Boats carrying volunteers to depart from Long Bay Motor Camp.
3.00pm
All volunteers return to Tucks Bay along with their trash. Boats return to barge drop-off point (marked on charts). Cars return to Tucks Bay drop-off point. Downtime and camping set-up for those who arrived today.
5.00 – 10.00pm
BBQ celebration at Tucks Bay with food, music and spot prizes. Bring a gold coin donation for food. Bring your own drinks. Remember the gates at Long Bay Motor Camp close at 10.30pm so if you’re not staying the night, please move your car before then. Sober drivers please! If you blow a tyre and are running late, call Event Director Sam Judd on 021 058 9349.
Tune-in to Channel 62 when you arrive in the area, this will be our operational channel throughout the event.
Any further questions regarding boats participating in the event please contact Mike Good on 021 663 206 or email mike@burnsco.co.nz
There are no plans… This day is free for everyone to explore beautiful Coromandel Town and the surrounding region. There are plenty of epic things to see and do: check out some ideas for attractions, activities, beaches and walks. A few of our favourites:
Anyone who doesn’t have to (or doesn’t want to) work on Monday is welcome to stick around to help out with our big schools’ day (see below for more info). Come and talk to members of our team during the event, or call Sam Judd on 021 058 9349 to express your interest.
Our event base at Tucks Bay is part of Long Bay Motor Camp. Tucks Bay will also be the venue for a post-event barbecue and celebration on Saturday evening after the clean-up. Check it out on a Google Map or check out our fly-in movie to really get a feel for the location…
Everyone who is registered for the event has a space for camping, but you’ll still need to check-in and pay at the campground office when you arrive ($10 / night for adults, $5 / night for kids). From the office at Long Bay, Tucks Bay is a two-minute drive over the gravel road or a 5-10 minute walk around the coastal path.
Tucks Bay has running water and composting toilets and while we will have a generator for some lighting we remind you there is no power, so please bring a torch! Kitchen, toilet and shower blocks – as well as the public boat ramp – are located back in Long Bay where there is power. Bring 50 cent coins for hot showers.
Of course you don’t have to stay here to be a part of the event. Cabins and caravans are available at Long Bay Motor Camp and you can find other nearby accommodation options here.
We’re encouraging as many people as possible to make their own way to Coromandel Town and Tucks Bay on Friday night so we can get going on clean-up activities on Saturday morning.
There is a regular 360 Discovery ferry sailing departing Auckland at 6pm on Friday the 1st of April, and a sailing leaving Coromandel (from Te Kouma) at 4.30pm on Sunday the 3rd. Booking these trips will give you the full day on Saturday for the clean-up and Sunday to explore the town and surrounding area. Plus you are very likely to see dolphins on the way! See the 360 Discovery Coromandel page for full timetable and fare details. There is a free bus service from the wharf where the ferry arrives at Hannaford’s Wharf to Long Bay Motor Camp.
For those who’d rather drive, it’s around a 2.5-hour trip from Auckland so get together a group of friends and car pool over for the weekend. Pass through Thames and take the coastal road until you reach Coromandel Town and head north around the coast to Long Bay Motor Camp.
Make sure you get to Long Bay Motor Camp office before 10.30pm: after this the campground gates and office will be closed for the evening.
Students are the focus for this day: when school kids and their teachers will be traveling from Auckland to Coromandel to be met by local schools, organisations, volunteers and our crew. The clean-up activities will be based primarily around Coromandel Harbour, Ruffin Peninsula, Te Kouma Peninsula and Harbour and Manaia Harbour.
We’ll be holding an educational session and BBQ after the clean-up, which will be a great opportunity for students to come together with other event participants to learn more and celebrate what they’ve achieved.
If your school would like to get involved in this event then please contact us at learn@sustainablecoastlines.org to register your interest and find out more.
After running the entire East Coast of the North Island this summer on his ‘Cape to Strait’ mission to highlight the impact of marine debris on New Zealand coastlines, endurance athlete Alex Asher reported back to Sustainable Coastlines. He said that the area “was one of the worst affected areas for rubbish” that he visited during his journey.
Following on from a summer of increased beach and ocean use in the region, the timing is perfect for a big clean-up. As with every event we organise we will collect detailed data on just how much and what types of rubbish we picked up, with help from Department of Corrections PD workers. This will contribute to the creation of educational resources that will help us learn more about where rubbish is coming from and how to prevent it from getting there in the first place. These results will be openly shared with everyone who takes part, providing feedback to schools and material for supporting businesses to use in sustainability reporting.
As our planning team fine-tunes event details we’ll update this page with all of the details and helpful information. Register for the event here to receive further updates as plans progress, or sign-up to our mailing list using the form on the right hand side of this page for invites to future events.