FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE………………………………CONTACT: DENNIS O’CONNELL info@wellfleetconservationtrust.org……………………………….508-349-2162
(Wellfleet, MA… September 12, 2016) – Wellfleet Conservation Trust (WCT) announces that it is organizing volunteer efforts to conduct the annual COASTSWEEP program for the Wellfleet coastline. This year’s program will specially coordinate with the efforts by the Wellfleet Recycling Committee to highlight the worldwide efforts of the 5 Gyres Institute to improve the oceans quality and better attack marine debris and litter, especially plastic. In addition to the Wellfleet Recycling Committee, other co-sponsoring organizations include Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, the Wellfleet Conservation Commission, the Open Space Committee, and the Friends of the Herring River.
Since 1987, volunteers throughout Massachusetts have turned out for the annual COASTSWEEP cleanup organized by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM). Each September and October, thousands of volunteers collect literally tons of trash from beaches, marshes, river banks and the seafloor. COASTSWEEP participants join hundreds of thousands of other volunteers in the world’s largest volunteer effort for the ocean—Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup—collecting trash, fishing line and other marine debris and recording data on what they find. This data is used to find solutions for keeping trash out of the ocean.
The non-profit 5 Gyres Institute has been fighting plastic ocean pollution for nearly a decade. Beginning in 2010, 5 Gyres began research in all five subtropical gyres, as well as the great lakes and Antarctica. Their study on plastic microbeads pollution in the Great Lakes led to the federal ban on microbeads, signed into law by President Obama in 2015. The founders of 5 Gyres will be making special presentations in Wellfleet during October as part of The Wellfleet Ocean Week sponsored by the Recycling Committee. 5 Gyres’ website is http://www.5gyres.org/ .
As part of the annual COASTSWEEP, the local cleanup is organizing at the Wellfleet Mayo Beach parking area on Kendrick Avenue at 10 AM, Monday October 10, (Columbus Day). Volunteers are asked to come to that point to be assigned to a small team and a section of beaches for the sweep. All supplies are being provided, but if you want your own gloves and reusable water bottles, it is suggested that you bring them. For further information, please contact either Dennis O’Connell (508-349-2162) or Lonni Briggs (508-349-2614)
Wellfleet Conservation Trust 