MARINE BIG 5 CONSERVATION MARQUEE AT HERMANUS WHALE FESTIVAL
August 28, 2011 by dyertrust
Every year Hermanus celebrates the arrival of the Southern Right whales.
The statistics for ocean pollution makes for very grim reading – a study done in 2006 by the United Nations Environmental
Programme (UNEP) estimates that every square mile of ocean is infested with around 46,000 pieces of plastic – today we expect this figure to be up to 27 times higher.
On the 16th September 2013 the Dyer Island Conservation Trust received a life sized Wire Whale from Volkswagen South Africa – our mission? To fill it with plastic pollutants from the beaches around Gansbaai from the 16th September – calling it Whale Week – aptly ending on the 21st September, on International Coastal Cleanup day.
The whale was housed outside the Gansbaai Tourism office in the Gateway Centre parking area in Gansbaai – and a call went out to everyone who wanted to be involved with this wonderful project to please join the DICT on this adventure.
Together with the Overstrand Municipality, the Working for the Coast team, Marine Dynamics, Dyer Island Cruises, International Marine Volunteers, The Great White House, Cape Nature, I&J Danger Point, Eco Schools, Flower Valley Pre-primary, Camphill School Hermanus and Masakhane Primary School, as well as DPI and Plastics SA who supplies us with Materials for cleanups, we reached our goal of filling our whale by the end of this week.
A grand total of 1008kg’s of garbage was removed from “Die Plaat” inside the Walker Bay reserve, to the Uilkraals Estuary mouth – of which 534kg’s were plastics that was used to fill up the whale. Watch the video of this remarkable initiative here.
Thanks Volkswagen South Africa, and all the participants and supporters of this wonderful initiative
