Love your Coast Rangitoto Island 2011 | Sustainable Coastlines

Event impacts

Event Details

Thank you

A huge thank you to every one of our 1,200 fabulous volunteers for your massive effort on the beautiful and unique coastlines of this iconic island. Together we removed over two and a half tonnes of trash from the shores of Rangitoto Island! Also a massive thank you to all of our Team Leaders, helpers and of course our generous sponsors. Without you all, we could not have achieved what we did. Check out the event photos above and a detailed breakdown of our results through the link on the right.

Enter our Photo Comp

We are looking for photos from the day and would love to see yours. Send your best pics to us at [email protected] or — if you’ve got high-res shots that are a battle to email — upload them straight to our swish dropbox system by clicking here.

Some very fancy prizes are up for grabs from Sony, PhotoCPL, Arnette and Sitka, so show off your photographic prowess and send us your pics! Check out photos from previous winners here. Make sure you get them in before entries close at 5pm on Friday 16 December. We’ll be announcing winners the following week.

The legal stuff: By submitting photos into the Love your Coast Rangitoto Island 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.


Final event information

Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, ferries to Rangitoto Island are free for all event participants. We do, however, ask that you bring a gold coin donation on the day to help us cover other event costs.

Volunteers will need to arrive at Shed 10, Queen’s Wharf, Auckland CBD (see on Google Map) at 7.45am on Tuesday 6 December. There, you will sign-in and get ready to board the ferries to Rangitoto Island. Ferries will return from Rangitoto Island to this point at around 4.15pm, so be ready for a solid day out on the island.

Important notes and what to bring

This clean-up is a great adventure for all, but it is important that all event participants are well prepared to make the most of the day ahead of them.

  • Volunteers must be physically fit and willing to spend several hours walking on the challenging, rocky terrain, sometimes while carrying sacks of rubbish. Ensure you have read and accepted our Health and Safety Disclosure Acknowledgement before you confirm participation.
  • Wear sturdy shoes: Rangitoto Island has some very challenging coastal terrain with rocks that can be sharp, loose and slippery. You’ll need closed-toe, sturdy shoes (such as tramping boots, sneakers or sports shoes). Sorry, but we cant let participants in jandals onto event ferries, for safety reasons.
  • Pack warm and waterproof clothes: Weather can be unpredictable at this time of year. Bring at least one warm top (ideally old woolen) and a rain jacket in a backpack you can carry with you.
  • Carry sunscreen and a hat: There is very little shelter on the island.
  • Bring plenty of food and water: There are no shops on Rangitoto Island and very limited access to drinking water. Clean-up can be physically challenging, so come prepared!
  • Bring your camera: Enter your shots in our photo competition.
  • We provide all clean-up equipment, including rubbish sacks, gloves and other safety gear.

Want to be a Team Leader?

Thank you to everyone who has so far expressed interest in being a Team Leader on event day. If you haven’t yet confirmed your space and want to be a Team Leader, simply tick ‘Yes’ on the appropriate question on the registration form, read through the below information, and we will be in touch to confirm your role.

Team Leaders will be asked to:

  • Arrive early (7.00am) at Shed 10, Auckland CBD, to collect equipment and be briefed by Event Directors.
  • Lead a team of 25 — 50 volunteers during clean-up on Rangitoto Island.
  • Deliver our safety briefing to your team (Download here and familiarise yourself with this information. Printed sheets will be provided on the day).
  • Wear a fancy hi-vis safety vest (we will provide this).
  • Be your team’s contact point in case of emergency.
  • Be the person for Sustainable Coastlines to contact in case of emergency (you must have your own mobile phone with credit. If an emergency occurs, we will refund any costs incurred).
  • Carry essential Health & Safety equipment (we will provide spare gloves, spare rubbish sacks and a small First Aid Kit — please provide your own backpack).
  • Conduct headcount prior to, and following clean-up.

Team Leaders will get:

  • Exceptionally good karma for being involved in a great thing for our coastlines, on a massive scale.
  • A written reference from Sustainable Coastlines (on request).
  • The chance to win some very sweet prizes.

