This summer is set to be a scorcher and with our beaches becoming increasingly busy its great to see people out and about doing their bit to protect the coastline.

World Oceans Day Clean Up at Ballygally

Local people pulled up their sleeves to help clear up the beach at Ballygally on World Oceans Day. Everyone worked together at the event organised by Larne Borough Council to collect all the litter and marine debris from the beach including car tyres.

The event was a brilliant success with the Larne Borough Council providing a puppet show and competitions for all the children. Everyone worked tirelessly to pick up every last bit of litter on Ballygally beach to create a cleaner and safer environment for beach users and the marine environment. Great job!

Portballintrae Residents Sweep Beach!

Local residents of Portballintrae recently took part in the beach clean at village beach organised by Coleraine Borough Council. The volunteers combed the beach for marine debris swept in from the sea and for litter left by visitors to the beach. Among the litter were several bags of fishing debris including nets and lines and a significant proportion of this was sourced from recreational fishing including fine lines and hooks.

The clean up was followed by a informative presentation on Marine Debris by Jim Allen from Coleraine Borough Council who highlighted the volume and type of litter collected. Mr Allen called attention to recreational fishing litter which is one of the most dangerous and deadly to marine life. Birds, fish, turtles and marine mammals can get trapped in the lines and nets which can then entangle, cut, strangle and drown marine creatures.

Kids Clean Up at Brown's Bay

On Saturday the 28th June local residents and children helped to make the Brown's Bay beach spotless. Everyone worked with litter pickers, bags and gloves provided by Larne Borough Council to comb the beach for any litter or marine debris polluting the beach. Among the items found were a pair of trousers and an old step ladder found washed up on the beach! Everyone noticed quite alot of glass on the beach left by irresponsible beach users, this was cleared up to make the beach safer and cleaner for other beach users. Let's hope the efforts made by the volunteers encourage other beach users to change their habits and take their rubbish home with them.

Volunteers Tackle Nicholson's Strand

A car door, a bicycle and a plastic bottle washed ashore from Holland were among the more unusual items removed from Nicholson's Strand. Local volunteers, supplied with a skip and litter picking equipment from Newry and Mourne District Council and refreshments courtesy of Coca Cola, spent almost four hours cleaning up the shoreline. Among ten bins bags full of litter, the group also recovered four car tyres, a fridge, machinery grease from Finland, the remainder of some helium balloons from England, a milk carton from Wales, three different shoes, an unopened bottle of cooking oil, pants, hundreds of plastic bottles and a selection of empty shotgun cartridges. The volunteers made a fantastic job of the clean up and worked tirelessly through the afternoon. However, the beach seems to have major problems with fly tipping along the front of the dunes, this issue needs to be tackled.

Local Girl and Pup Tidy up Loughshore Beach

Local girl Sophie Kerr and her dog (Bonnie) helped to clear Loughshore beach of its rubbish swept in from sea and left by the beach users. Sophie took time out of her summer holidays to help TIDY Northern Ireland with the Clean Coast Programme which aims to tidy up Northern Ireland's coastline and help to care for our more rural beaches. Three large bags of rubbish were recovered from the beach and a settee was also found which the volunteers could not move. Sophie's dog gave a helping paw by sniffing out some of the marine debris to be picked up. The litter was then sorted and the volunteers recycyled as much as possible. Sophie will be trying to tidy up the beach regularly as part of her Presidents Award.

Coca-Cola is the associate sponsor of the Clean Coast Programme in Northern Ireland.