Beach Clean Up: Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura: Beach Clean

Star Surf Camps Beach Clean Fuerteventura

In the sand, animals leave tracks, whilst humans leave trash!

Here in Fuerteventura we are blessed with long stretches of beautiful white sandy beaches, crystal clean waters and an exciting under water world beaming with life. The island offers fantastic sunny days for laying on the sand, super fun surf sessions and some of the most amazing snorkelling experiences.

However, as with anywhere and everywhere in the world this can all be spoiled by the trash that gets left on beaches or washed up from distant lands. Clean Ocean Project (non-governmental organisation) had noticed the North shore had started to collect a lot of waste, and so they organised a beach clean for the 21-22 March for anyone to get involved in.

We explored along the North shore beaches, first stopping at a sandy beach where we found a large crate and a lot of plastic and a very long fishing rope covered in line…but our next stop just around the corner on a less accessible rocky beach was where the work really began. This beach was obviously a trap for litter washing ashore. We found an array of plastic, fishing tackle and rusting metal. Some items included a fridge door, 5 shoes, car parts, fishing line/rope, foam/polystyrene, metal canisters and many, many plastic bottles, lids and containers and even some litter all the way from Japan.

Whilst this rocky beach isn’t the type of beach you would sunbathe on, it is still so important to clean as beach litter poses numerous risks to the environment and the animals that live in the sea and on the beaches.

Plastic is not biodegradable and when in the sea, plastics can also adsorb toxic chemicals, and enter the food chain when mistaken for food items by fish, seabirds, marine mammals and other organisms. Over 100,000 marine mammals and over 1 million seabirds die every year from ingestion of and entanglement in marine litter. These facts are shocking and so to be able to make a difference and perhaps save the lives of wildlife made cleaning the beach a very rewarding task.

The great thing about beach cleans is that you can physically see the difference you make. It’s also something you can do alone or as part of a team, every piece of litter removed makes a difference. So whether you pick up some stray plastic bags and bottles or you remove bin bags full of rubbish you will have helped.

Here at Star Surf, we couldn’t live without the beaches and oceans and so we love being able to help maintain them for the environments sake, the animals that inhabit them and the people that enjoy them….including ourselves and our many customers.

Star Surf Camps Beach Clean Fuerteventura