Today, Vancouver Aquarium staff members and volunteers join thousands of people across Canada and around the world in celebrating the annual International Coastal Cleanup. The cleanup at Iona Beach Regional Park in Richmond will be one of many events held across the country in various communities to help keep Canada’s lakes, rivers, streams and oceans clean and healthy.
Every September, tens of thousands of Canadians gather to clean their local shorelines during the annual Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, presented by Loblaw Companies Limited. A joint conservation initiative of the Vancouver Aquarium and WWF, the Shoreline Cleanup is the largest direct-action environmental project in Canada.
Every piece of trash volunteers find will be tracked and included in an annual index of global marine debris to be released in 2015. Last year, nearly 650,000 people from around the world picked up more than 5.4 million kilograms of trash along 20,921 kilometres of coastline. In Canada alone, 58,500 people signed up to clean 3,035 kilometres of shorelines removing more than 99,000 kilogram of litter.
Some of the most unique items found on shoreline cleanups include a wedding dress, an Elvis suit, a disco ball, a broken e-reader and a whole kitchen sink!
To date, nearly 35,000 Canadians have already registered to clean over 1,114 locations across Canada this fall – but the need for more site coordinators and volunteers to register is still great. This year’s Shoreline Cleanup runs the entire month of September and October. Learn more or register at www.ShorelineCleanup.ca.
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