It is starting to look like several beaches in the Western Cape are in the middle of a nurdle crisis; Shark Spotters has asked for help collecting nurdles for their report.
Western Cape, South Africa (23 October 2020) – Nearly two years ago to the day (tomorrow would be 2 years exactly) we shared a vital story explaining what Nurdles are and why it is so important to remove them from our environment. Yesterday, Shark Spotters sent out a plea for help combatting a new wave of nurdle pollution that is plaguing the beaches of Muizenberg, Fish Hoek, Simonstown, Millers Point, Witsands and Kommetjie.
They do not yet know the extent of the pollution nor where it has come from. They need public participation to collect as many of the plastic nurdles as possible and then the reporting can begin.
“Our Coastal Rehabilitation team has been noticing a lot of nurdles washed up on South Peninsula beaches over the last week – with nurdles found at Muizenberg, Fish Hoek, Simonstown, Millers Point, Witsands and Kommetjie so far.
We need YOUR help to clean up the nurdles and quantify how bad this pollution event is! Please go down to your local beach and collect as many nurdles as you can find.
Once collected, please drop them at any of the Shark Spotters stations (Muizenberg, Fish Hoek etc) where we will weigh them and together with The Beach Co-op will ensure that we get an accurate record of the extent of the pollution, and that they are properly disposed of.”
Nurdles are small plastic pellets about the size of a lentil. Countless billions of them are used each year to make nearly all our plastic products.
It is important these pellets are collected as our coastal wildlife are confusing it with food and ingesting the toxic nurdles.
To help out, all you need to do is head down to the beach nearest to you with a kitchen sieve and sift the nurdles out of the beach sand.
“Please leave a note in your bag of nurdles saying the location they were collected from and on what date!”
For more information, please contact Shark Spotters via Facebook here.