If this sounds like you, we would love your help! If not, no worries. We would still love and appreciate your help as a volunteer at the event.


Rangitoto Island Clean-up to be repeated

Rangitoto Island is a unique and beautiful location: a young volcanic island with sweeping views of Auckland city, the North Shore and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf.

Last December, over 1,200 school students and volunteers joined us for a massive community coastal clean-up on the island. The event was a huge success; together we removed over 201,000 pieces of rubbish from these uninhabited shores and generated significant media attention – raising large-scale awareness locally about the global challenges of marine debris. See the short film we made about the event here.

Due to the success last year, we are repeating the clean-up event this summer. On Tuesday 6th December we are taking over 1,000 students and volunteers back to Rangitoto Island for a large-scale coastal clean-up and we are looking for adult volunteers to help us out, particularly those with current First Aid qualifications.

Please complete the form here to express interest in joining this clean-up event. Note that ferry space for the event is limited, so completing the form does not confirm attendance and simply gives us an idea of numbers for planning purposes. We will contact you closer to the event with further information and to confirm your space.

If you have any questions in the meantime please contact one of our team on 09 948 8454 or email Event Director Sam Judd on [email protected]

Event impacts

https://sustainablecoastlines.org/app/uploads/2013/05/coro-results-SC.pdf

Event Details

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.

Photos, media and results

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.

Photo comp!

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 [email protected] 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.

Feedback

We welcome your feedback and would very much appreciate any testimonials you may have from the day. You can provide these simply by emailing [email protected]. This will help us create better projects and give more to the community in the future.

What next?

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.

 


 

Event details

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.

What to bring?

  • Sturdy shoes: coastal areas can be slippery and have sharp, loose rocks. You will need closed-toe, sturdy shoes (such as sneakers, sports shoes or tramping boots).
  • Warm clothes: While the forecast is looking good, NZ weather is always unpredictable. Please bring at least one warm top and a rain jacket.
  • Sun hat and sun cream.
  • Lunch and snacks for Saturday (minimal packaging please!).
  • Reusable water bottle for out and about.
  • Heavy duty gloves (we’ll provide thin ones but strong gardening-type gloves are key).
  • Camera (we have an awesome photo comp…).
  • Camping gear: tent, sleeping bags, camping mattresses, torch and spare batteries etc (remember Tucks Bay has no power).
  • Surfboards, dive gear, fishing gear, bicycles etc for your own missions on Sunday.
  • If you want to drive to a clean-up location, please bring a tarpaulin for your boot or tie-downs for your roof-rack to transport trash!

Schedule for Saturday

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.

Instructions for boat owners

Tune-in to Channel 62 when you arrive in the area, this will be our operational channel throughout the event.

  • The contact vessel is GOOD SOLUTIONS on Channel 62.
  • Coastguard will be in attendance through ASB rescue and will take trip reports on Channel 62 (Please have your call-sign ready and advise ASB that you are in the Coastal Clean-up).
  • We’ll be holding a BBQ for boaties on Friday night from 6pm either at Woolshed Bay in Coromandel Harbour or Te Kouma Harbour. Listen to Channel 62 for confirmation of location ‘Great Coromandel Coastal Clean-up’.
  • Mike Good from Burnsco will be on site to give a briefing to those boat owners that can make the Friday night BBQ.
  • On Saturday morning boats should moor as close as possible to Tucks Bay to enable the pick up of volunteers from 9am.
  • Rubbish sacks, boaties packs and information for boat teams available from GOOD SOLUTIONS channel 62.
  • There will be a barge at Tucks Bay for rubbish drop-offs on Saturday afternoon.
  • Celebration on Saturday night will be at Tucks Bay unless weather prevents boaties access. Listen to Channel 62 for updates.
  • All boat owners must carry enough lifejackets for all crew and volunteers in accordance with Maritime safety regulations.

