Our South African oceans need protection – not just on World Oceans Day
The beach was abuzz with Durban residents, young and old, doing their part to clear the Durban beach of litter.
THE ocean around South Africa is in desperate need of marine protection and sustainable management. To mark World Oceans Day, celebrated globally on June 8, Green Corridors joined forces with a few other environmental organisations to host a community beach clean-up at Blue Lagoon Beach.
World Oceans Day is commemorated to spread awareness about the impact that human actions have on the ocean – to promote methods for the sustainable management of the world’s oceans. The clean-up was held at Blue Lagoon beach and facilitated by Green Corridors in collaboration with The Zero Waste Foundation, which was supported by the Don’t Waste Group; Pick ‘n Pay People and Planet; WILDOCEANS, a programme of WILDTRUST; and Youth 4 Marine Protected Areas (Y4MPA) on Saturday, June 11 from 08:00 to 10:00.
The beach was abuzz with Durban residents, young and old, doing their part to clear the Durban beach of litter.
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Melissa van Rensburg, from the Zero Waste Foundation, said the clean-up was held to spread awareness. “This clean-up’s aim is to take collective action to revitalise our ocean, together with our partners, in line with the theme for World Oceans Day 2022: ‘Revitalization: collective action for the ocean’. It is also aimed at driving awareness for the need to advance Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in South Africa. Currently, only 5% of the ocean around South Africa is protected, and there is a goal to increase this to 10%.”
Lauren Van Njikerk, director of campaigns at WILDTRUST, says the ocean is in desperate need of our help. “As an organisation, our modus operandi is the conservation of the planet. Helping the environment is beneficial to us as humans, too. We do lots of work around ocean space. Currently, we only have 5% of our ocean space under the category of ‘marine protected areas’. By creating more awareness of the fact that our oceans need help, we can help advocate for 10% of our ocean’s space falling under marine protection. This is important because marine protected areas are monitored by marshals that ensure their safety,” said Van Njikerk.
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The Y4MPA vice-spokesperson, Nadine Ramlall, hopes that more young people can join the fight to save the planet. “We would like for people to give 10 minutes of their time to participate in local clean-ups.” The organisation Y4MPA is comprised of a group of African marine enthusiasts and is one of the organisations advocating for the proclamation and expansion of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in our oceans.
Siphiwe Rakgabale, the Green Corridors clean-up and litter-boom co-ordinator, is the one who organised the event, and she says that Blue Lagoon Beach was chosen because there is a strong tide at the beach, and as a result of that, there is often a lot of litter and debris on the sand. Rakgabale said that the waste collected will be put to good use. “We reuse most of the waste that we pick up. We take whatever is recyclable and use the material to produce other items. The rest will go to a landfill site, but we try to reuse as much as we can. ”
Rakgabale encourages Durban residents to join in when there are environmental clean-ups. “We all love our beautiful beaches, but we all need to play a part in keeping them clean.”
Don’t Waste Group reported that Saturday’s clean-up produced 86 bags of rubbish, with the total weight coming to 769.26kg.
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