Sea Cleaners - cleaning up our mess!

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (9) Likes(9)   Quote The Tamure Kid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Sea Cleaners - cleaning up our mess!
    Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 7:49pm
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Titanium
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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.



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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote bazza Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 7:56pm
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Geez ....... truly unseen heroes & a really sobering thought that with a degree of awareness it could be for a large part avoidable ... bloody humans !!!
When you cry, feel pain or sadness, no one notices your sorrow .... BUT
fart just ONE time !!!!!!!!!!!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 8:02pm
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I just can't believe that recreational fishermen don't give a toss about leaving there rubbish lying around. A couple of years ago I was in Southland and did a little spinfishing on some little rivers. It was easy to find the fishing spots close to the road. Empty frozen shrimp packets, tangles of nylon mono, pie wrappers, beer & V cans and bottles. Stop there and you can guarantee there will be easy fishing access.
Best gurnard fisherman in my street
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote The Tamure Kid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 8:13pm
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Sea Cleaners have a boat on a trailer that the tow across to use on the Manukau, Smudge, which i know is close to your heart.

As we got off the boat at the first stop, a pontoon in front of West End Rowing Club where there were three people fishing this morning, I made a mental bet with myself how long it would be before I found some fishing-related rubbish - sadly, i lost. It was all of three seconds. Wedged under a mangrove right under the start of the jetty was a 1kg pilly bait packet with the corner cut off it.

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote MB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 8:33pm
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Good work TTK! I'm also appalled by deliberate dumping of waste on the coast (and everywhere else). When I take my three year old boy out for a walk on our local reserve, we always collect rubbish, bring it home and put it in the bin. It's got to the point where if he sees litter anywhere, he says that's naughty and wants to pick it up. It's sweet, but not always ideal! 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote The Tamure Kid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 8:43pm
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Awesome, MB. Craig, our skipper, told me they are targeting the next generation with a big education programme - so hopefully they'll be more in tune with the environmental impacts of rubbish (particularly discarded plastic) than our cohort. Your little fella is already well on the way thanks to your guidance!
Some of the people we have in our communities now are from places where rubbish burning, burying and simply chucking, is the norm as they simply don't have collection infrastructure or the understanding of the consequences. So it's about teaching them that it's not okay here and the children will lead the way, taking home the message to parents.
And [added in hindsight edit] we hardly have a great record as it is, with the stuff we used to do such as running sewage into the harbour off Orakei.
I've seen some pretty horrendous waterway pollution in places such as India, Borneo and even Fiji, but the upper reaches of the creek we went to today weren't much better - decaying rubbish stuck in stinking black mud.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 8:44pm
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Originally posted by The Tamure Kid The Tamure Kid wrote:

Sea Cleaners have a boat on a trailer that the tow across to use on the Manukau, Smudge, which i know is close to your heart.

As we got off the boat at the first stop, a pontoon in front of West End Rowing Club where there were three people fishing this morning, I made a mental bet with myself how long it would be before I found some fishing-related rubbish - sadly, i lost. It was all of three seconds. Wedged under a mangrove right under the start of the jetty was a 1kg pilly bait packet with the corner cut off it.


Good work TKK. One day last year we were fishing in the Papakura channel. Dead calm and cold in the middle of winter. There were two boats in sight. One directly ahead of us about 500m upstream & another about 2km away in another channel.

when the first bags of plastic drifted past I yelled out to them to stop dumping their rubbish but it kept on coming.

My crew wasn't experienced and he had asked earlier why I kept a bat on the boat. I pulled up the anchor and told him he was going to find out. 

I had no intention of threatening them with the bat but I didn't tell him that. Poor guy was crapping himself. Anyway we approached the boat and asked them if they were dumping their rubbish. 'No' they said, 'it must be someone else'. Where is their boat, I asked. They couldn't answer. I told them I was sure they were littering. They probably didn't care either. Their boat was a junker and there was no doubt in my mind it was them. 

We left them to it but at least we spoke up. Most people will just ignore that and complain afterwards. Speak up eh. Of course you can't put yourself at risk but I'm sure they felt the shame.

Good on you TKK for making a difference.


Best gurnard fisherman in my street
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote pjc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 9:48pm
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Thanks TTK
We helped out at Cornwallis 2yrs ago, nets,line,plastic bags tyres and on and on it goes.
Why??landfills to costly?laziness who cares who is going to fine us.

Mowerman put a good video on facebook of our local K mart and their rubbish,missed the bin,shrink wrap etc blown over the wall in to the Puhinui stream which feeds in to the Manukau,Council dont  care.

Do not know who pays "sea cleaners" but willing to bet there will be rate payer money being used when the council could just jump on businesses as above.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote cirrus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Apr 2018 at 10:19am
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A job well done TTK. Thankyou for the effort made in the clean up.