Any further questions regarding boats participating in the event please contact Mike Good on 021 663 206 or email [email protected]

Plans for Sunday 3 April

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:

  • Delicious mussels at the Coromandel Smoking Co.
  • Cafe, art gallery, bookstore and railroad tour at the Driving Creek Railway.
  • Great coffee at The Chai Tea House.
  • The famous 309 drive and Kauri Grove walk.
  • Sunday lunch or dinner at the Pepper Tree.
  • Mission over the hill to Whangapoua and New Chums Bay (keep an eye on the weather for waves too…).

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.

Tucks Bay camp and event base

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.

Getting there

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.

Monday 4 April

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 [email protected] to register your interest and find out more.

 


 

A bit more background

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.

More information?

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.

Event impacts

https://sustainablecoastlines.org/app/uploads/2013/05/North-Shore-results-SC.pdf

Event Details

A massive thanks to everyone who took part in the Love your Coast North Shore Clean-up! With your help we removed over 16,000 litres (around 3.3 tonnes!) of rubbish from the beaches, mangroves and waterways of Auckland’s North Shore over the three day event.

On Thursday, around 60 students, businesses and volunteers got stuck into clean-ups in Torbay, Wairau Creek, Okura and Karepiro Bay. On Friday we hit the beaches en masse, with over 750 volunteers cleaning-up stretches of coastline all over the North Shore. Finally on Saturday, over 100 hardy souls braved driving rain and mud to storm the shores around our eight event stations. All in all over 900 volunteers got together during this event to scour the beaches of Auckland’s North Shore for trash: an effort we should all be proud of.

These incredible results wouldn’t have been possible without you, nor without the help of the rest of our supporters. A huge thank you to you all. Please pass this message on to anyone you know who took part.

Photos

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!

In the news

Here is what some of the media had to say about the event:

Event results

On Tuesday the 19th and Wednesday the 20th of April we conducted an audit of all the rubbish collected at the Envirowaste Constellation Drive Transfer Station with the help of PD 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.

Over 40,000 individual pieces were removed: an awesome effort from everyone. We found that the rubbish came from a variety of sources, including illegal dumping, recreational fishing, plastic product manufacturing and a flow from the city’s storm water drains. Download the event results here to see for yourself exactly how much, and what, we collected.

Photo comp!

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 Judge Joe from the Shutter Pirates at [email protected] by 5pm Friday 6 May, 2011. You can enter as many photos as you like, and you’ll be in to win awesome prizes including a sweet digital camera from Sony and sunnies from Arnette. Remember to tell us where you took your photos.

The legal stuff: By submitting photos into the Love your Coast North Shore 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.

Feedback

We welcome your feedback and would very much appreciate any testimonials you may have from the day. You can provide these simply by emailing [email protected]. This will help us create better projects and give more to the community in the future.

What next?

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.

 


 

Event details

On Thursday 14, Friday 15 and Saturday the 16th of April, schools, businesses, families and volunteers and all others who love the beaches of the North Shore will come together to take part in the biggest coastal clean-up ever organised in the area: the ‘Love your Coast’ North Shore Clean-up.

The clean-up will focus on the beaches from Long Bay in the north down through Devonport and to the Harbour Bridge in the south – aiming to pick-up every bit of trash from the coastline along the way.

Thursday and Friday clean-ups

If you have registered to take part on Thursday and Friday we will be contacting you individually today to let you know when and where you will be cleaning-up. To confirm your plans if you haven’t heard from us please call Event Director Sam Judd on 021 058 9349.

The plan for Saturday clean-up

Clean-ups will be taking place all along Auckland’s North Shore between 10am and 2pm. Low tide is at 11.18am, so these times give us the best access to the coast.

All you need to do is choose one of our eight meeting stations listed below, come down and meet one of our representatives for a quick briefing and to collect your rubbish sacks and gloves. From there you’ll head out to the nearby beach to pick up trash!

This event is going to be huge: the areas not covered by our stations are being cleaned-up by school students and businesses on Thursday and Friday. That said, you are more than welcome to head out to anywhere not nearby our stations. Simply pick up the equipment from the event base at the Milford Reserve, just in front of the Milford Cruising Club, anytime from 8.30am onwards.

