775 volunteers collected 608 kg of waste on a route of 17.5 km around the Kiel Fjord on Kiel's Coastal Cleanup Day. Included were 5,353 pieces of plastic, polystyrene and glass, 5,686 food packages and other polystyrene and plastic packages, as well as 1,623 plastic bottle tops. In addition, 34,465 cigarette ends were counted - unfortunately a record. A bicycle was also found. What was particularly peculiar: Among the waste was half a sofa.
The campaign was organized for the fourth time by the ocean: lab of the 'Kiel Forschungswerkstatt', a set of laboratories at Kiel University open to school classes, under the leadership of Henrike Bratz. Some of the particpating high schools were Gelehrtenschule, Gymnasium Altenholz, Gymnasium Kronshagen, the 'Lernwerft' and the Toni-Jensen-Gemeinschaftsschule as well as the day care group AWO Strandkindergarten Falckenstein, the AG Ostsee of the BUND and the NABU group Kiel.
The Coastal Cleanup Day was originally initiated by the American nature conservation organization Ocean Conservancy to draw attention to the littering of the oceans. It takes place annually on the third Saturday in September. On this day, volunteers collected waste on the shores and beaches of rivers, lakes and seas and sort, count and weigh it according to an internationally standardized scheme. The results are reported to the Ocean Conservancy in Washinton, USA, and internationally evaluated. In order to make it easier for school classes to participate in the initiative, the Coastal Cleanup Day on the Kiel Fjord took place on a Friday this year.
The nation-wide Citizen Science Initiative "Plastikpiraten – Das Meer beginnt hier!" (Plastic pirates – The Sea starts here!" within the framework of the Science Year 2016*17 – Seas and Oceans in which young people between 10 to 16 years of age measure plastic pollution in rivers to increase public awareness for the problem, also started on September 16th.
Further information can be found here:
www.futureocean.org/de/cluster/aktuelles/meldungen/2016/2016_09_16_plastikpiraten.php
Links:
www.forschungs-werkstatt.de Die Kieler Forschungswerkstatt
www.oceanconservancy.org Die Naturschutzorganisation Ocean Conservancy
Contact:
Dr. Katrin Knickmeier, Phone: +49(0)431 880-5914,
kknickmeier@uv.uni-kiel.de
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