I too have seen all the stuff that washes up. Not long ago took back a few bits and peices from a Motutapu beach including a sand filled pair of heavy duty vinyl gloves. Earlier this summer ,in a big rock pool on a beach near Huia were beer bottles still intact and plastic bags. Wasnt hard to take them back and bin them. One has to wonder why people do this.
And we only see what is left or washed up. What about all the junk that is not washed up,down below to litter the ocean floor. And think about the tons ,or hundred of tons of lead sinkers that that been lost over the years. 
Why do people do this.
Since the 1960s we have been fed a diet of rights and personal freedom,and lots of free stuff from the governments.
And that takes away responsibility, one of the key ingredients of life.
And without responsibility there can be no self respect. And without that how can (some) people respect the environment or anything else.
And people blame plastic,one of the greatest and useful innovations of our times. Yet they never blame themselves when they dump it.
Is the problem really plastic or is it people.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FizFisho Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Apr 2018 at 1:42pm
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I have a beach before Papa Aroha Coro, that I want to take responsibility for.\

Im a project manager so I know how but who with has always been my blight.

It might be a better job for a skip bin and the TCDC helping out.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote The Tamure Kid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Apr 2018 at 3:48pm
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Good work, mate.

Sea Cleaners operate in Northland, the Waitemata and H Gulf, and Manukau Harbour, but probably have contacts in that Coromandel area if you feel like some help.
They have endless rubbish bags, provide gloves for the volunteers, and take all the rubbish away.

They are kind of the ambulance half way down the cliff - doing their best to mostly intercept rubbish which has come out of stormwater drains and natural creeks before it gets further out into the harbour waters and is then deposited on islands etc. alongside rubbish which also comes of boats (the bottom of the cliff).
But they also clean up those places as a kind of secondary target.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Redfinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Apr 2018 at 4:32pm
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Top effort Lester , you are to be congratulated for getting out here and doing something real.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FizFisho Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Apr 2018 at 5:28pm
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The beach I have in mind is one that is underneath my freedom camping site as a child

Due to storm surges etc over the passed 3 decades its just filled with foams, plastics, bottles, cans, glass bottles etc.

Before the council did road works it use to be a sandy beach, now all the rock oyster beds (that I use to eat off the beds yum) have been covered with shingle.

Nothing I can do about the shingles about Id like to see the entire beach cleansed.

Its not a beach most know is there as its 100m below the road and it takes 3km to walk back to.

Probably wont get to it until the end of this year but prefer December before it gets hot.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (2) Likes(2)   Quote MB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 May 2018 at 6:22pm
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My 3 year old boy doing his bit again. A full bucket of rubbish from a 100 metre stretch of Northland waterfront reserve Unhappy

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (2) Likes(2)   Quote The Tamure Kid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 May 2018 at 6:48pm
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Excellent work, that young man.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (2) Likes(2)   Quote bazza Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 May 2018 at 8:51pm
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Priceless !!
 
Would make a great poster aimed at shaming some of the thoughtless litterers into reconsidering the affects of their creating such a mess ... sadly however the majority of offenders are beyond redemption.
 
At the end of our street is a small area of reserve adjacent to the upper
reaches of the inner harbour where the grass gets mown & there is a rubbish bin provided that regularly gets emptied. Nevertheless on almost any given morning bottles, cans, Kentucky chicken & Mac Donalds' rubbish etc. can be found littering the area, much of it within a metre or two of the rubbish bin.
When you cry, feel pain or sadness, no one notices your sorrow .... BUT
fart just ONE time !!!!!!!!!!!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote groovyfisherman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 May 2018 at 7:18am
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Seen a little bit on the news last night where Sea Cleaners was cleaning up a stream that was chocker block full of rubbish in Auckland that the council wouldn't touch due to health and safety reasons.
 
This was great to see, Sea Cleaners are doing a great job and shame on the council for not implementing the gear etc. for them to over come their health and safety issues and get the stream clean.
 
What I did notice to was there was not a single dairy cow in sight or that the rubbish appeared to be man made and not that from cows.
 
Maybe Auckland should have to fence off their waterways to stop the polluter's  from getting into the water to pollute such as dairy farmers have had to fence off their water ways to stop their polluter's i.e. cows access to water ways.
 
After all I know that my wife has swum in the creek through the farm we work on but there is know way she would have swum in any of Auckland's creeks shown on the news of late.
 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote Reel Deal Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 May 2018 at 11:30am
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fantastic to read this and your comments - I didn't know of this organisation. My wife and I have been keeping Tairua clean for the past 15 years and never walk any beach with out a bag for rubbish.

Didn't think anyone else cared or even noticed.

I just emailed the Sea Cleaners offering my boat and time.

Most worthy cause I have seen in ages. Good on you guys!!!
The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men's lives the hours spent on fishing - Assyrian Proverb
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote brmbrm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 May 2018 at 11:56pm
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Thanks for this, Tamure Kid.  have suggested we have a work day out "teambuilding" or whatever you want t call it.  Sounds like a bloody good idea.

We normally take a bag (plastic but re-used!) for rubbish when we go for a walk on the beach, but the volume of crap where you can't walk seems much, much worse.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote bazza Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 May 2018 at 7:44am
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Thanx TTK for bringing our attention to the existence of such a group &
the members here doing there bit as well.
 
Do you have any objection to my suggesting to admin that a "sticky"
thread be established to record & encourage efforts by members, with pics posted.
 
Maybe could even run a week or month long forum competion maybe, with a prize for the winner. 
 
Once again Tamure Kid, thanks for your original post !
When you cry, feel pain or sadness, no one notices your sorrow .... BUT
fart just ONE time !!!!!!!!!!!
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