By Dominic Abassi

National shoreline cleanup well-represented in Nanaimo

May 23, 2017 | 5:39 PM

NANAIMO — From a single event on a beach in Stanley Park to a year-round campaign involving nearly 80,000 volunteers, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup has taken on a life of its own over the years.

For 2017, one of the country’s largest conservation programs has set a lofty goal of involving 150,000 people in shoreline cleanups to coincide with Canada’s 150th birthday.

“People really want to be connected to their shorelines and water and this is a really great opportunity for people to get outside and build that connection,” manager Rachel Schoeler told NanaimoNewsNOW. “Shoreline litter plays a pretty devastating role in our ecosystem.”

Registration for this year’s shoreline cleanup effort is now open. Schoeler said the best way for people to get involved is to lead a clean up by going to the website, selecting a local location, choosing a date and time and rounding up their friends and family.

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People can also submit new shoreline areas that need attention.

“We really do rely on our volunteers to be those on the ground eyes that are able to report back to us and of course if there’s an area of concern they can tell us and we can direct more groups to that area if it needs attention.”

According to data provided, 786 volunteers took part in 32 cleanups in the Nanaimo and Parksville area last year. They collected more than 1,100 kilograms of trash, a massive jump from the 336 kilograms collected over 19 cleanups in 2015.

Thanks to the information collected by their volunteers, Schoeler said they are getting a good idea of what kind of garbage is littering beaches and other shoreline areas. She said cigarette butts, to the tune of more than 500,000 last year, always top the list. Single use plastics and food wrappers are other chronic offenders.

Schoeler pointed out that a shoreline doesn’t have to be a beach connected to an ocean.

“We try and remind our participants that a shoreline can be anywhere that land connects to water…even storm drains and school yards because the trash that gets left behind on our streets and makes its way into those storm drains will eventually make its way to our ocean as well.”

Created in B.C. in 1994, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup went national in 2002. Last year, 76,000 people took part in 2,300 cleanups across the country. The program is an initiative of the Vancouver Aquarium and the World Wildlife Fund Canada.

dominic.abassi@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @domabassi