We’re busy making sure the coast is clear

Weymouth and Portland

The sea has a very neat trick of throwing back at us those things that we carelessly allow to pollute her benevolent depths. Perhaps one can imagine Mother Carey, the witch of the sea, scolding Davey Jones, 'I've told you before, clean that locker up NOW!', or maybe Manannan MacLir is out there beneath the waters of Lyme Bay pitching out plastic bottles on his trident, yelling: “Oí, réíteach é, a bhastardaí salach!” (Oy, sort it out, you dirty b.......!).

Whatever the means of disposal, and it could just be the currents tides and waves that bring it in, this is truly a harvest of man's profligate waste of valuable resources, some of which we can recycle and reuse. It should all be recyclable – if we made it, we should be able to unmake it.

Nonetheless, we have these landfalls of marine detritus, particularly in the winter storms and it's up to us to remove it and deal with it properly.

Enter onto the stage, Chesil Cove, on a bright and breezy morning of Monday January 16, a bunch of very willing and able volunteers from all over south and west Dorset led by the Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project, Project Planet and Clean Jurassic Coast.

It’s quite a well-practised routine now and it works very smoothly - everyone grabs a litter picker and a bag or two and we all hit the beach, hauling in everything from huge buoys to large pieces of tangled fishing net right down to tiny fragments of plastic and pieces of rope twine.

Of course, there is much that is buried underneath the shingle, but we retrieved what we could find, and the volunteers will be back again and again and again, knowing that this is a never ending task but also a critically important one. Does it make a difference? Well, an hour and a half later we had retrieved 300 kilos of bagged debris and a huge quantity of larger plastics and rope, estimated at about two tonnes in total, from Chesil Cove. Officers from Dorset Waste Services were on hand to take it all away and in a couple of hours, except for the driftwood, which is always keenly sought by local collectors, Chesil Cove looked as clean as a whistle again. That IS making a difference!

Jane Fuhrmann of

Marine Litter Project said: “What a morning! The amazing communities from Portland and Weymouth really did come together for the sake of our seas and marine life. It was exciting and touching to see so many like-minded people working so hard for something we all believe in. I was so proud to be part of the fantastic task force. 300kg of bagged plastic waste plus a large selection of hard plastics, rope, crates and some unidentified objects were collected.

“Whilst our friends at Dorset Waste took away a huge amount, we were able to save a substantial collection of hard plastics and rope for recycling. It just goes to prove that together, we really can make a difference.” n Volunteers are always welcome, so please check social media for the organisations mentioned above or go to the Weymouth and Portland

Marine Litter Project website at n weymouthportland marinelitterproject.org n cleanjurassiccoast.uk n projectplanet.earth