CAMELFORD WI recently joined the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) Beachwatch campaign.

The ladies signed up to clean and survey Port Gaverne and on Sunday, February 10, eleven members of the group braved the hail and cold winds to collect litter and complete their first survey.

The sun did come out briefly and the ladies were delighted to collect approximately 35kg of litter and washed up debris including large amounts of very heavy rope, shoes, gloves, a torch and much more.

They used buckets to collect their beach litter so they can reuse them time and time again as cutting down on black plastic bags in landfill is important to the group.

They recycled as much of what they collected as they could.

A spokesperson for the group said: “Without Beachwatch volunteers, beaches would be dirtier and wildlife would be at risk of entanglement in fishing line and other litter.”

During the clean, the ladies recorded what they had found and uploaded the data onto the MCS website. This gives them the information about trends and sources of where the litter originated from in order for them to then campaign to stop the litter from getting onto the beach in the first place. For instance, they can talk to water companies if they see a rise in sewage related debris turning up on the beaches.

Camelford WI plan to complete a monthly clean and survey at Port Gaverne, followed by a well earned cup of coffee. The WI meetings are held on the third Monday of the month at Clease Hall and welcome new members to come along and join them.