Fish Hoek Beach

By Naadiya Adams -Twitter @Miss_Naadiya

As we head up to the festive season, and our beaches in South Africa will likely see an influx of holiday makers, its important to remember your role in contributing to ocean pollution.

Two large whales crafted from wire have appeared on one of Cape Town’s most popular  beaches. They’ve been designed to hold loose plastic wrappers and are intended to encourage beachgoers to pick up and throw plastic away while walking on the beach.

By creating something fun and interactive – a whale that needs to be filled with beach plastic – and having signage that teaches people about the scourge of plastics in our oceans, Dawid Mocke, World Surf Ski Paddling champion hopes to increase awareness of the very pressing issue of keeping our beaches plastic-free.

According to the UN Environment Programme’s Clean Seas campaign, plastic can make up to 90% of all marine litter; affects not only the environment but heavily impacts economic activities such as shipping, fishing, aquaculture, tourism and recreation; and will be ingested by almost 99% of all seabirds by 2050. Marine litter currently directly threatens over 600 endangered marine species.

The idea is that while one goes walking on the beach, you pick any plastic you see, and then when you come back past the whale, you throw it in. When the whale is full, the plastic gets removed.
The bins will be monitored by the City of Cape Town’s Shark Spotter programme, another environmental initiative on Cape Town’s popular beaches.

A popular walking and swimming beach, Fish Hoek is one of Cape Town’s Blue Flag beaches.

Based on the whales’ performance on Fish Hoek beach, the City of Cape Town will look to roll the project out to other beaches as well.

Source: goodthingsguy.com