Aguilas, the Spanish town that is on a mission to save the ocean
The Murcia town has been organising more beach cleaning days for volunteers to rid the coasts of litter
Last Saturday, September 23, the Águilas Red Cross organised an environmental protection and care activity, consisting of cleaning and cataloguing waste from the Playa de la Carolina beach.
It comes in the wake of another beach cleaning day on the Playa del Rafal on September 16 for the occasion of World Cleanup Day, one of just several initiatives the municipality has launched to try and care for its natural marine heritage.
A large number of volunteers took part last Saturday, including Elena Casado, Águilas’s Councillor for the Environment, and Noelia Ruano, the Councillor for Cleanliness.
Under the slogan ‘Mission: Save our Seas’, and with the collaboration of the Águilas Town Council, the Águilas Plaza Shopping Centre, Ecoembes and the associations Libera (with its project 1m2 for the beaches and the seas) and Seobirdlife, for three hours the participants collected microplastics, agricultural waste, ropes, caps and above all cigarette butts.Cigarette butts are especially harmful to the environment and the beach ecosystem, not only because they take more than 10 years to decompose, but also because each cigarette butt can contaminate between 8 and 10 litres of sea water and up to 50 litres of fresh water. What’s worse, the substances they release, such as nicotine, arsenic and lead, are very harmful to marine species and even to humans if they eat fish that may have ingested these substances.
That is why it is so important for Águilas to hold these regular beach cleaning days, to keep the municipality’s coastline clean all year round and not just in the tourist high season.
Last Saturday, the participants also rounded off the day with an informative talk about the natural environment, games for children and a snack provided by the Águilas Plaza Shopping Centre.
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Images: Ayuntamiento de Águilas
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