How do boaters tackle plastic pollution in the ocean?

Cruisers around the world have been asked to join the Trash Tuesday initiative to try to tackle the pollution of the world's oceans.

Couple of cruisers Nick and Catherine Hodgson invite all boaters to do their part in the fight against ocean plastic pollution and join their initiative "Garbage Tuesday"... The couple live in Cape Town, and in the summer they travel the Mediterranean Sea on a yacht Fountaine Pajot Saba 50 by the name Lady roslyn... They began their campaign 3 years ago when they anchored near the Russian Bay on a Greek island. Poros.

Sailing catamaran Fountaine Pajot Saba 50

“We dropped anchor and found ourselves in a bay with two coastlines. Looking at the coast, we noticed a lot of plastic water bottles and other debris washed between the stones and nailed to the small beach, ”explains Nick.

“I wanted us to have a better experience with this place, so I took one of our SUP boards, some trash bags and collected all the plastic junk I could find on the coast. After that case I could no longer ignore the plastic waste at every anchorage, and decided to collect trash wherever we see it. "

Since then, the couple have visited 75 Greek islands and the coast of Turkey, and they have been collecting trash everywhere!

Soon they realized that even the crew of one yacht could put things in order within the parking lot, but this is a drop in the ocean compared to that. "Garbage tsunami"that is now sweeping the oceans.

Nick and Catherine decided to contact the group. Med sailing on Facebook to try and spread it to others. The group administrators supported the initiative and allowed the spouses to post their cleaning results every Tuesday.

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Soon, other cruisers started picking up the trash and began sharing posts under the hashtag #trashtuesday

“We received a very good response to some of the training camps. In July 2019 I collected 668 bottle caps on one beach in Northern Greece. We shared our post "Garbage Tuesday" with the management of a nearby resort, and they pledged to patrol the beach regularly for cleaning.

When we returned there in September 2019, I was happy to see that the 4 km long beach looks almost virgin. That's why involving other people is already yielding tangible results, "- says Nick.

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Now the couple has created on Facebook your own group "Trash Tuesday" for cleaning the ocean from plastic. Nick and Catherine also invite charter companies to join their initiative.

Nick emphasized: “If yacht manufacturers, charter companies, magazines, individuals join our movement, the yachting community will have a real impact on this battle to keep the ocean clean. They can host various contests, challenges, promote regular posts on Instagram and Facebook, use other innovative ideas to create “Trash tuesday"Informative and fun."

On the Hodgson website ladyroslyn.com there is an interactive map showing the places they have cleared. In the future, the spouses plan to create a separate web resource for this initiative.

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What you can do if you also want to participate in this campaign:

• Collect trash any day of the week on the beaches and coves you visit.
• Join the group Trash tuesday, on Tuesdays, post here photos of the collected garbage, mark the locations.
• Invite others to join you.

Lady Roslyn Instagram

As Nick says, "The collective power of like-minded people can have a real impact on the ongoing fight against ocean plastic pollution."

08.01.2020