Our stations will be very easy to find – when you get there just look out for big white and blue flags and our friendly rep in a white ‘Love your Coast’ T-shirt. Any problems, just give our Event Director Sam Judd a call on 021 058 9349 and he’ll point you in the right direction.

Meeting time: Between 10am and 2pm, Saturday 16 April.

Meeting Stations

  • Devonport: South end of Windsor Reserve, by the public toilets
  • Stanley Bay: On the grass verge by the bus stop at the start of Stanley Point Road
  • Bayswater: On the grass verge of Sandy Bay Reserve at the end of Sandy Bay Rd
  • Takapuna: On the grass verge at the beach end of The Strand
  • Milford (also venue for BBQ celebration): Outside the Milford Cruising Club on Milford Reserve
  • Kennedy Park: On Park by access point to the beach
  • Browns Bay: On the grass verge at the end of Anzac Road
  • Long Bay: Just South of Long Bay Restaurant on the grass verge by the beach

When you’ve had enough time on the beach, please bring your haul back to the event station where you started or to the event base at Milford Reserve for our after-function. Our reps will be looking out for those who have put in the most effort to award prizes afterwards.

If you‘re unable to bring the rubbish back to where you started (too big, heavy or hazardous) that’s okay, but please make sure that you leave your rubbish protected from wind, well above the high tide mark and provide clear instructions to a rep from our team on where it is so that we can pick it up later.

What to bring

  • Sturdy shoes: coastal areas on the North Shore can be slippery, muddy and have sharp, loose rocks. You’ll need closed-toe, sturdy shoes (such as sneakers, sports shoes or tramping boots).
  • Warm clothes: NZ weather is always unpredictable. Please bring at least one warm top (ideally old woolen) and a rain jacket.
  • Sun hat and sun cream.
  • Lunch and snacks (minimal packaging please!).
  • Reusable water bottle for when you’re out and about.
  • Camera (we have an awesome photo comp…).

Saturday BBQ and prize-giving

At the end of the clean-up event on Saturday we’ll be holding a prizegiving, games for kids, and BBQ from 2pm to 4pm outside the Milford Cruising Club at Milford Reserve. This is a great chance for everyone who participates over the three days to get together and celebrate what they have achieved. All welcome.

Photo comp

We are holding a competition for the best shots from the event. Just bring along your camera and send your favourite ones to us at [email protected]. Winners will receive epic prizes including a sweet camera from Sony and sunnies from Arnette.

 


 

A bit more background

Easterly winds – which are quite common in this part of the country during these hot summer months – tend to blow rubbish onto North Shore beaches, so 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.

Who’s involved?

Everyone is welcome to take part, however under 18 year olds must be supervised by a parent or guardian. Sustainable Coastlines is a registered New Zealand charity with solid results from events in the Galapagos Islands, Kingdom of Tonga and New Zealand. We focus on community-wide participation in activities at grass roots level, with education of young people about coastline protection while having heaps of fun the underlying priorities.

More information?

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.

Event impacts

Event Details

On May 22nd we teamed-up with CUBA (Canterbury University Boardriders Association) for this epic event. CUBA held its annual Learn-to-Surf event alongside our beach clean-up with CUBA members, Uni students, and locals. Usually the Learn-to-Surf event is run during February, but due to the Christchurch earthquakes, beaches had been closed since February.

On the day around 20 keen learners got out in the water, and Canterbury put on its most amazing sunny May weather. After the surfing, we got stuck into the issue of trash on and around the high tide line at Taylor’s Mistake, Harris Bay and Boulder Bay.

50 or so volunteers from Canterbury and Lincoln Universities, and a few locals from the community, came out to enjoy the weather and help pick up the rubbish. A cornucopia of plastics, foams, rubbers and metals were collected from the beach, sand dunes, and in between the rocks. Together the volunteers picked up 140 kilograms or 950 litres of trash which was sorted and audited by more keen volunteers, before being recycled/disposed of by the kind folk at Christchurch City Council. 3,301 individual pieces of trash were collected and removed from the beautiful Christchurch beaches, featuring 97 cigarette butts, 181 bottle lids, 293 pieces of foam and 77 plastic bags.

