Life, Stuff, Style: Episode 7

From: White Stuff - Saturday Oct 15,2022 07:28 am

While our trip to North Cornwall didn’t clear up the age-old scone conundrum, it did introduce us to the Widemouth Task Force, a local, community-led beach cleaning initiative.

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Back row: Little Jack (12), Alfie (13), Zeb (14), Big Jack (16). Front row: Rachel, Ado, Harry, Verity, Issac, Richard, Ben.

What litter do you tend to find on the beach?

Verity: There’s lots of what gets called mermaid tears. They are these tiny balls of plastic that come off container ships and sewage plants. You have to sit there with a sieve trying to pick them up. We’ll never be able to pick them all up, but we do what we can.

Ado: Ghost netting is a big one. Seals often get tangled in it while looking for fish. We clear a lot of the netting off the beach, along with having to rescue the seals that get seriously tangled.

Rachel: But, on a positive note, we struggle to find litter on this beach. Because we all clean it so regularly. It’s second nature now.

Why do you beach clean?

Big Jack: Us kids, we’re the future generation. In decades to come, we’ll still live here, so we want it to be nice. And we then want it to be nice for our kids and their kids and so on.

Ben: I got home on Saturday night having been away for two weeks. I walked across the field, went into the sea and went surfing. We’re lucky to have this place on our doorstep. It was a lifeline through the lockdowns, to be able to breathe, swim, surf and escape. We get to have this kind of intimate relationship with nature. Cleaning the beach is how we recognise that.

Why do you think so many people were keen to get involved?

Harry: It’s just dead easy. So many of us have dogs and on our walks, we just pick up litter as we go.

Ado: Even Meggy the dog gets involved. When I’m called to rescue an injured seal or bird and I don’t know where it is, I stick a high vis jacket on her and she goes off to find it. Wherever she stops is where I need to get to.

Richard: When you live in an area like this, you tend to be driven by community. I’m part of the task force, I volunteer for search and rescue, and I’m also an ambulance first responder. It’s all about appreciating the area.