Pearly to Point Run – for Marine Conservation! | Dyer Island Conservation Trust

On 5 April, Dyer Island Conservation Trust received an email from Leon Kriel, who spends his weekends with his retired folks in Pearly Beach. According to Leon, “Pearly Beach is where I find peace of mind; I was 5 months old when my parents took me camping for the first time. And it’s at this exact campsite, where my parents met while camping there.”

When Leon arrives at Pearly Beach, the first thing he does after saying hello to his parents is grabbing his running shoes and his beloved four-pawed companion, King, to go run his favourite routes along the coast. Leon finds running as a way to “clear the weeks’ stress and worries,” but often it is not all stress relieving as Leon cannot spot plastic on the beach without picking it up and carrying it to dispose of it correctly. This passion for clearing the beach of plastic drew Leon to the Dyer Island Conservation Trust’s fishing line bins.

Leon with pawsome friend “King”

The Fishing Line Recovery and Recycling Programme uses PVC pipes to create receptacles that stand 60 cm high and are erected at beaches around the country as repositories for used, discarded monofilament fishing line. The programme increases public awareness of the negative impacts of fishing line debris and encourages correct disposal by placing a network of fishing line bins strategically along the coastline. Since the launch of the project in 2010 in the Gansbaai area, it has expanded countrywide and has met with overwhelming support from anglers, boaters, and local communities.

The DICT assembles and distributes the bins through a partnership with the Marine Dynamics International Marine Volunteer Programme. The material for the bins is sponsored by MacNeil as arranged by Plastics SA. The GPS position of each bin is entered into a database to create a map to indicate where fishing line bins are available and which organisation is responsible for the maintenance and emptying of the bins.

Fishing line discarded on the beach

Leon noticed that even though there are many of these bins, there are still discarded fishing line on the beach. He decided to create a fundraiser for DICT, to support the work they do, adding more fishing line bins, assisting in cleaning the bins as well us responding to all marine life entanglements, because of fishing line.

He decided to connect with Dyer Island Conservation Trust and plan an epic run along the Cape’s Overberg coastline from Kleinbaai to L’Agulhas to create awareness around the daily devastation fishing line has on our precious marine life. Dubbed the Pearly2Point Running Project, the run is in aid of the Dyer Island Conservation Trust stationed in Kleinbaai.

Leon will be running 85km within three days, from 23 September until 25 September. He will start the run at Dyer Island Conservation Trust offices in Kleinbaai and finish the race at the Southern Tip of Africa.

Would you like to support Leon, run with him, meet him en route or donate to the incredible work Dyer Island Conservation Trust does? Now is your chance!