Huge thank you to all the volunteers, and of course those epic people at Arnette, West, Quiksilver, Paul’s Camera Shop and Rodney from CCC.


Finally Christchurch has a beach that is safe to swim at!

So, on Sunday 22nd May is the annual CUBA LEARN-TO-SURF Day. In conjunction with CUBA and Sustainable Coastlines there will be a beach clean up run during the afternoon!

The Learn to surf is open for CUBA members and starts at 11am with discounted hire rates for wetties and boards for CUBA members. The Learn to surf will run all afternoon until 4pm.

At 2pm at the Taylor’s Mistake Surf Club there is a Coastal Clean Up happening! Anyone and everyone is most welcome to come along on Sunday arvo and help us keep our beaches trash free.

Sacks and gloves will be provided. We also have some epic prizes up for grabs from Arnette sunnies and West Wetsuits. See you all there! Email [email protected] for more info.

Event Details

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May 2011
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Jun 2011

Quick Links

This May we’re teaming-up with international expedition organisation Pangaea Exploration on an important survey of isolated marine environments around the Pacific.

We are currently looking for crew to help provide manpower, technical skills and financial support to the research mission, which is aimed at collecting valuable information to assist with long-term marine conservation, education and community projects in the area and around the world.

Expressions of interest are sought from divers, educators, photographers, journalists, artists, marine biologists, deckhands, sailors, writers, conservationists, organisations and any others wanting to join the adventure.

The four‐part marine survey sets off from Tahiti on the 10th of May, passing through the Southern and Northern Cook Islands and the Northern Line Islands (including Christmas Island) before arriving in Hawaii on the 30th of June. Along the way the crew will be working with local NGOs to study a wide range of conservation issues affecting these small islands including marine debris, water quality, habitat condition and overfishing.

The expedition will be based aboard the Sea Dragon – a modern 72ft sailing vessel fully-equipped for research and ocean voyages that will enable the team to reach remote locations in safety and comfort.

Throughout each leg of the voyage the team will conduct research through a variety of methods, including photography and videography (both above surface and underwater), beach surveying, visual reef checks, fish and water sampling, manta trawl surface sampling, CO2 and pH monitoring and written observations.

The team will meet and interview members of local communities, NGOs and official leaders, as well as explore pristine, untouched and life-abundant ecosystems in remote, uninhabited islands, reefs and atolls.

Find out more and get involved

For more detailed information on each leg of the research survey and how to get involved, check out Pangaea Exploration’s site or click on the links for each leg below.

To express your interest in joining the expedition, email Anna Mathieson (Pacific Project Liaison) at [email protected]

Expedition timeline

Leg 1: May 10 – 15, Tahiti to Cook Islands
Leg 2: May 16 – 27, Southern Cook Islands
Leg 3: May 28 – June 14, Northern Cook Islands
Leg 4: June 15 – June 30, Northern Line Islands to Hawaii

Event impacts

https://sustainablecoastlines.org/app/uploads/2013/05/Rangitoto-Island-ELA-results-SC.pdf

Event Details

On Wednesday 15 June over 50 students from Tamaki College and Auckland University’s English Language Academy combined forces to remove thousands of litres of trash from the rocky shores of Rangitoto Island. On a chilly winter’s day volunteers worked hard along the challenging rocky terrain and picked up over 3,000 litres of rubbish – an amazing effort.

The day started off well, with a pod of dolphins visiting us on the brief trip over from Auckland’s Downtown Ferry Terminal with Fuller’s Ferries. At Rangitoto Wharf we split into three teams and hit the coast en masse to clean-up this unique island, with epic results. Through hands-on action like this over our past few years of operation we’ve found this to be an excellent, practical, fun way for students (and their teachers!) to learn about how litter from Auckland’s streets flows out through our storm water system and affects coastlines on uninhabited islands like Rangitoto.

