My work lets staff have a paid community day and today I went with some colleagues on a day's toil with Watercare Sea Cleaners out of Westhaven U pier. It was an experience that was both positive and depressing at the same time.
Positive in that it was great to be making a dent in the rubbish lining the upper Waitemata Harbour and seeing what a difference Craig and Niall and their colleagues are making ; depressing in the sheer volume of junk and at the type of 'humanity' we share our city with.
We zoomed under the Harbour Bridge and up the channel to Te Atatu, under the motorway and up the estuary, eventually pushing right up on the high tide to nearly New Lynn. It was amazing to see how far the estuary fingers extend inland.
After a few stops at various points across a few hours we bagged more than 6 cu m of rubbish - mostly plastic of all types, shapes and sizes - that was caught up among the mangroves and at the high tide line.
Among my workmates on the boat today were an Irish woman and a French guy, both young people on working holidays of sorts. Fantastic that they joined in to make a difference to the city they call home for now, but I wonder what they think of 'clean, green NZ' after their outing today.
A lot of the stuff is washed out from urban areas by stormwater (please pick up stuff you see lying in gutters after recycling day etc!!), but what really disgusted me was the deliberately dumped flat screen TVs, bags of rubbish, household fans, vacuum cleaners etc biffed down banks from readily accessible carparks and turnouts.
And - of more relevance to those on the forum - the fish bait bags, fishing tackle packets (Maxi Strike flasher rigs) strewn in the very places which are the nursery for our fish stocks. The culprits were there fishing off the shore as we chugged past.
Amazingly, there are still herons, oyster catchers, stilts and other sea birds living up that estuary system. Talk about resilient in the face of mankind.
It's hard not to reflect on the type of maggots we share this planet with, but thankfully we have organisations such as Sea Cleaners which are out there helping to clean up their mess with the help of sponsors and a lot of volunteers. You might see them out on the water, in their big flat hulled tinny with twin Mercs on the back - it looks a bit like a mini landing craft. You might like to give them a big wave of thanks.
Tomorrow, they'll be doing it all again, up to their knees in the mud of the upper Tamaki River, near the Southern Motorway.