OSPAR x Great British Beach Clean - WellFit 4Life Special Morning!
Join this beach clean to help us stop harmful litter from reaching the ocean and collect vital data that we can use to bring about positive change for our seas.
Hello WellFitties... please join me on Saturday 19th September in place of morning classes whilst our lovely Lou is on her training week, for a workout of a totally different kind - a fun, sunny (hopefully) litter pick at beautiful West Beach!
What are the benefits of attending a beach clean you might be wondering?
- Being outside in the open environment and by bodies of water is brilliant for both physical and mental health. Health professionals have even started prescribing it, known as ‘blue prescribing’!
- Beach cleaning provides people with an opportunity to connect with other people and feel part of a community. Come and have a natter with your fellow Wellfitties whilst helping the environment!
- Taking positive action for conservation helps people to feel more connected to nature and feel a sense of purpose.
- Removing litter from the beach not only helps it to be cleaner for humans to use, it also prevents litter polluting the ocean and causing harm to marine life through entanglement, ingestion and microplastics.
- Helping to collect litter data helps us to push for policy changes to ensure a better future for litter levels and cleaner, healthier, and better protected seas.
Why is this event so important?
OSPAR is a group of countries in the NE Atlantic that work together on plastic pollution. We have just under 20 stretches across the UK that feed into this database and we run cleans in all locations 4 times a year, including September. West Beach on our doorstep is a designated OSPAR stretch, so the data collected will be added to this important data set as well as to our own Beachwatch programme.
I will also be holding this quarter's OSPAR during The Great British Beach Clean! GBBC is our MCS flagship 10-day annual event where we encourage action for our ocean through hundreds of beach cleans in one short timeframe. So not only will you be contributing to important OSPAR data, you will also be taking part in our huge GBBC extravaganza to make a huge difference to marine conservation!
As I am organising and leading this event, I have made this event page private specifically for WellFit members, but if you have reached this page via my secret link you should be able to sign up to reserve a space on the right hand side. If you are unable to sign up, please drop me a message to let me know you are coming for numbers.
It is totally free to attend this event - you will just need to pay for your parking. The cafe is also usually open for a chilled coffee and chat afterwards if you fancy... I hope you can join me!
Also worth knowing…
What to bring: We’d recommend you pack a rucksack with a few essentials like sunscreen, waterproofs, hand sanitiser, and perhaps some snacks and a drink (in a reusable bottle, of course).
What to wear: If you're picking up litter with your hands it's worth wearing a strong pair of gloves - like gardening gloves - just to make sure you're protected. Sturdy shoes are a must for protection too.
Under 16s: To comply with our insurance, volunteers under 16 will need to be accompanied by an adult who will be asked to sign a parental / guardian consent form on the day by the beach clean organiser.