Last December a large section of the island was cleaned-up by over 1,200 volunteers in our Love your Coast Rangitoto Island Clean-up, removing over two tonnes of trash. Already these same stretches of coastline are being covered in trash from the nearby city – a perfect illustration of the problem caused by litter on our streets.
A massive thank you to all students and teachers for the fantastic effort you put in giving a little love back to our coastlines. Thank you also to Hayden Smith and Ben Harris from the Waitemata Harbour Clean-up Trust for lending a helping hand on the day, your support is always much appreciated.

If you’d like to take part in an event like this, contact us today.

Event impacts

Event Details

On Friday the 1st of July, the weather turned it on for us and a dedicated team from Lantern Insurance made the trip down to the Waikato. They teamed up with South Waikato District Council to plant 450 trees along the banks of the beautiful Waihou River. Look through photos from the day above.

Just downstream from where we were planting, 60% of New Zealand’s bottled water is extracted from the famous Blue Spring. This may seem ironic when you consider that we removed 8.5 cubic metres of plastic bottles from Rangitoto Island last December, but what we are doing on the Waihou River is actively assisting the health of this important waterway. The native seedlings reduce effluent and fertilizer runoff into the river, stabilise the riverbanks (reducing erosion) and also provide habitats for native species.

We are stoked to have Lantern on board as partners and are looking forward to having their staff out on Rangitoto Island – as they have done several times with us in the past – combing the shores for rubbish later in the year.

If you’d like to take part in an event like this, contact us today.

Event impacts

https://sustainablecoastlines.org/app/uploads/2013/05/SC-Queen-St-drains-results.pdf

Event Details

Sun
17
Jul 2011

In a mid-winter project to assess the extent and types of rubbish found in our storm water drains, our team hit Auckland’s Queen Street armed with pool scoops, high vis’ vests and data collection sheets.

After surveying and removing the floating litter from nearly half of the drains (33 of the 72) on Queen Street we tallied-up 1,969 individual pieces of rubbish; a shocking average of 59 pieces per drain. In one drain – a photo of which features in the nationwide street litter awareness campaign we launched this week – we found 130 bits of trash.

The biggest offenders in Queen Street’s drains were 590 cigarette butts, 475 food wrappers and containers, 285 cigarette packets, 208 pieces of polystyrene, and 91 caps and lids.

When compared to analyses of litter found on the coast, the data shows that single use plastics are consistently the most prevalent problem – both in city drains and where urban-born rubbish lands offshore, such as islands of the Hauraki Gulf and the Coromandel Peninsula.

Such concentrations as found in Queen Street’s drains indicate that as a nation we have a significant impact on global pollution in the ocean. We counted just a handful of drains out of the many thousands in our cities (there are over 11,000 in Auckland alone); you can find drains like these nationwide. The effect of this constant stream of litter is huge and the drain system is clearly a significant source of rubbish getting into our waterways.

We are encouraging kiwis to take personal responsibility for their litter. The simple solution is up to all of us as individuals: reduce the amount of waste we create and what we must use, dispose of it properly, and it won’t end up on our beaches.

Event Details

A massive thank you to the 270 guests that supported us by attending Saturday night’s charity ball. We had a fantastic time and hope you all did too. All funds raised during the evening support our ongoing work on coastal clean-up, riparian planting and educational projects, all aimed at sustaining and protecting our coastlines. 

A special thank you to:

  • Event sponsors, those who provided auction items, and those who bid for them!
  • Josh Williams, our auctioneer from Webb’s.
  • Everyone who supported our riparian planting projects by sponsoring a tree.
  • Our brilliant entertainers Michael Houstoun, Barnaby Weir, Nairobi Trio, Motor City Family Funk and MC Clarke Gayford.
  • Volunteer Event Managers Simon van Praag, Caroline Larnach and Mitzi Borren
  • Tim Lambourne and Joe Dowling from The Shutter Pirates for their photographic prowess
  • The dedicated Hilton staff for providing the fantastic venue.

Without you all, this event would not have been possible.


