Marine debris is all you can see littered along the beach of windy Chilli Anthropogenic detritus of micro plastic bits a modern day archaeology of human s**t Thai water bottles and fishing boat bleach now algaed and brittle washed upon the beach
You may feel disheartened with no hope in sight kilometres of plastic fragments and a lone whistling kite But with Clean Coast Collective and Tangaroa Blue Lockhart kids and Rangers, we know what to do.
Armed with gloves and bags and plenty of sunscreen though back breaking work, we handpicked the beach clean. We documented the debris with meticulous rigour with Heidi at the helm and her cyber track figures
We were constantly yelling random figures in the air plastic bits, screaming s**ts, data pen beware. The volunteers had travelled from near and far to assist in this clean up aided by cars
Mat has his shovel and hacksaw in hand pulling reams of ghost nets knotted under the sands Whilst Gandalfian Jeff may look quite demure he’s secretly hunting Sue’s illusive marlin lure
After 5 days of picking up debris off the land covered in filth, sanitising gel and sand We now cast our eye over sweeping Chilli beach With coconuts swaying and waves at our feet
Who would have known the situation so drastic littered with pink, blue and red bits of plastic but now its all gone and that’s bloomin fantastic So thanks #TangaroaBlue for setting this in motion inspiring each of us to help clean up the oceans
Hopefully we will see you back year after year So give yourselves a huge clap and a well deserved beer.
Viva TANGAROA BLUE, the ocean thanks you!
A huge thank you to volunteer and artist extrodanair Sue Hayes for this poem!
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