Let’s Get Cleaned Up

It gives us great pleasure to announce our second annual ‘Let’s get cleaned up’: Sustainable Coastlines 2011 Charity Ball. The evening is set to kick off at 7pm on Saturday 23rd of July in a fantastic harbourside location: the Hilton Auckland Hotel and this is your invitation to join us for world-class entertainment and mouth-watering food and drinks.
Our lucky guests will be treated to a sumptuous three-course sit down meal, all drinks and entertainment from some of New Zealand’s top musicians. The evening will feature performances from:

  • World-renowned concert pianist Michael Houstoun
  • A solo set from Barnaby Weir the incredibly talented lead singer of Black Seeds and Fly My Pretties fame.
  • Aotearoa’s top jazz ensemble Nairobi Trio
  • The outstanding Motor City Family Funk

This exceptional package will also leave you feeling rightfully chuffed about your support of our cause: looking after the coastlines we all love. Tickets include three-course meal, all beverages, and access to the official after party hosted at Montecristo Room. All ticket sales along with a charity auction during the evening will help raise funds for our ongoing work on projects to sustain and protect our coastlines.

For an idea of what to expect, check out last year’s ball here.

Event impacts

https://sustainablecoastlines.org/app/uploads/2013/05/SC-East-Coast-results.pdf

Event Details

Our East Coast Educational Road Show was a huge success. Over 18 days, our team of five (plus our trash dog, Keno) travelled along NZ’s stunning East Coast between Hick’s Bay in the north and Wairoa in the south, talking with schools and coordinating coastal clean-ups along the way. In all, we managed to talk with more than 4,000 students from 31 schools about the impacts of litter in the marine environment, coordinate 11 clean-up events with around 1,000 people, and remove over 3.25 tonnes of rubbish from East Coast beaches.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped us out along the way, without your support we simply could not have achieved what we did. Special thanks to KEA Campers, Benefitz and Kwik-N-Ezy for your generous support, and to our volunteers Mitzi, Camille and Caroline for your tireless hard work. See above for photos and detailed results from the project. The trip was such a success that we will be repeating a similar project in a different region of New Zealand in the winter of 2012.

Educational Road Show

On the back of our most successful New Zealand clean-up to date, we are returning to Te Tairãwhiti / East Coast with an educational road show encouraging the protection of our coasts and oceans.

Thanks to a fantastic effort from dedicated communities all along the East Coast, our last visit to the East Coast resulted in our biggest ever haul of rubbish from the coast in New Zealand: over 12 tonnes in one day.

Hundreds of local families joined us 18 months ago and we are now inviting schools all around the region for free educational presentations and clean-up events during August, during which we will present a short film shot during the colossal event in 2010.

The road show will cover almost exactly the same area as the clean-up: from Hicks Bay to Wairoa. It is designed to educate students and communities about the challenges of marine debris, celebrate the achievement of 2010 and motivate ongoing action to look after our coast.

“We are teaching children the importance of protecting our coastlines and providing them with a fun solution. By becoming kaitiaki (guardians), they can take ownership of their coastline, protect this resource for future generations and take pride in the process,” says Event Manager Mitzi Borren.

This trip — in which we plan to visit rural schools as well as larger Gisborne-based ones — will extend on the educational presentations we have already delivered to over 15,500 school students across the country.

“We are lucky to have the support of KEA Campers for this trip” says Borren, “which will allow our team to reach the most remote and isolated of communities along this amazing stretch of coast.”

After such an enthusiastic reception in 2010, we are looking forward to working again with the people of Te Tairãwhiti/East Coast to keep our unique coastline beautiful.

Sustainable Coastlines Co-founder Sam Judd says: “we can’t wait to get back to the East Coast. It is certainly one of the nicest areas in Aotearoa and we are very much looking forward to working with the people in this area again.”

Event Schedule

8 – 12 August – East Cape (Hicks Bay – Tolaga Bay)
15 – 26 August – Gisborne, Mahia and Wairoa
20 August – Gisborne Coastal Clean-up – See Facebook event here

Local schools and community groups are invited to register their interest by contacting Mitzi Borren by emailing [email protected] or calling 021 191 2111.